In Your Pants with Dr. Susie G - Yoga for pelvic pain

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

Some of you might know, last July, I completed a 200hr yoga teacher training. These 3 weeks were not a walk in the park. It was both physically and emotionally challenging. Through this experience, I learned a lot about myself and deepened my connection with universal love and compassion. So on today's show, Shelly and I talk about yoga, how you can apply yoga practice and philosophy both on the mat and in your everyday life to cultivate peace in your mind and compassion in your heart as you navigate the world of pain. Check the show notes at drsusieg.com/podcast because Shelly has a free gift your you!

You're listening to In Your Pants with Dr. Susie G, the physiotherapist for your private, helping you get in the know down below. Hey guys, it's Dr. Susie G here and welcome to another In Your Pants podcast episode. I'm so glad that you can be here with us today. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about yoga, what yoga is, what it isn't, how you can apply the practices of yoga on the mat and also off the mat in your life to enhance your overall well-being and experience on this planet. And to help me do this, I've invited a very special guest and a really wonderful friend of mine. I love her dearly. Her name is Shelly Prosko.

Shelly is a physiotherapist, a yoga therapist, and a pioneer of physio yoga. She's an educator with over 20 years of experience in working with people in pain. She is a pain care youth trainer, teaches in physiotherapy and yoga programs. She presents at international conferences, contributes to academic research and writing, and offers on-site and online courses for yoga and health professionals. Shelly is the co-editor of Yoga and Science in Pain Care, Treating the Person in Pain, and maintains a clinical practice in Sylvan Lake, Canada. This is such an awesome episode, you guys. Shelly is actually going to take us through a mindfulness meditation practice. So hopefully you're not driving doing it. Probably would advise to do this when you are

in a safe and steady space, but definitely pause and rewind to go back to that because that is certainly a gem. And I'm so grateful for Shelly and her wisdom today on the show. So I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did. And without further ado, let's get to it. Hi, Shelly. Thank you so much for being on the In Your Pants podcast today with me. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited. Here we go. I know, I know. For all the listeners and those watching, can you explain a little bit about who you are, your passions, and what you do? Okay, so I am a physical therapist. I'm a yoga therapist. I do some education. I help to educate yoga professionals and healthcare providers on how to integrate yoga into physical therapy. I also have a clinical practice. I've

been integrating yoga into my PT practice for over 20 years. And let's see, what else can I tell you? I have some specialties, so I'm really passionate about helping people who are living with persistent or chronic pain. And I also enjoy helping healthcare professionals who are going through burnout or want to try to prevent burnout. And of course, as you know, I'm really passionate about helping people with pelvic health issues. And mostly, like the last few years, it's been people that live with persistent pelvic pain. Right. Yeah. And let's segue into that because I just finished, and maybe some of my followers know this too, but I just finished a 200-hour yoga teacher training, which is three weeks of long 10-hour days. And I think there's a lot of stigma and stereotype around what yoga

is so i think that would be a good place to start of let's just define you know what yoga is and what it isn't okay well let's do that together you can chime in too so um you know it's funny suzy when i first started answering this question you know years ago i had this spiel you know yoga it's a life science it's a system of health that helps to um you know promote physical mental emotional spiritual energetic overall health and the word yoga means to unite or to yoke body mind breath spirit um but then you know as years go on and you learn more and more uh you start to you start to realize that that's it's an attempt at a definition and as you may know some of of the you know the the yoga teachers that have brought yoga to us say that yoga can't

be explained it can only be experienced yeah and I'm starting to understand that more and more like yoga is maybe not to be defined but you know more to be experienced more to be described so I would say and then maybe you can you know see give your perspective but I would say you know this yoga it's a philosophy and it is a way of life and it is a system of health and it's really to some of the ultimate intentions is to help us be more connected to our true selves whatever that means for us some people may say connected to something greater um it is a spiritual practice not a religion so it's it's definitely not a religion however there is this spiritual component meaning connection to whatever you want to say it is right like universe or your true self or

