Podcast Summary
Healing our pelvic floor and womb space for overall well-being: Neurosomatic Intelligence Coaching helps heal trauma, improve retention, expand impact, and reduce burnout by focusing on the nervous system, enabling reconnection with pelvic floor and womb space for increased resilience.
Our relationship with our bodies, specifically our pelvic floor and womb space, plays a significant role in our overall well-being and embodiment journey. Trauma can lead to dissociation and disconnection from these areas, impacting our emotional and physical health. Neurosomatic Intelligence Coaching (NSI) offers a unique approach for coaches, therapists, and practitioners to understand the functional neuroscience behind behavior change and trauma resolution, enabling them to create transformative experiences for their clients. By focusing on the nervous system, NSI not only helps clients heal but also improves retention, expands impact, and reduces burnout for the practitioner. Veronica, a guest on the Trauma Rewired podcast, shares her personal journey of healing her pelvic floor and womb space, emphasizing the importance of reconnecting with these areas to tap into one's resilience and move beyond labels like victim or survivor.
Healing pelvic trauma for overall well-being: Healing pelvic trauma involves reconnecting with our pelvic floor, addressing cultural conditioning, and promoting relaxation and communication through the vagus nerve to access power, improve communication, and build resilience.
Healing from trauma and reconnecting with our bodies, particularly our pelvic floor, is essential for overall well-being. For centuries, we've been conditioned to view our pelvic bowl as shameful or dirty due to cultural and societal influences. This belief can limit us from feeling safe and experiencing pleasure in our bodies. Trauma, including emotional experiences like shame, can manifest physically in the pelvic bowl and permeate throughout the body. The vagus nerve, which plays a role in both relaxation and communication, connects the pelvic floor and vocal cords. By healing and reconnecting with our pelvic floor, we can access the power we've cut off from, improve our communication through our voices, and create a stronger sense of resilience and grounding. It's important to approach this process gently and in a titrated way, recognizing the potential for emotional and physical release. Overall, reconnecting with our pelvic floor can lead to increased safety, release, and pleasure in our bodies, as well as improved communication and emotional expression.
Understanding the connection between pelvic floor and nervous system: Trauma can impact pelvic floor function and emotional wellbeing by triggering a freeze response and shame. Healing involves acknowledging and processing emotional responses.
Our pelvic floor and nervous system are interconnected, and trauma can impact both our physical and emotional wellbeing. The dorsal and ventral branches of the nervous system work together to provide us with a sense of safety and connection, but when there is trauma, particularly relational trauma, the dorsal branch can trigger a freeze response, leading to immobilization and dissociation from the pelvic bowl. Shame, a protective emotion, can also kick in as a way to keep us from experiencing trauma again. When working to restore healthy pelvic floor function and connection to the pelvic bowl, it's essential to address the emotional responses that come up. This can involve exploring emotions as they arise and titrating the process to avoid overwhelming the individual. By acknowledging and processing the emotional responses, individuals can begin to heal and reconnect with their bodies.
Healing trauma goes beyond talking about the past: Trauma impacts belief systems and physiology, self-protective responses indicate underlying emotions, chronic self-abandonment can lead to health issues, reclaiming body connection and expressing emotions healthily are key to healing, trauma resolution is an ongoing process
Trauma affects our bodies and our relationships to ourselves and others in profound ways, and healing requires more than just talking about the past or making cognitive decisions to move forward. Trauma lives in the present and impacts our belief systems and physiology. Self-protective responses, such as tension in the jaw or pelvic floor, can indicate underlying emotions like anger and rage that were not allowed to be expressed. Chronic self-abandonment, driven by societal expectations of women to prioritize others' emotional needs over their own, can lead to health issues like pelvic floor dysfunction. To heal, we must reclaim our connection to our bodies and learn to embody and express our emotions in healthy ways, restoring the energy that was once devoted to self-protective responses. Trauma resolution is an ongoing process that requires safety, curiosity, and a willingness to explore the ways in which our past experiences continue to shape our present.
Deeply connected pelvic floor and nervous system: Focus on nervous system function for pelvic floor health, not just strength. Mindfulness practices, movement, and somatic work can help improve pelvic floor health by allowing for appropriate relaxation and contraction.
The health of our pelvic floor and the nervous system are deeply connected. When we experience stress, trauma, or prolonged sitting, our pelvic floor can become hypertonic, or overly contracted, leading to dehydration and dysfunction. This hypertonicity can make it difficult to effectively address pelvic floor issues through traditional methods like kegels or physical therapy. Instead, focusing on restoring optimal nervous system function through mindfulness practices, movement, and somatic work can help improve pelvic floor health by allowing for appropriate relaxation and contraction. It's important to remember that a healthy nervous system is not about being constantly calm or zen, but rather the ability to modulate our responses to different situations. Additionally, many people overlook the importance of relaxation in pelvic floor health, and instead focus solely on strengthening through kegels. However, being able to effectively relax and work with the nervous system is crucial for restoring both relaxation and appropriate contraction.
