THE PELVIS! It's here! We all have one! And it's IMPORTANT!

Most of us have grown up in a society that teaches us that parts of our bodies are taboo. That they are to be covered up, ignored, and definitely not spoken about.

When it comes to the pelvis and the pelvic floor we have been conditioned to ignore the area and not talk about problems that can occur down there. But the thing is that this is SUCH an important part of our body and anatomy. There are muscles down there! And these muscles have a huge affect on the rest of our body. Low back pain, abdominal pain, incontinence, pain with intercourse and erectile dysfunction are all issue that can be caused by our long suffering pelvic floor trying to tell us that it is unhappy. It is high time that we drop the stigma of this area that can be so intimate, gross, and arousing, and start a conversation about how it honestly affects our daily lives. Lets start educating our selves and others so that we don't have to be ashamed if we have something not so sexy going on with our down stairs.

As a massage therapist I have begun to realize how important it is to help educate my clients about what the muscles look like in the pelvis and how to start bringing awareness back to the area. A lot of us have learned to emotionally block our pelvic floor out, we have lost feeling and don't even realize that this whole section of our body exists any more. Whether it is embarrassment from leakage, growing up being told our sex organs are dirty and bad, or a violent trauma, most people have completely disconnected from their pelvis.

I hope to go into this more in a future article, but for now I will give you a vague idea of what the muscles are like down there. We have a hammock like sling of muscles that sit at the bottom of the pelvis and hold all of our insides in. There are connecting tendons and ligaments that hold the bladder, uterus, rectum etc. in place. Then we have large muscles that move our legs, hips, and torso coming from both directions to anchor into the pelvic bowl. So not only is there a direct connection with the organs, but also the legs and the trunk. There is even lore about one muscle in particular being "The Seat of the Soul" where we tend to store trauma and pent up energies. Here is a good article with more information about it. https://bodydivineyoga.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/the-psoas-muscle-of-the-soul/

So lets start to take just a few minutes out of our day to reconnect with the pelvic floor and all the wonders it holds. This can be easily done by taking deep breaths into the belly and bringing awareness to the pelvic floor. You'll be able to feel it gently expand with the inhale and contract with the exhale. You may find that you are holding A LOT of stress and tension here. As we go about our day with everything that is thrown at us we clench the pelvic muscles in a subconscious attempt to protect ourselves. So take some quite time, say hello to your pelvis, un-clench and start to reconnect with the whole of your body for the whole of your health.