source or light or universe um or another if that doesn't sit well with people you could even say yoga is this uh it's a path to like connecting to your true purpose or meaning in life and then there are many many different paths to do that so what we know what you and i know and what we're learning is the path of uh you know there's different names and different lineages but the path of the eight limbs, which is Raja Yoga, which there are things like movement and breathing and awareness practices and some mindfulness and meditation. That's all part of it. And then yoga teachings and philosophy. But there's other paths. There's the yoga of service. There's the yoga of love and devotion, which is another path. There's the yoga of knowledge, which is studying the yoga

texts and so like it's it's a huge topic and I don't think you and I can sit here and like define it but that to give your listeners sort of this basic understanding just in summary I would say you know it is a philosophy it is a way of life but it's accessible to people like you and I and to people who are listening by taking these techniques and these practices to ultimately ultimately help us find more peace and joy and meaning and then ultimately to help with our pain so i think you covered it i think you did a good job no it's it's beautiful i think bottom line it's an inner experience like you said yoga is an experience it is not a religion or dogma or anything like that it is an inner experience that helps you to connect with your whatever you define

your truest potential your true self or your true nature whatever that is bottom line it is your experience your world and it's transformation you know it's very transformative and like you said it's a full it's a way of life it's a lifestyle and it's not just what happens on the mat it's not what happens in the class it's how do you bring the philosophies around yoga into everyday life like you're mentioning love compassion um service gratitude and just appreciating something bigger than yourself you know like so so all of that to me is is why i practice yoga and i just kind of weave it into my life in that way because I just know how it makes me feel and it makes me a better person and there's nothing wrong with that however you choose to do that it makes you

just just a better person and your experience on this earth so much more pleasant because we all know there is there's no shortage of suffering well yeah and then the word suffering I mean that's in some of the yoga texts that's a word that comes up in one of the yoga sutras and one of the intentions of of yoga which might be a nice segue into what we're probably going to talk about soon here which is uh yoga can help us since it helps us maybe be more connected to our true self or potential um it can then help us provide more clarity and gain deeper insights into understanding our suffering and then that can help uh prevent future suffering and that's the that one yoga sutra right it yoga helps to prevent future suffering and that's kind of the work that

we're trying to do as health care providers is is help people prevent you know future suffering or helping them with their issues and and then we can scale back a little bit and take more of an accessible view meaning okay let's get into some language maybe because we're kind of going deep into the big philosophy so let's go into now okay the the lens of looking at well what does that mean for me and you know trying to help with my my pain like do i have to be this you know go deep into philosophy i mean that's part of it what we're saying because we want to honor the roots and the true meaning of yoga but then also we can pick these different techniques and these breathing techniques and movement and ideas and and some mindfulness and um that in and of itself

can help people who have pain to help gain deeper insight into their pain and maybe help reduce some of it and help them move better and function better. Right. So that, you know, I like to kind of just say, okay, this is what we've been learning, but then, cause I want to, like I said, respect yoga and what it truly is. But then also kind of scale back and say, well, how can we make it now accessible to right we're listening so what you're saying it's not just uh flashy tights and uh power workouts right it's not about the asanas all the time they're important but it's just a piece of yoga to help quiet the mind to help connect that deeper inner experience it's it's just a modality it is not and i think and from what i understand when i learned in my yoga

teacher training is asana really meant to find a comfortable steady posture seated posture to be able to sit still and find comfort in stillness right yeah that full expression of asana um and i'm i really do butcher the sanskrit language so i always apologize for that but the full expression is stiram sukham asanam which means uh the stiram is the steadiness like you talked about find that steadiness and strength but succumb with ease so steadiness plus ease and then awesome that means like you said to sit um so yeah it's interesting and i think that ties in nicely with what we try to help people with when when they're when we're trying to move like we need the right amount of strength and and stability and um steadiness but also with not too much

