The power of breathwork for chronic pelvic pain syndrome

When you’re experiencing ongoing pelvic pain your nervous system and brain can undergo changes that make you experience ongoing pain. It can also cause you to experience other symptoms like: sensitivity to lights, headaches, poor memory and difficulty concentrating, fluctuating bowel habits, fatigue, restless legs… the list goes on.

IF you’re someone who this applies to (and there are MANY people with chronic pelvic pain who experience this) then you’re not alone. You need to start tackling pain system hypersensitivity… and possibly a dysregulated nervous system too.

I often get asked, but how do I do this? The answer is… LOTS of ways. You can reverse these unhelpful brain and nervous system changes… it takes time and patience. It also takes a few strategies. We teach these in the Ella App.

The first thing that can really help...

Focus on YOUR breathing and practise breathwork

Breathing is one of the few body processes that can be regulated both consciously and unconsciously. You can’t intentionally lower your heart rate of blood pressure, but you can directly control your breathing. Breathing gives us a direct connection to the vagus nerve in the parasympathetic nervous system, and by changing how we think, we can directly affect the signals being sent FROM the vagus nerve TO the brain.

We can intentionally make our breath slow and deep, or rapid and shallow. Often people with pain will take shallow breaths into their upper chest so their diaphragm doesn’t really get a stretch. This is a signal to our body that there might be danger around, which causes our nervous system to increase our stress levels.

By changing the pattern of your breathing, you can change the pattern of information being sent to your brain… i.e breathing gives us a way to hack our own brain and nervous system. Deep breathing helps to allow for the ribs to expand, easing tension in the back, right up to the neck, and down into the pelvis.

Deep breathing calms the nervous system, letting the body know it’s OK to relax. Deep breathing exercises will take some time to practice and master, BUT when done regularly, this kind of breath work has been proven to reduce stress and may help to relieve pain 👏🏼

But there’s only so much deep breathing I can do right…

Right. We’re not saying taking a few deep breaths will cure your pain overnight. What we are saying is that regularly practising breathwork can help to reduce stress over time and strengthen that parasympathetic branch of your nervous system.

This can help us move out of a fight or flight state. When we’re not so stressed all the time this can have a positive impact on our pain levels… and also just make us feel less stressed in general.

Practising these tools when you’re well is also very helpful for when you’re not so well.. because you’ve already mastered the technique, and can give it a go when you’re having a flare of your pain.

What kind of breathwork is helpful?

There are LOTS of ways to practice breathwork. We do guided box breathing and diaphragmatic breathing in the Ella App.

Consistency is key - you’ll want to start with a couple of times per day. Initially you can do this sitting still.. then try to do this whilst your doing other things like watching TV.

If you have chronic pelvic pain and want to learn more about breathwork and how it could help you...

You can check out this resource. You can also sign up to our waitlist here and join our next beta cohort on the Ella App. 💕