Self-Awareness and Pelvic Health

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

Self-awareness is a pivotal capacity for growth, healing and living with a sense of freedom and agency. If the concept of awareness feels intangible or foreign to you, know that, like any other skill, it can be developed with practice and guidance.

It can be helpful to think of awareness like a flashlight. Just as you can choose where to direct the beam of light and adjust its width and size, you can choose where to direct your attention and how zoomed in or out you want your focus to be. A flashlight illuminates what otherwise might not be seen and accounted for and, similarly, awareness can be a means of revealing aspects of our experience that were hidden or running on autopilot.

You may have heard the idea before that you can only change what you are aware of - learning to pause and check-in with your experience is part of the foundation for making intentional choices in line with your values and goals for well-being. Through awareness you nurture a much richer relationship with your Self and your inner ecosystem, facilitating resilience, a felt sense of balance, and self-efficacy.

Connecting with Awareness

A wonderful way to begin practicing intentionally shining the light of your attention on your experience is by tuning into your sensory experience.

You might sit on a park bench with a mug of your favourite tea. Close your eyes (if that feels comfortable and safe) and hone in on what you can hear; maybe you notice some birds chirping, dogs barking, leaves rustling, water streaming, or kids laughing.

Next notice what you can see; maybe you notice the colours of the leaves, beams of sunlight, squirrels cavorting.

Next, notice what you smell, maybe your tea, maybe surrounding flowers, or simple earthy outdoorsy goodness.

You can tune in to taste by taking a few mindful sips of tea and exploring the different taste notes on your tongue.

Finally, connect with what you can feel; maybe you notice the sense of support from the bench under your seat, maybe you enjoy the feel of your bare feet in the grass, or the warmth of your tea mug between your hands, the play of breeze on your cheek, or the subtle sense of your clothes on your skin.

And this park example is just one option of many - choose any practice that captures the attention of your 5 senses.

Self-Awareness: Tuning Inward

Tuning inward can be challenging for many folks. For some it is simply due to a habit of living in the thinking mind and connecting less with the physical body or emotional experience, while for others it may be due to past trauma or a nervous system strategy of dissociation. If mindfulness of your inner experience ever feels overwhelming, returning to a 5 senses practice can help ground you once more and then you can reach out for professional support before exploring your inner world.

Interoception refers to awareness of our inner experience. A lovely interoceptive practice you can do at any time of day is to pause and check in with 3 broad layers of experience: physical, emotional and mental. First, do a brief body scan and notice any physical sensations, second check in with what emotions are present for you and perhaps how and where they express themselves, third notice the quality of your mind space, for example, whether it is busy, fixated, spacious, or foggy.

I like to finish with a brief moment of compassion where I place a hand on my heart and one on my belly acknowledging anything I noticed which feels a little challenging. I then try to allow it to be present without judgment as I take a few breaths and see if I can offer myself an inner feeling of softening and soothing.

Our Inner Observer

Developing our self-awareness allows us to fully inhabit our inner observer - the part of us that can witness our present moment experience through compassionate and curious interoception, inquiry and reflection without becoming entangled, reactive or swayed by habitual patterns and narratives. We simply notice our experience as it is; we are aware of sensation without adding story.

Connecting with our inner observer is what allows us to make the discoveries that allow for choice and change. For example, noticing connections between posture and tailbone pain, anxiety and urinary urgency, or our breathing patterns and vaginismus.

Yoga for Pelvic Health

The Proactive Pelvic Health Centre offers many complementary services which can support growing self-awareness. Yoga offerings include private sessions as well as small group class series. Honing awareness can feel like developing a super power, strengthening our sense of agency and illuminating pathways to pelvic health.  You can sign up here to be on the list for any upcoming yoga for pelvic health series.