tension we need the letting go and we need the ease and that we need that efficiency of movement and that's just that right effort yeah you know that we talk about that's right and that and then and then that's part of yoga philosophy that's one of our teachings and yoga philosophy is moderation and not wasting energy and being you know finding just that right spot and that you know it's just it's really cool when you start to bring in the philosophy yeah it's balanced between effort like you're saying and ease essentially in life not just in physical movement but also in your entire how you live your life you know can you find that like you're saying that happy medium between effort and ease the space in between the breaths

yeah the space in between the breath so this is a wonderful segue into okay so this is a beautiful philosophy and this is a beautiful practice how can we use this practice to help or how can someone use yoga to help with persistent pelvic pain or pain in general it doesn't have to be in the pelvis but particularly since that is a passion of ours um working with those that have pelvic pain you know, how can we use this practice with them and how can it benefit them? Yeah, so I think if we look at, first of all, just all the different aspects of our existence that influence pain, you know, that's a nice place to start. So since we know from our current understandings now of pain, that so many things can influence our pain. So how we breathe,

how we move, our thoughts, our emotions, the context of the whole situations, or how we're managing stress, even our relationships, the environment around us, like all these different things. Then when we look at yoga and some of the practices that yoga offers us, we start to kind of connect the dots and say, well, wow, if all of these different aspects of our existence have the potential to influence pain, then we can use all these different aspects of our existence potentially to help change our pain. So whether it is pelvic pain or otherwise, so yoga techniques and practices. So we have things like breath and we can have these different awareness or breath awareness practices first and foremost to help us first just be aware,

That's key. And then regulate. So we can just first be aware, which is different than now changing the breath. So you first have to be aware, is your breath, are you holding it? Is it rapid, shallow? Is there tension in the breath? And then learning some of these yoga breathing practices to help the breath, which can then influence the nervous system. It can influence the body tension which again all feeds back into the pain experience so through breath but also through movement and it's not just about okay this particular pose necessarily like mechanically or anatomically but how are you approaching the movement or the pose and that's part of the yoga philosophy again so how do we um you know what are our thoughts and our beliefs and how are we

breathing how are we approaching it like the movement like are we doing it with judgment and harshness towards ourself or or are we doing it with some sort of compassionate like self compassionate approach so things like that that can so how we move and what we think about the movement and how we breathe in the movement like that can all affect the the nervous system and again pain and then we can go on and on and so then there's the mindfulness part of yoga and the different meditation practices so we can do just a meditation in and of itself which might be focusing or concentrating on it could be anything it could be some sort of an affirmation or it could be focused or concentrating on a breath practice it could be focusing or concentrating on

um maybe if if you're moving it could be like a movement meditation so you're focusing on maybe bringing your awareness to a visualization or a certain part of your body as you're moving so we can combine you know breath with meditation with movement it's all these different yoga practices and help um do you have anything to add what am i missing no i i think um my teacher we kind of just went over this yesterday in meditation class so i study buddhist philosophy and we were actually studying the function of meditation which is a mind so what we learned yesterday was meditation is a state of mind that functions to make our mind peaceful and happy you know it's it's a single pointed focus on a virtuous object which essentially is something

that is pleasant like love compassion gratitude you know in that sense anything can be a virtuous object really if it makes your mind peaceful and happy and calm so you know you can meditate all day every day really it doesn't have to be crisscross applesauce all the time which is the formal way to meditate which is good as well but you can also take that into your daily life so I just wanted to chime in and talk about meditation yeah which is part of yoga like one of my little um I wouldn't really say pet peeves necessarily because it doesn't like bother me but it's just something that I'm passionate about to share the message is is when we always hear yoga and meditation you know you hear that phrase oh yoga and meditation but it's kind of

redundant um because meditation is is part of yoga so i just wanted to throw that in there so what you were doing yesterday and learning about um you know that is part of yoga right right um could you chime in a little bit about like okay so stillness and postures and sometimes some postures can bring up discomfort in our bodies or emotionally for us. And let's talk about how yoga can really help with that. What does that do in terms of more of a transformation when we're able to go into a posture and hold stillness within that posture, but also experience everything that that posture is there to show us? Yeah, that's a great question. And I could see us going deep into philosophy here too as well um wow so i you know i might start with

