Anna Schneider, C-IAYT, Ph.D.
Certified Yoga Therapist

In our first post in this series on the core ways yoga therapy can support your journey to pelvic health and well-being, we explored how self-awareness illuminates our habitual patterns and connects us with our sensory experience. In our second post, we discovered how self- regulation - which is facilitated by self-awareness - allows us to intentionally return our nervous system to homeostasis, a state in which we can rest, restore and repair. Here we will dive into the next piece of the series: safe-embodiment.

In this post I will suggest a few practices - if you find that these practices do not serve you at the moment please take care of yourself and don’t engage with them at this time. You are also always welcome to reach out to me or the Proactive Pelvic Health Centre team for support.

Embodiment

Practice 1: Brief Check-In

Pause for a moment. If it feels safe to do so, you may wish to close your eyes or to allow them to rest softly on a single point of focus. Turn your attention inward.

Take a moment to scan your body from head to toes noticing any physical, emotional, or energetic sensations that are present. Make sure to include the face, jaw, mouth and throat.

Then, take a moment to observe your breathing. If you can, notice the qualities of the breath and how it is moving through your body.

When you are ready, open the eyes if they were closed, take in the space your are in, and re- connect with your external sensory experience.

Take a moment to reflect on the following:

What was your system’s reaction to doing the check-in? Was it smooth sailing, or did tuning inwards prompt any mild agitation, tensing, worry, restriction of the breath or, perhaps, difficulty staying present and focused?

Was it easier to notice sensation in, and connect with, certain areas of the body more than others?

Did you notice any physical, emotional, or energetic sensations that you were not aware of before you began the practice?

One way of understanding embodiment is as a state of integration in which we can attune to and, in a way, inhabit our inner ecosystem through direct felt-experience rather than intellectual knowing. It is the difference between cognitively searching for the answer to the question: Am I hot, warm or cold? and connecting inwardly with the pure sensation of warmth spreading through the body when you lower yourself into a hot bath, or through the hands when you wrap them around a hot mug of tea.

Practice 2: Pause and make yourself your hot beverage of choice to try it out, for example: a mug of tea, hot cider or chocolate, or coffee. Wrap your hands around the sides of the mug, perhaps close the eyes if you feel steady and stable, and see if you can connect with a felt- sense of the warmth spreading first along the surface of your palms and the undersides of your

fingers and then deeper within your hands. After a few moments you may wish to place your hands over your heart and feel that warmth transfer to your heartspace and chest. When you are ready, relax the arms and hands, open the eyes if they were closed, and enjoy your beverage!

It is very common for tuning inwards or even a short body scan to feel challenging. For some folks the difficulty stems from simply living day in and day out from the neck up, wrapped up in the thinking mind. Some may find that the simple act of tuning inwards prompts resistance or anxiety, and still others might experience they can feel into specific areas of the body while remaining completely disconnected to other parts.

Embodiment is a skill to be practiced with kind patience, especially when any agitation, resistance or dissociation is due to the body’s natural and intelligent response to traumatic experience and/or persistent pain. If the hands are a relatively neutral area for you Practices like #2 above can serve as a gentle entryway into embodiment.

When we practice embodiment, we are practicing leaning into sensation rather than numbing or running away from it. We are building trust in our own ability to practice inner leadership and remain grounded, present, and aware during challenging experiences. In turn, this curious and courageous orientation allows us to become partners with our bodies and nervous systems, a relationship that can foster growth and change.

Safe-embodiment

In yoga therapy we always prioritize a felt-sense of safety and so, if embodiment is challenging, we approach it skillfully, respectfully and with care. You always have full choice and control over what practices to engage in, when and for how long.

The foundational skills of self-awareness and self-regulation support your ability to notice when your sense of safety is compromised, and when to initiate practices to feel grounded, present and safe once more.

A yoga therapist can support you in establishing some personalized go-to grounding skills and then in how to titrate tuning inwards, giving you full control over the personal experiment:

1. 1)  You test leaning into inner sensory experience in small doses.

2. 2)  You pause to gather data by checking-in and monitoring your sense of safety.

3. 3)  And, depending on the results, you can intentionally and wisely decide whether to tune

   inward once more, with full permission to stop at any time.

Through this process you can begin to simply connect with having a physical body and your sensory experience, then befriend the body so that you become allies rather than strangers or even enemies and finally, learn to work with the body as a resource to support thriving.

Tuning into the pelvis and pelvic floor can be especially challenging or triggering for many folks and the team at the Proactive Pelvic Health Centre is here to support you! Follow these links to find more information about: our private yoga therapy and group series options.

If you are reading this in January 2025, our Winter Yoga and Movement Classes are now open for registration, Learn more about the classes here.