THE WOMB ON STRESS
Usha Anandi. 4 | AUG | 2020
A question I’ve been asking myself A LOT recently is how did we get here?
How is it possible that 10% of American women have problems getting and staying pregnant.
That 1 in 10 American women have PCOS – which is also the most common cause of infertility.
And that it’s estimated that 70 to 80 percent of women will develop fibroids in their lifetime.
I could keep going with the shocking statistics to illustrate how womb health has been deteriorating in this modern world but my guess is that because you’re here, you already feel it, maybe you’ve even experienced it – and at some deeper level, you know.
So again, I ask – HOW DID WE GET HERE???
Have you ever stopped to think for a moment that maybe it’s not supposed to be this way? That maybe it doesn’t HAVE to be this way?
If these are the type of questions you have hamster wheeling in your head all day, and haven’t yet been able to find the answers that satisfy you, then I invite you to check out my 10-minute guided self-womb massage practice.
In this FREE download, I’ll teach you how to start using this practice yourself to experience a deep state of relaxation, increase circulation and decrease stagnation in your womb.
Now, back to the question in hand…
How we got to this place of disproportionate imbalance within ourselves and our most sacred area – the womb.
Is it a coincidence that as the world around us is going through immense suffering our bodies and our selves are also suffering?
I think not.
When I see the way forests are decimated by logging, beaches covered in plastic, and precious minerals and natural resources are extracted from the Earth… I see our human bodies.
As Mother Earth suffers, so do we.
Our bodies are a reflection of the environment around us. Way beyond the physical, our bodies are able to feel, respond and reflect on the changes that are happening at a collective level.
To bring ourselves back into health is to align ourselves with nature.
I believe that one of the reasons we’re so imbalanced is because we’re living out of harmony with our mother – EARTH.
Most of us are out of alignment with the Earth’s cycles. We don’t pay attention to when the sun rises or the phase of the moon, we have technology to override that.
It doesn’t matter what season we’re in, because we eat the same kinds of foods from the grocery store and show up at work the exact same way.
Not only have we lost touch with our inner physical landscape, we’ve lost touch with the environment around us. We’ve neglected our friendships with the plants, animals, and natural world that surrounds us. We’ve forgotten that we need them to survive.
To heal ourselves is to heal the Earth. When we heal, She heals.
When She heals, we ALL heal.
So how do we do it, how do we reprogram the modern mindset and return to a slower, more meaningful way of being?
The answer might surprise you – it’s hidden in something that has largely been deemed ‘normal’… STRESS.
Our bodies are incredible and adaptable things. They’ve been created in such a way to support us through our ever-changing and challenging lives to ensure we survive and live in optimum health.
But we’re only human, and we can only take so much…
I’m going to make a bold statement here – right now in 2020, our bodies are overwhelmed.
For many of us, our intricate and adaptable nervous systems are at full capacity. When the nervous system is overwhelmed, it’s ability to decipher real life-threatening danger from everyday stress lessens, and we find ourselves having huge physical and emotional reactions to things that might not bother us if we were balanced.
The nervous system is the window in which we experience our outside world. It does all the hard work of decoding our external environment into information for interpretation by our mind, body and spirit.
When we come under extreme stress our Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) switches on and triggers the release of epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (cortisol). This triggers the famous fight or flight response.
This is the part of our nervous system that is short-circuiting…
The fight or flight response puts us into a state of alertness and awareness so we can effectively assess the danger in front of us and work out a way to overcome it.
But, in today’s world, many of us are under so much stress that our SNS doesn’t know when to turn off.
Traffic, emails, social media, deadlines, an unsympathetic boss, societal expectations, unprocessed trauma, and now, a freaking global pandemic – all have the potential to overwhelm our system and keep us in a continuous pattern of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.
We’re unable to know which stressors are actually life-threatening and which can be processed and released quickly. This leads to a feeling that far too many will be able to relate too. Overwhelm, anxiety and depression just to name a few…
But how does this affect our womb health?
We lose the connection to ourself.
When our body is in ‘stress mode’ it’s unable to connect with itself.
Without this connection, we’re unable to know what we need to do to make the situation better. Effectively, we’re stuck on a hamster wheel of stress and unable to ask ourselves what we need.
And without tapping into ourselves we’ll never be able to make sustainable changes to our situations.
But there is a way to find that connection again. And it’s one of my favorite things to do – SING.
Singing can be used to deal with stress as it gives you the opportunity to respond to it in a healthy way without getting stuck in patterns of guilt.
The reason why this simple act can be so powerful is due to another of my favorite things – ANATOMY.
When we create vibration in the throat through singing, humming, or sighing we stimulate the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve carries millions of signals between the brain, digestive system and other organs. When we stimulate the vagus nerve in this way we directly activate the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).
The PNS response represents a response of CALMNESS in the body. This response alerts the nervous system to move out of a place of alertness, hyper-vigilance and stress and encourage it to rest in a place of relaxation and calmness.
The Womb / Gut Connection
We all know that stress affects the body in a myriad of ways. But one way we’ve never been taught is the effect on our womb health due to its connection to our gut.
The vagina is its own little ecosystem. The health of this beautiful space is managed by millions of tiny bacteria that keep it healthy and – ideally – prevent us from experiencing ongoing infections.
However, like the rest of our body, this little ecosystem can become easily disrupted when other parts of ourselves are out of balance.
For instance when our gut is not in optimal condition due to not eating nourishing foods, a course of antibiotics or STRESS.
Our gut is directly linked to our brain by millions of neurons that are in constant communication to explain the state of affairs inside. But stress can trigger abnormal responses in this communication so you can experience pain, bloating and other unwanted effects.
According to the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity stress can change the delicate balance of bacteria in the gut. These bacteria directly affect the immune response which can help explain why chronically stressed people are more susceptible to illness.
Finally, serotonin, the so-called ‘happiness molecule’ is created in the gut. Yeah, you read that right. A chemical that most of us associate with the brain and being happy is overwhelmingly created in our digestive tract!
So it stands to reason that when our gut bacteria is out of balance and the brain/gut communication is sending all kinds of abnormal messages to each other the development of serotonin will be slowed.
And when we have lower levels of serotonin we are more likely to experience feelings of depression and anxiety.
It doesn’t have to be like this forever…
We have to remember our bodies are not designed to deal with the immense amount of stress we have to deal with in 2020 – especially 2020, you get me!?
That means we have to find practical ways to reconnect with ourselves, our true nature and the omnipotent, ever-present Mother Earth.
Singing and eating nourishing food is just the first step to a complete reprogramming of our patriarchal and linear lives.
But we must go further… And I have a way for you to do just that!
I could spend hours talking about the benefits of self-massaging your womb with (herbal) oil… But I want you to experience this ritual for yourself.
Are you ready to connect with your womb and return to a state of deep relaxation?
I can’t wait for you to experience the benefits of my favorite ritual of all times!
Guided Womb Healing Meditation
In order to heal the womb, we first have to feel the womb. Explore feeling into your womb space with Usha in this guided womb healing meditation and deepen your connection to your most powerful space.
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The New Moon represents a powerful time for connection, rest and womb healing. In this blog, I’ll teach you 3 ways to work with your womb during the New Moon to harness the power of this moon phase.
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