recover let's start with the fact that people with pain um we want to be able to recover function and we want to be able to recover the movements and the things that bring us joy or the things that we just that are meaningful in our lives that we want to do again right some sort of activity so if you whoever's listening if you think about maybe some things right now that you're not doing because of your pain that you'd like to get back so one of the first steps um you know first that we talk about often is you know calming the nervous systems and you know just getting to a safe space to help like i said calm and decrease that threat to the system to help potentially reduce the pain. And that's great. But that's step number one. So the next thing

that we need to do is also challenge the system. So we need to find ways to maybe push the edge a little bit. And pushing that edge could be really anything like you just talked about. It could be sitting with discomfort, whether it's mental discomfort or physical discomfort. But pushing the edge again whatever that means to people and so yoga offers this um practice or offers different approaches and different philosophies to to help us navigate how we can approach that edge safely so different ways i mean there's so many different ways and it depends but you know one way that we do it like in the pain care yoga so that's with neil pearson and the the program that you know that i teach as well i'll disclose i do teach in that program

but one thing that we teach we have guidelines so there's no hard fast methodology but some of the guidelines we do and this is these guidelines are based on yoga teachings as well as what contemporary pain science is telling us so one of the things we do is that we we push we kind of approach the edge of that discomfort and then we ask ourselves do i feel safe or do i will i be okay later like and that's important just to start some discernment there and that's where the yoga comes into so then the self-inquiry so there's that self-inquiry of okay i'm at the edge do i feel safe will i be okay later and that's really key because if you don't we have we already have an issue because then that's going to play into the nervous system and the threat and the danger

so that's the first part and then from there we monitor and see if we can monitor the breath and the body tension and keep the breath and the body tension calm so these are where the yoga practices come in and the techniques so if we have learned or we are learning to be aware of the breath to be embodied and aware of the body and also with yoga practices practicing these techniques of okay now we're aware that the breath is tight or that the body's tight or the thoughts are tight can we now use these yoga practice to calm the breath to calm the body tension to calm the thoughts or find that equanimity right and so now we keep the breath calm the body tension calm and monitor the pain so we're not ignoring it or and it could be the physical sensation or the whatever

the anxiety whatever edge you're talking about here so do we uh or are we sorry i'll just back up so we do want to monitor the discomfort right and then we also monitor the thoughts and the emotions so in summary we push we get to that edge of discomfort we ask ourselves are we safe are we going to be okay later if we think okay i think i can do this then check in with the breath hey let's see if we can regulate can we calm it here can we regulate the body are we are we tensing up because we're afraid yeah are we starting to brace and guard okay can we learn to release that a little bit do we feel safe enough to let that go and learn the techniques we've learned in yoga to let go of that body tension and at the same time monitor this

discomfort and monitor thoughts and emotions right right and i think shelly what you're saying too or what i hear you saying is that the person who is experiencing this during the practice it's a sense of self-control it's control essentially like you're you're giving back to that person saying as you practice this you are actually using strategies and techniques to feel more control of the situation that you have a sense of autonomy with your own body and your sensations and it's not this chaos of you know flipping your lid and I have no idea what to do which is like you know trying to put the brakes on on black ice instead of just letting go and and easing with that that black ice right we essentially we want to just put the brakes on

it right away and then we freak out we're not making good decisions but through this practice one will experience just more space more space to approach a situation whatever situation is causing discomfort with more clarity and a solution oriented mind beautifully said beautifully said that's exactly it that summarizes it so we first need to be aware in order for that process to start to happen so awareness and then the discernment which the yoga practices can help us discern and then regulate you're talking about yeah that self-regulation and then that helps yeah to gain that deeper insight into the suffering and then the the um an active part is what you were talking about the solution part and you know and then just uh helping us