Address the entire body for pelvic floor health: Consider addressing tension and trauma in other areas of the body to improve pelvic floor function. Adopt a holistic approach with gentle practices that involve the entire body.
When dealing with pelvic floor issues, it's essential to remember that the body is a complex system, and everything is connected. Instead of focusing solely on the pelvic floor, consider addressing tension and trauma in other areas of the body to give the nervous system the capacity to handle pelvic floor dysfunction. Many people may not realize that pelvic floor symptoms can be linked to the nervous system and past traumas. Pain is a signal that the body wants to protect itself, and addressing the underlying emotional and mental aspects can lead to overall health improvements. It's crucial to adopt a holistic approach, focusing on gentle practices that involve the entire body, such as working with the jaw, feet, and sacrum. Remember, the pelvic bowl wants to be heard and given space to heal. By listening to our body's whispers and addressing the root causes, we can prevent the need for it to scream for attention.
Understanding pelvic floor exercises beyond just contracting muscles: Learning to relax and release pelvic floor muscles can improve overall well-being, including emotional connection and sexual pleasure, by interrupting the association of threat with pleasure and promoting relaxation.
The way we approach pelvic floor exercises and our relationship with our pelvic floor can have a significant impact on our overall well-being, including our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. For too long, women have been taught to contract their pelvic floor muscles through exercises like kegels, but this can actually perpetuate a state of tension and trauma. Instead, it's important to learn how to relax and release the pelvic floor muscles, allowing them to fully contract and function optimally. This can help us reconnect with our bodies, increase our capacity for pleasure, and improve our relationships. The cultural message that pleasure is something to be earned or avoided can also impact our ability to feel and process emotions and sensations in a healthy way. By practicing relaxation techniques, working through trauma, and learning to embrace pleasure, we can interrupt the association of threat with pleasure and promote overall well-being.
Managing emotional and physical responses to intense experiences: Recognize signs of overwhelm, find balance, approach experiences with curiosity and patience, and seek support when needed.
Managing our emotional and physical responses to pleasure, anger, and other intense experiences requires awareness and mindfulness. The body and nervous system can respond negatively to big, cathartic moments, especially for those with a history of trauma or dissociation. It's essential to recognize the signs of overwhelm and adjust practices accordingly. The concept of the minimum effective dose or staying within the window of tolerance is crucial. This means finding the right balance of intensity and frequency to promote growth without causing harm. It's important to remember that our bodies and nervous systems need time to adapt and build new responses. Additionally, the science of female sexuality and pleasure is still evolving, and many women have been taught incorrect information about their bodies and orgasms. It's crucial to approach these experiences with curiosity, patience, and a willingness to learn. If you have a history of dissociation, it can be challenging to recognize when you're doing too much, too fast, too soon. In such cases, it's helpful to have a trusted guide or support system to help you stay grounded and aware of your body's responses.
Understanding the unique ways trauma manifests in each person's body: The way we discuss trauma and its impact on the body should be inclusive, experiential, and validating, recognizing that everyone's experience is unique.
The way we frame concepts like the body keeping the score of trauma can significantly impact our healing process. The term "body keeps the score" may not resonate with everyone, and it's essential to validate individual experiences and feelings. The book "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel van der Kolk was groundbreaking in shifting the cultural focus towards somatic healing, but it's crucial not to overlook the contributions of women, people of color, and other marginalized communities in this field. Additionally, the language we use to discuss trauma and its impact on the body can be limiting or even traumatizing for some people. Instead, we should encourage a more experiential approach, focusing on the unique ways trauma manifests in each person's body. Ultimately, it's essential to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to healing, and we should strive to create a more inclusive and diverse understanding of somatic healing.
Trauma shapes the present through body and nervous system: Recognizing trauma's impact on body and nervous system is crucial for holistic healing, addressing body's role in trauma resolution is essential for moving past trauma and improving overall health and well-being.
Trauma is not just an event from the past, but something that continues to shape the present through the body and nervous system. While talking about past experiences can be a part of healing, it's not enough on its own. Trauma resolution requires a more holistic approach that addresses the body and nervous system. Rehabilitating these systems is crucial for moving past trauma and improving overall health and well-being. The body keeps a score of past experiences, and these scores affect our present reactions, outputs, and responses. It's essential to recognize this and approach trauma resolution in a way that acknowledges the body's role in the healing process. For more information and practical tools to help with this, consider enrolling in the next cohort of Neuro Somatic Intelligence Certification at neurosomaticintelligencedot com.