Self-Regulation and Pelvic Health
Anna Schneider, C-IAYT, Ph.D.
Certified Yoga Therapist
What is Self-Regulation?
In our first post in this series, we explored self-awareness: our ability to notice our physical, emotional, and mental experience, and to attune to communication from our nervous system. Self-awareness is the foundation for self-regulation as we must first notice our experience before we can intentionally choose to shift how we feel, think or act.
When we self-regulate, we express our agency by taking an active role in influencing the biopsychosocial-spiritual factors which form our experience. We cultivate our capacity to meet challenges while remaining open, present and effective. We are able to engage with the reality of our circumstances, the richness of our emotions, and the manipulations of our monkey mind without becoming overwhelmed or reactively trying to resist, squash or deny any aspect of our experience. And, if we ever do begin to feel overwhelmed, we are able to apply tools and practices which help us reclaim a sense of grounded balance and inner leadership.
When we struggle to self-regulate, challenges can often trigger our nervous system to rock into fight/flight states (like anxiety, agitation and anger) or shut-down states (like numbness, depression, or extreme fatigue). When in these states, our ability to think our way out of our extreme feelings and to problem-solve is limited, and we are less able to connect with and to receive the support of others.
Yoga encourages us to notice and listen to communication from our nervous system and bodies, to recognize cues of overwhelm, and to grow the inner resources we need to feel capable and at ease in mind and body.
Why is Self-Regulation Important for Pelvic Health?
Many conditions relating to pelvic health are complex, with multi-layered factors contributing to the challenging symptoms folks might be experiencing. This interplay of factors is part of why individuals with specific conditions might share certain diagnostic criteria, while their lived experience of the condition varies widely. Approaches for healing are often most effective when they are personalized and offered by a comprehensive, compassionate team, like at the Proactive Pelvic Health Centre.
This complexity and need for a personalized approach is especially present in the two conditions we will explore next, so please keep that in mind as I use the examples to reflect on how self-awareness and self-regulation can be helpful.
Genito-Pelvic Pain/Penetration Disorder; Vaginismus
If we are struggling with reflexive contraction of the pelvic floor or pain upon vaginal penetration, we may experience a self-reinforcing feedback loop whereby insertion - or even the possibility of insertion - triggers involuntary tensing or pain and, in turn, our inability to overcome this reaction then leads to emotional waves of anxiety, apprehension, resistance, or shame.
The more this cycle repeats itself, the more challenging it becomes to experience insertion of any kind including during sexual experiences, during medical exams, or when using recovery tools such as dilators or daily life tools like tampons.
Starting with self-awareness, we first need to notice this cycle of experience to begin with. We can then become curious about refining our awareness to notice increasingly subtle threads woven into the feedback loop. After this inner detective work and deep listening, we can apply self-regulation tools to both change our present moment experience and, over time, break the cycle itself.
Self-regulation in this instance may look like: communication with the nervous system using somatic practices to release constriction and instil a sense of safety, using diaphragmatic breathing and physical shapes to encourage natural dynamic rhythms in the pelvic floor, or speaking and acting from a place of inner leadership where we can advocate for ourselves with our medical team, and have open supportive conversations with our partners.
Urinary Urgency/Frequency
Another cycle we can become entangled in, is a sense of needing to urinate with frustrating frequency and urgency, and that need then leading to anxiety and stress which, in turn, often contribute to even more pronounced urgency and frequency.
We might also notice a pattern of going to the washroom more often as a precaution to avoid the stress of feeling like we need to at the worst times (like before a long drive, attending a meeting, or going out with friends).
Just like tensing the body to ‘hold it’ when we feel anxious that we need to urinate, going to the bathroom ‘in case’ - while well-intentioned - can actually perpetuate the symptoms by changing our bladder-brain communication.
Once again, starting with self-awareness, we can simply begin to observe the cycle we are caught in. We can become curious of the physical, emotional, and mental cues that seem to correlate with flares in our sense of urgency, or with our number of trips to the loo.
We can then apply self-regulation tools to promote parasympathetic relaxation of the body, soothing the emotions spurred by our symptoms and flavouring our thoughts with curiosity and care. In this way, we empower ourselves to change our reactive patterns so that we reduce our sense of urgency and are mindful and intentional about our frequency.
A Biopsychosocial Approach
The discussion above covers just a few possible contributing factors as examples, which may or may not apply in every case. As always, it is most important to focus on the individual experiencing the challenging symptoms than the diagnosis in isolation.
That is part of what sets the Proactive Pelvic Health Centre apart - our clinic’s dedication to trauma-informed, client-centred, integrative care. We all acknowledge the interplay of biological, psychological and social factors which influence experience.
To learn more about how yoga therapy can offer you personalized integrative care for the two conditions above, and many others, please contact the clinic about our yoga private sessions and group classes.