yeah what action do i take and it could be to stop you know like so you and i aren't suggesting to people that it's always about you know let's keep moving through this and right you know the the solution may be, oh, to back off a little bit or let's choose a different action or, you know, or it could be to move on. So, but yeah, you just, what you said there, I think summarized it perfectly. Right. Right. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm humbled. Thanks. If someone, let's say someone is completely new to yoga and they're hearing this for the first time, what would you recommend what would be their like next step to dip their toe so to speak in the water well um let's see so many options so it depends on what your interests are uh there are some if

you want to read there are different resources um that you can you know read about of course um i'll send links that that people can look into like some that i think people would be interested in like my website there's resources my youtube channel neil pearson's paincareu.com is good and then my website physio yoga.ca so there are different resources you can start to look at for reading and then also video practices so neil and i have some nice ones overcome pain with gentle yoga and then i have the uh pelvic health practices on vimeo so you can start to dip your toes they're gentle both my practices and then the ones i do with neil you know pretty much anyone can can follow them there's awareness practices and breathing and meditation mindfulness

and then they go into some gentle movement that said if you are suffering from some different issues and pain and conditions and you're not sure and you know you might need some guidance from your health care provider so they're not treatments so just be clear with that and then other things like you I do highly recommend finding someone in your area so reach out to either you so whoever's listening you know reach out to you because you know different people reach out to me. I know a lot of different people as well who are healthcare providers who also integrate yoga or yoga therapists or yoga teachers who work closely with the pelvic health physical therapist or with other healthcare providers. So it takes a little bit of navigating, but

start to just look and research, ask questions. I think that's the biggest thing. If you do find, let's say a yoga studio in your area or you can go online and google in your area who's doing yoga you start to read you know how do you how do you feel what's the feel you get from the website um is there look at the training are they trained to help people with issues there's accessible yoga um you know teachers out there and it's a good question and there's a lot of different answers but you know i would say to recap that um check you just reach out to me and i can help you look at different resources to read videos to watch and then also other people to find in your area yeah would you add anything to that no i think that was wonderfully said honestly it's you

just have to start somewhere and it might not always be a right fit but hey you had the courage to try and know that just because you had a so-so experience or it wasn't what you thought it was going to be it probably just wasn't a good fit whether that's the instructor or the or the time in your life or you know whatever it is there's so many variables but yeah my hand up i would say another i just thought of something um uh so another thing that you can do is call it's that simple um but call the studio so let's say you want to um take start taking a class uh you know shop around and call the studio and see if you can talk to the teacher and you know in my experience the the studios that are really inclusive and accessible to people that maybe have

a pain persistent pain or you know that need more of an adaptive kind of yoga those studios that you'll know as soon as you talk to them they'll they'll be willing to speak with you and you can tell them about um yourself if you feel comfortable and then you know you get a sense versus some studios may not be as accessible to to you and those populations which is fine but then that wouldn't necessarily be as safe for you um you know because maybe they don't offer as many modifications and that so just shop around and talk and tell people who you are what your needs are and that might help as well great advice thank you shelly great advice because it can be quite daunting when you're like yoga and the whole you know stereotype of yoga that it's got to be this

you got to look perfect and pretzel yourself in a certain position no no it could look sloppy the life is sloppy it's okay you know yeah yeah and there are and there are yoga therapists out there so that's a whole other topic of conversation but um there are more and more people who do yoga therapy so they're you know yoga teachers that are are now going deeper into using yoga as a more one-on-one individual approach yeah so if that's interesting to you you know you could even find um someone who maybe you know is more trained in working with people one-on-one and maybe are more trained in working with people with pain um so that you know there's so many different paths yeah and overwhelming but right right and yeah use your use us as your resources

