Using Imagery to hack your nervous system

Visualisation and imagery can be powerful tools for your nervous system and your nervous system is one of the keys to pelvic health. Your pelvic floor has many roles many influenced by whether you feel safe or fearful. if you are in fear your body will automatically send less of everything to the pelvic floor. It cleverly conserves blood, oxygen and activity to the parts of our bodies that we will need to survive and in that moment the pelvic floor and our pelvic organs are definitely not as important as our heart, lungs, vision, smell and hearing.

So, what happens if you get stuck there?

Stuck in that moment of alarm.

This often happens after a traumatic event - like a traumatic childbirth or sexual assault.

Our bodies will do one of three things to protect us.

Fight-Flight or Freeze

If you fight you actually do dissipate some of the stress hormone - especially if you are shaking with rage and more than likely you will process the feeling and the event. But what if you can’t fight?

What if you can’t run?

What if your legs are in stirrups and someone is cutting you, you are terrified that something awful will happen, is happening, to your baby. What if….

Then you are thrust into your role as mother and protector with no space, or time, or help to process those feelings - you try to forget about them. Suppress them. Bury them.

But you can’t.

When you take that first bath and the pain is so intense - it comes back - so you push it deeper. Instead of screaming and being held by a community you are home alone. Tears fall silently, you don’t want to alarm, frighten, traumatise your baby. You don’t want to admit you feel broken. That you are more scared than you have ever been.

But it comes back again.

When you try and use the toilet, when you stand for too long, when you go for a walk, when you sit down.

The pain is there, the feeling in there that fills you with a horrible disquiet.

You push it down, you paint a smile, you avoid intimacy, you withhold your touch for fear it will lead to intimacy. You feel so alone.

You freeze.

But you are not alone. You just need to find the first word. You just need to reach out once. And while you take the time to decide whether I am safe to reach out too. Try this exercise to begin your thaw.

Joy & Calm

Yes, I do know that this may seem like a challenge but you need one - a challenge that is achievable and will start to have an effect on your nervous system. (It also won’t take long!).

Find a space (doesn’t need to be tidy, clean or a fancy mat) can totally be your bed.

Before you lie down in a semi supine position (that’s on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor)

I invite you to think of:

A place, person or thing that brings you joy - really visualise it or them - take a moment and close your eyes and see).

A place person or thing that brings you calm/peace - again really visualise - take another moment and really feel them/it all around you.

In a moment you are going to lie down relax your shoulders and face and jaw and begin to breathe as you inhale I would love you to expand your ribs like an umbrella and think about your ‘joy’.

As you exhale and release your ribs slowly I would like you to think about your ‘calm’

Take as long as you have and do this as often as you can - in those snatched moments in life.

Will this heal your pelvic floor dysfunction and/or trauma - no - but it will start to prepare your body to heal. It will help you feel more in control and will help to regulate your nervous system.

You have to find ways to thaw and then your body and mind will be ready to heal. This is just the start. But what an easy start to make.