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Back to School Self Care Tips

Back to School Self Care 

 

Moving into a new season is always exciting and a great opportunity to set some intentional practices for ourselves. As the weather is getting cooler, many of us are working back into routines of school, homework and lots of extra curricular activities. Here are three simple practices that you can implement daily to help with your own self care.

 

  1. Drink plenty of water. When it starts getting cooler out, you may not feel as thirsty but it is still important to stay hydrated. Water and proper hydration are so important for so many reasons but when relating it to pelvic health some of the main reasons I encourage good hydration stem from good bladder health. If you are dehydrated, your urine will be more concentrated and therefore will tend to irritate your bladder more, actually leading you to void more often in attempts to decrease that irritation. So if you are dealing with urinary incontinence or urinary frequency, significantly limiting fluid intake is usually not the best solution.
  2. Work on diaphragmatic breathing. Good breath mechanics are so beneficial to your body on so many levels. Your autonomic nervous system is broken down into two systems – the sympathetic and parasympathetic. Your sympathetic nervous system is also referred to as “fight or flight“ and your parasympathetic system is referred to as “rest and digest“. When we are in a constant state of fight or flight or unregulated sympathetic nervous systems this can negatively affect you both mentally and physically. Taking good diaphragmatic breaths especially when connected with pelvic floor movement can help lower your sympathetic nervous system response and get you out of fight flight and more in a rest and digest situation.
  3. Take movement breaks throughout the day and walk daily. Whether you have a sitting desk job or not many of us tend to hold ourselves not in great positions. When we take intentional movement breaks and focus on finding neutral alignment (great time to also work on your diaphragmatic connection breath 😉) it helps to reconnect your core canister and allow for more optimal pressure management in the body. This can be very helpful for those dealing with pelvic floor issues such as diastasis recti, pelvic organ prolapse, constipation and incontinence. Daily walks also helps with promoting blood flow and a slight rise in heart rate which helps to overall keep your sympathetic nervous system under control.

There are so many more ways to address self care, but I feel like these three things are fairly easy to implement into your everyday practice without taking a lot of time out of your day. I hope you found this helpful! For more information, make sure you sign up for the newsletter for updates and follow me on social media.