guys like yeah you can contact me i'll hope you find someone in your area yeah yeah and i started to do that's what i do now with with after doing my yoga training i incorporate all the the concepts of yoga into a session but individually based certainly you know um so it's really customized and it's an experience most people love it i mean once you get into it they just you know just breathing alone i think and just giving that person space holding space for that person just to rest um is is quite profound um yeah and i mean in a perfect world an ideal world i do admit that i would recommend that everybody if you could see some one one-on-one yeah it doesn't have to be you know for a long time i think but just to get a few of those sessions you get that

one-on-one attention now not everybody has the luxury of doing that or and there may be nobody really in your community that offers that so i know that's that's why i don't say that right off the bat because that's just not realistic for everyone but you might be surprised whoever's listening you know you might have someone just down the street who's uh you know a physical therapist or some sort of rehab professional or maybe even a pelvic floor therapist who's integrating yoga yeah like that and you could have a few one-on-one sessions or like i said you may have someone down the street who's a yoga professional who works side by side with a pelvic floor physical therapist and there you go you have a beautiful team right there

yes it does take a village doesn't it does take a village to support one another and and recover i do believe recovery is possible because one's potential is limitless honestly um that's what i believe anyway but um speaking of breathing and getting into that yummy state of calm and peace do you think we have time for a couple of minute of guided meditation by by you sure i have time do you do yeah let's do it i love that and i'm sure everyone else would love that too you're in for a treat okay great so uh we can do you want to do a breath awareness. Sure. A short breath awareness. Yeah, I'll keep it short and sweet so that you can see how practical maybe it can be in your own life. Okay, so here we go. So find a comfortable

position. We say that a lot, but really take a moment. I'm going to give you some time here, or you could even pause this, and it doesn't have to be seated. You could lie down on your side, on your stomach, on your back. Just take a moment to find a position that makes you feel relatively comfortable and safe and like you can sit there for a few minutes. And we will just bring the awareness to our breath so you don't have to change it.

You don't have to do anything to it. Just notice it. notice the rate the pace notice the length of the inhale compared to the length of the exhale notice any qualities so if the breath feels rigid or bumpy or maybe smooth and soft and try not to judge or analyze, just notice. And notice if there is a space or a gap between the inhale and exhale and exhale and inhale, or if it's one smooth continuous motion. And again, you don't have to change anything. Just notice what does that feel like in between the inhale and exhale notice the depth of the breath and then bring your

awareness to the nostrils and just notice the breath entering and exiting the nostrils. Notice if you're breathing more through one side of the nostril or the other. Or maybe you can even tell the temperature of the breath. Perhaps it's a little more dry and cool on the inhale and a little more warmed and moistened on the exhale. And then bring the awareness to how the breath moves your body. Maybe you notice some of the more obvious areas. And then maybe some of the more subtle areas or even a sense of energetic flow, maybe higher up in the head or maybe even down into the pelvis or the pelvic floor area, the legs,

feet so don't think too much or analyze but just a general overall sense of how that breath is moving in the body and even the energetic flow if that makes sense to you and if it's accessible to you and if not that's okay too just go back to how the breath is moving more obviously in the air in the body and then just briefly before we close i'm going to just guide you to a longer smoother softer breath so we've left the awareness practice and just to see if we can get into some regulation which means now we're actually trying to manipulate the breath. So just make the breath a little bit longer if you can.

So not deeper. You don't have to do anything too crazy or vast. Just a little bit longer. So when you inhale, it's almost like you're sipping the breath, easefully, taking your time, being patient. and on the exhale it's like you're lingering in the breath just let it last there's nowhere to go nowhere to be and cultivating that sense of patience and and even the sense that just this is enough. It's a long, smooth, soft breath. If you can make it just a little bit smoother,

a little bit softer even. If it starts to feel anxious or effortful, then just back off and do what you need to do to bring a little more ease and a little more peace to your rhythm. And then taking a moment to just adjust and wiggle around and if you want to return your breath to normal or maybe that pattern feels quite easeful for you and you want to stick with it take your time and if your eyes were closed you can open them and send a little gratitude towards yourself for that practice it's not about doing it right or wrong and in fact if you noticed it was challenging for yourself or if you noticed your mind was

