Darren Wood

Mary

Sydney NSW, Australia

Practice side-lying breathwork and elevator visualizations to strengthen and relax your pelvic floor muscles.

English

Led by a pelvic floor physical therapist, this meditation helps you link your breath with the movement of the muscles in your pelvic floor. Use this track to connect with, strengthen, relax, and coordinate an often overlooked part of the body. 

With special thanks to Julie Wiebe, PT, DPT, who taught me about the beans.

Pelvic Floor Elevators

For this guided meditation, I recommend setting up on your side. So lie on your side with the pillow underneath your head and between your knees, and line up with the back of your head, your backside, and your heels all in a line. So your knees will be bent. Again, pad between them with the pillow so that your knees and hips are in line instead of that top knee falling down toward the floor. And then make sure that your neck isn't bending toward the floor or away from the floor. It's right in line with the rest of your spine. Once you get set up in your side-lying position, do a tailbone tuck and a lift, an anterior tilt, and a posterior tilt. Tilt the bowl forward, tilt the bowl back, and then find the middle ground. So you're looking for that gentle curve in the low back, not tucked under in a fetal position or not arched up. Same thing with the ribcage. Give it a little lift, a little round, and then find that middle ground there, just like when you're in standing, we want the head, the ribcage, and the pelvis to be in a comfortable alignment. Option to close your eyes here. Take a slow breath out. At the bottom of that breath, breathe in through your nose. Allow your diaphragm and pelvic floor to drop. As you exhale, blow the air out through pursed lips, a little bit of resistance there. Inhale, blow the air out. And then allow your breath to unfold at your pace. Now we're going to be looking at the pelvic floor here. So for women, we'll be looking at activation around the anus and the vaginal opening. For men, it will be around the anus and at the base of the penis. So whichever one is your cue, you'll just follow that at the same time. I won't say them both at the same time. I usually say the vaginal opening, but when I say that, it also means to lift at the base of the penis. So remember, pelvis isn't tucked or arched, it's right in that middle ground position. Breath is flowing smoothly. With your next breath in, relax around your anus. So imagine that the anus is actually melting open, relaxing open, and then imagine that you're closing on a jelly bean. So close on a jelly bean, and then draw it up and in. So inhale, relax through the anus. Begin the exhale, begin to blow the air out, then close on that jelly bean and draw it up and in with the pelvic floor toward your belly button. Inhale, relax, allow it to open gently. As you exhale, start the exhale and just right after, close on that bean and draw it up and in. Keep going with that. Notice if you're trying to use your chest, your neck, your belly, or even your backside. So you don't want to use the larger muscles, the glute muscles. We're just using the pelvic floor. So see if you can close the sphincter on the bean and then draw it in lightly. Take a couple more rounds. With the breath in, you're not trying to push the bean out. You're letting it almost fall out, and then close and bring it back up and in. Not a force open or a bear down, just a gentle release. Let go of the bean, and then on your next exhalation, close on the bean, draw it up and in. It's just about a centimeter, just a little bit. Draw it in. And notice that when you tried to draw it in, if you tucked your tailbone under, tilted the bowl back. If you did, bring it back to the center ground. Head is aligned with your backside, is aligned with your feet. As you breathe in, open and relax 360 degrees. Low and slow breath in. Gentle belly rise. Exhale, blow the air out, close on the bean, draw it up and in. Ideally, your diaphragm and pelvic floor are the main things doing anything. Your outer muscles of the belly and the hips and the neck are doing little to nothing. Now let's add a second bean. With the second bean, either be closing on it with the vaginal opening or lifting with the base of the penis. So as you breathe in, open and relax at both the anus and the opening of the vagina. Begin your exhale, blow the air out just a beat before you close on both beans, and then draw them up and in. Inhale, relax, let the beans go. Begin the exhalation, then gently close on the beans, draw them up and in. Inhale, relax through the pelvic floor, let the belly give. Exhale, close on the beans, draw them in toward the belly button. Keep going. Your pace. Remember, breathe in through the nose, 360 degrees around the rib cage as you inhale the pelvic floor, relax it as much as you can, let it melt. As you exhale, begin to blow the air out as you close on the beans and draw them up and in. Relax through the glutes, through the neck, through the shoulders. And now we'll begin to create the elevator. So as you breathe in, the elevator is going all the way down to the basement. It's relaxed, it's going all the way down. Then close on the bean, bring the bean back up as you exhale to the main lobby. Inhale back to the basement. Exhale, bring it up to the second floor. Blow the air out, bring it up with a little more engagement. Keep going. Try a couple times with that low engagement as you bring it up and in. As you start to get the hang of it, you may want to add a little extra engagement. So inhale, basement. Exhale, maybe come up to floor three or four. Inhale, maybe you'll only go back down to floor one. Exhale, up higher. Begin to create that range of motion with your pelvic floor. It's small, but however much range you have, you can turn that into your elevator. So to the basement, let it relax as much as you can. And then as you exhale, blow the air out with a little extra oomph and take it up as high as is comfortable. And then let it go all the way down with the inhalation. Take a couple of moments here to explore the elevator. How much engagement you give with the exhalation is up to you. Inhale, relax, open. Exhale, begin to blow the air out, then close on the beam, take it to the floor. One, two, or three. Inhale, let it drop back down. Now let's visualize some activities. So let's say you are going to pick up a book. Inhale, the pelvic floor drops. As you exhale, close on the beam, pick up the book, bring it up to maybe floor one with the beam. Inhale, relax. Exhale, close on the beam. This time you're going to pick up a bag of groceries. Blow the air out, feel the pelvic floor come up, a little extra effort maybe to floor two. Inhale, let it go. Exhale, blow the air out. Maybe this time you're going to move a couch. A little extra oomph, the pelvic floor comes up higher. Inhale, let it give, pelvic floor and belly give. Exhale, close on the beam and lift. So lower floors for lighter activities, higher floors for more intense activities. Begin to see that your pelvic floor responds based on the demand. If you're just getting up from the couch, it's going to help a little. If you're moving a heavy box, it's going to help more. So begin to think of your pelvic floor as dynamic and responsive. As you breathe in, low ribs expand, belly and pelvic floor give. As you exhale, pelvic floor, belly come back up and in. You can use this to train your pelvic floor to really explore the range of motion. We will also integrate this into transitions. Eventually, this becomes an unconscious program that works based on what you're doing, what it needs to do to support you.