Pelvic Floor Relaxation (Anxiety Skills #10)

The fourth self regulatory technique that I am going to teach you Is called Pelvic Floor Relaxation First we need to talk about the pelvic girdle So go ahead and feel right in the front of your hips There's these pointy knobs in the front corners These are called the iliac crests and they are right on your belt line so in the front and center and then after you notice where these two points are Go ahead and stick your hands under your butt and feel your butt bones poking into your seat, it helps if you wiggle a little bit Now I just made you grab your butt Therapist Joke... When you notice these four points, so the two on your butt bones and the two in the front And you imagine that those make a square The inside of that is your pelvic girdle and there's all sorts of muscles in there now remember, Your pelvis is connected to the really big muscles in your body Your pelvis connects your back muscles, your abdominal muscles your quadriceps and your hamstrings These are the really big muscles groups in your body And it's held together by these pelvic floor muscles When we are feeling anxious or tight Those muscles constrict and tighten They tend to be tense and closed off And when we're relaxed those muscles tend to soften Now the Vegus nerve Which sends information throughout our body it kind of ends right down there in the pelvic area And a lot of information goes to the brain through that pelvic floor So one example of this is when EMT's go out to a call where someone's having tachycardia which is a high heart rate their heart is racing too fast They'll tell that person "Bear down" like"Act like you're pooping" you know, "Push down" to open up that pelvic floor And when they do that it triggers the heart to slow down So by softening your pelvic floor, it triggers other physiological reactions That are calming because it's triggering the vegus nerve. To send a message of calm to your brain and body. so go ahead and feel your pelvic girdle tighten up Just clench down there as tight as you can. This is what's called being "anal"People who are anxious or "anal" They're uptight and they have tight little pelvic floor muscles And no that you've intentionally tightened those muscles, you know you have control over them Go ahead and intentionally soften them. Loosen them. If you need to push out on them a little, like bear down just a little bit, to push out to soften them. Now that's a relaxation response and it triggers the vegus nerve to turn on your parasympathetic nervous system It's important to practice these activities in semi-stressful situations So one activity I often have my clients do is to find a partner, it might be some one they don't even know, sit face to face with them so put your chairs incredibly close to each other have your knees touching this is obviously getting into someone's bubble which is naturally uncomfortable and set a 2 minute timer, and what I'm going to have you do is stare into each other's eyes for two minutes in incredibly close quarters I want you to go try this, and what you're going to feel is your body naturally tensing up because this is an awkward situation but it's not dangerous, it's just awkward As you feel your body tense up, start to practice softening the pelvis. And using those other self-regulation techniques that we've been talking about. And by doing that in a slightly stressful situation You'll get to feel the difference of that tight tense sympathetic response and that intentional softening that can trigger the parasympathetic response. So go spend two minutes in close contact, making eye contact with someone that is going to make you awkward You could practice this activity in other situations that feel awkward Like maybe strike a funny pose in a public place or wearing a sign around your neck that says something ridiculous There's a lot of ways to practice this, but the moral of the story is Go out, find something that makes you uncomfortable, Spend a few minutes doing this thing that makes you uncomfortable, While actively practicing relaxing the pelvic floor. And by doing that you can train your body to respond to stressful situations with a calm reaction instead of a freaked out/stressed out reaction I hope this was helpful, thanks for watching, and take care.

Channel: Therapy in a Nutshell

Views: 74,112

Rating: 4.9341674 out of 5

Keywords: Pelvic Floor Relaxation, Pelvic Floor, Anxiety management skills, Coping Skills for Anxiety, Coping Skills for Depression, Coping Skills for Kids, Coping Skills for Adults, Coping Mechanisms, Pelvic Floor exercises, kegels, pelvic floor therapy, Anxiety, Depression, Self Regulation, strengthen pelvic floor, vagus nerve, vagus, vagal tone, pelvic floor relaxation exercises, pelvic floor relaxation meditation, pelvic pain, polyvagal theory

Id: OmHqmMDIc_Q

Length: 4min 27sec (267 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2017