wondering and that's actually really great because you were aware and you were able to just kind of bring yourself back um so yeah just practicing the self-compassion piece as well and knowing that it's not about how good you did it's just the fact that you at least took some time to participate and get centered and thank you for that um i hope it was valuable i hope you enjoyed it and i hope listeners enjoyed it oh thank you shelly that was just yummy so yummy sometimes you just don't realize how you're feeling until you tap into good observations you know like yeah yeah and the cueing you know like i just i tried to keep it simple so i really just stuck with the breath and then we did a little bit of the body at the end

um but you know we can the breath is really a nice uh it's a nice way to notice the to give us a conscious awareness of the state of the whole physiological state of our body like you said so you've been doing this for a while so you were able to just connect with breath and that and it gives you a whole sense of how you're doing in the moment and sometimes for beginners you know we don't get there right away which is fine that's not what it's about but with time you just start to you know even just go to that breath and just be aware and it just kind of brings everything in as far as the general overall state of your thoughts and you can kind of okay I guess I was really analyzing and I was worrying about that one thing I didn't realize I was lost

and thought or the emotions so you can start to tap in with breath awareness practice is just what we did can even tap into wow i was feeling really um guilty there you know or i was feeling really jealous i felt that or anger angry or joy i was really feeling content and pleasurable and then you just you just get a sense of realizing where you're at um which that's the place to start from to then regulate so it's just something so simple you know that we don't even realize can open up to greater regulation right absolutely absolutely and for everyone out there we're gonna i'll have the shelly was so nice to gift us the pdf of the pelvic floor awareness meditation for people with pelvic pain so i'll have that attached as well and you mentioned a lot of

resources already but i just wanted to also say that you offered a 10 off discount code for the videos on your website that you were talking about and mentioning correct yes so they're on you can find them on my website if you go to the products page but i can give you the direct link to vimeo so they're downloadable so it's not a dvd they're online you download them there's two different practices and one is a 30-minute practice of yeah breath a pelvic floor you know awareness and breathing practices and then gentle movement practices the second part so it's really to become aware of the pelvic floor to try to relax it and then also to move to help engage it but it's it doesn't even have to be

for people that have pelvic floor issues necessarily. People enjoy them, everybody, men, women, and even people that don't have necessarily issues, but they are great for people with pelvic pain. And then the toilet meditation is on there as well. Yes, I share that a lot. And to anyone who's worked with me, you know you've gotten this resource. So that's great. And I'll link that as well. So I'll link all of this yumminess to the show notes for this podcast and i also wanted to mention for all the clinicians and those who practice yoga i mean your new book that came out yay yoga science and pain care uh collaborated with neil um pearson and marlissa sullivan who

i'm also going to be interviewing for the podcast about polyvagal theory steven porges she just did a wonderful paper as well with them and that concept of yoga and the vagus nerve and all that so just yumminess so thank you for putting this together it's a wonderful resource for anyone out there please check out um shelly's book it just came out hot off the press and um are there any other resources shelly that you wanted to share before we um well i'll just say i'll just put the book so yeah we the three of us co-edited and co-authored and there's other contributors in there as well so it's not just actually the three of us in the chapter so um shout out there's a whole i won't shout out sorry for saying everyone oh yeah but you can um and

other resources you know i think we got it just check out my site physio yoga.ca browse through it the youtube channel lots of free stuff my facebook pages and and stuff um i have of course a few, uh, the paid videos. Um, yeah, I think that that's just probably the best is because I have a lot of, um, articles as well on, on what we've just talked about. So yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you so much, Shelly. Thank you so much for being on the show and to all our listeners and viewers there on YouTube in loving wellness for your pelvis. thank you so much for watching i'll talk to you later thanks for having me thanks for listening to today's episode be sure to head on over to drsuzyg.com where you can get

more information show notes and related articles on today's topic also if you like what you're hearing head on over to itunes subscribe to the podcast and leave us a rating and review we'd love to hear feedback thanks again three two and one