The body is incredibly clever at finding another way. After pain, surgery, pregnancy, stress or injury, it adapts so we can keep going. But what happens when a useful workaround becomes the pattern? In Part 11 of The Body in Conversation, I look at breathing, compensation, predictive coding and why the goal is not to remove every strategy, but to give the body more options.

Breathing does not stop at the ribs. You can sometimes see it in the jaw, feel it change when the hands grip, notice it alter with balance, attention or the way someone uses their feet. In Part 10 of The Body in Conversation, I explore how the diaphragm works inside a whole moving, sensing human, and why breathing that looks perfect lying down can change completely once life gets involved.

The vagus nerve is often described as a switch for calm, but the real story is much more interesting. In Part 9 of The Body in Conversation, we follow this wandering nerve from the brainstem through the chest and into the abdomen, exploring how it carries information between the body and brain, how it relates to breathing, heart rate and digestion, and why the body is constantly listening and responding.

What if our bodies are still responding to rhythms we've largely stopped noticing? From ancient stories of women and the Moon to menstrual cycles, menopause, circadian clocks and modern artificial light, this Sunday Read explores what science can tell us, what it can't, and why perhaps we should keep paying attention.

The phrenic nerve is the direct hotline between your neck, nervous system and diaphragm. In this next part of The Body in Conversation, we follow its extraordinary route from C3–C5 down through the chest, explore hiccups, referred pain, diaphragm pacing, cold-water gasps and why breathing sits so beautifully between automatic and voluntary control.

We’re often taught to brace the core, pull the tummy in and think of the abdominal muscles as separate structures with separate jobs. But the abdominal wall is a layered, interconnected system of muscle and connective tissue that links the ribs, spine, pelvis and diaphragm. In Part 7 of The Body in Conversation, we explore how it changes shape, manages pressure and works with your breath.

Pressure is not the enemy. Every breath, cough, laugh, lift, jump and bowel movement changes pressure inside the trunk. In Part 6 of The Body in Conversation, we look at how the diaphragm, abdominal wall, spine and pelvic floor respond together — and why the better question is not “how do I avoid pressure?” but “how does my body manage it?”

The diaphragm is not simply a dome sitting beneath your lungs. It has roots into the lumbar spine and close anatomical relationships with the Psoas, Quadratus Lumborum, ribs and fascia.

In Part 5 of The Body in Conversation, we follow the diaphragm backwards and downwards and explore what that might mean for breathing, movement and the way we think about the body as a whole

The diaphragm is not just a breathing muscle - it is a busy crossroads between the chest and abdomen. In this chapter, we follow the vena cava, oesophagus and aorta through three very different pathways, then look more closely at the oesophageal hiatus, its fascial support and why this anatomy matters in GERD and hiatal hernia.

The diaphragm does not move inside a rigid rib cage. It is woven into a flexible, responsive structure that widens, rotates and subtly changes shape with every breath. In Chapter 3 of The Body in Conversation, we explore the ribs, sternum, 360-degree breathing, and why thinking of the ribs like gills can completely change the way you experience breath.

The diaphragm isn’t a flat sheet moving up and down. It is a three-dimensional, asymmetrical structure with two domes, a central tendon and an intimate anatomical relationship with the heart. In Chapter 2 of The Body in Conversation, we explore its architecture, movement, fascia and the imagery that helps us understand it.

The diaphragm is so much more than a breathing muscle. It works alongside your ribs, spine, abdominal wall and pelvic floor and has remarkable relationships with your heart, organs and nervous system. In Part One of The Body in Conversation, we begin exploring why this amazing muscle sits at the centre of so many conversations within the human body.

From the Dalkon Shield and Essure to pelvic mesh, forceps and twilight sleep, women have repeatedly carried the consequences of reproductive products and childbirth interventions introduced without enough research, meaningful consent or long-term follow-up.

This article looks beyond individual medical scandals to ask a wider question: were these inventions truly designed around women’s health-or were women’s bodies treated as the testing ground?

Have you ever scrunched your eyes and felt your ribs or pelvic floor respond?

I did (of course I did) and the connection was immediate. The more strongly I contracted the muscles around my eyes, the more clearly I felt my pelvic floor tighten and lift.

In this blog, I explore what research into the orbicularis oculi, circular-muscle exercises and the Paula Method can, and cannot, tell us. I also share some gentle experiments to help you notice how your eyes, face, tongue, breath, ribs and pelvic floor may be communicating.

This is emerging science rather than a new pelvic-floor remedy, but it offers another fascinating reminder that the pelvic floor does not work in isolation.

The coccyx is often either blamed for everything or ignored completely. But this small collection of bones sits within a much bigger system involving the pelvic floor, sacrum, spine, fascia, breath and nervous system.

In this blog, I explore why a healthy coccyx is probably not a perfectly positioned coccyx, but one that can adapt and change as we breathe, walk, bend, sit and move.

The apnoea phase creates a unique physiological environment within the body. Emerging research into intermittent hypoxia suggests that carefully dosed fluctuations in oxygen availability may activate pathways involved in mitochondrial adaptation, cellular repair and neuroprotection.

Much of this work comes from fields such as neurology and exercise physiology, where researchers are exploring the effects of intermittent hypoxia on conditions including Parkinson's disease, as well as on human performance and resilience.

Although this research has not been carried out specifically on Hypopressives, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the ways that breath, posture and movement may influence far more than our pelvic floor alone.

For me, this is one of the most exciting aspects of Hypopressives. They are not simply exercises for the pelvis. They invite us to explore the relationship between pressure, posture, breathing, energy, mobility and the remarkable capacity of the human body to adapt.

If women are not small men, then pelvic health support cannot be generic either. In this blog, I invite you into the first steps of how I work: your story, your symptoms, your breath, your posture, your nervous system, and the way your whole body is sharing load

Female sexual dysfunction is not just about libido. It can involve desire, arousal, orgasm, pain, pelvic floor tension, hormones, trauma, nervous system protection, relationship pressure and body disconnection. This blog opens up a more honest conversation about sexual health, shame, consent, pelvic health and why the answer is not always to “just relax” or “try harder”.

What can a tree in drought teach us about the pelvic floor? In this blog, I explore the beautiful comparison between trees, blood flow, fascia, breath and pelvic floor symptoms — and why healing often begins by restoring flow, movement, pressure balance and nervous system safety.

Menopause has been sold to women as the beginning of becoming less — less youthful, less desirable, less capable, less ourselves.

But what if that story was never ours to carry?

This blog explores menopause as more than a hormonal transition. It looks at the history, the shame, the cultural conditioning, and the growing research showing that mindset, movement, strength, breathwork and nervous system support can change how women experience this phase.

Menopause is not about chasing youth or becoming an echo of who we were before. It is an invitation to build strength, trust the body differently, and step into the next half of life with more honesty, support and self-ownership.