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relaxation

I'm about to tape my mouth closed to sleep better

So I just did a thing

I've been working on my breath for a while now - first to help with pelvic floor issues (thank you Hypopressives), then to help with stress (Hyoppressives and slow breathing techniques along with vagal nerve work)

These have been very effective and are easy to fit in

But there are two markers that have been bothering me for a while

One is my average number of breaths per minute

When I first started it was around 16 breaths.  According to Patrick McKeown anything above …

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Getting back my balance

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Hypopressives for anxiety - Annmarie's story

I started to suffer with anxiety and obviously that brings in struggling to breathe sometimes and then panic attacks and that kind of thing.

I was also struggling with putting weight on and was mindful that I needed to do some exercise - I wanted to lose weight but also had anxiety going on.

I felt like all the other kind of exercise that I did - swimming, joining the gym, walking - they just never hit the anxiety. 

So I would do them and never feel relaxed or feel calm. And then I would go t…

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Is is good to go barefoot?

Pregnancy Blog Banners (1)

I had a Balinese-inspired massage last week and the beginning of the ritual was to put a heated eye mask on

I then enjoyed being massaged with small and large bamboo sticks as well as with hands. 

Then the time came to roll over...

Weirdly, having an eye mask on made it really difficult for me to turn! 

That small dulling of one of my senses affected the rest of my body, especially my proprioception - where I was in space.  In the end I had to lift it off my eyes so that I felt safe to move!…

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How I became happy again

It's so easy to lose yourself when you become a mum...

In the early days, you're at the beck and call of a tiny dictator, so something as simple as having a shower can feel like a real treat!

You may then get so used to putting everybody else first that you forget your own needs

I only woke up to this fact a few years ago.  So I decided to do some training that was less about exercise for once and more about my mood.

I learnt a few simple steps and have been implementing these regularly and …

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How can I get more sleep in pregnancy

pregnancy and sleep blog

I've created a Back Pain Relief course for Mums-to-be and one of the modules is all about sleep

Quality of sleep has a strong association with back pain.

It also affects stress levels which can have a knock-on effect on your pelvic floor

I really struggled at the beginning of the first lockdown and was waking at 4-5am every morning.  To begin with I stayed in bed for a couple of hours, just trying to get back to sleep but never really managing to

I came to the conclusion that it was better t…

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take a deep breath

I wanted to talk about breathing this week. For something that should happen automatically, it's often the hardest thing to get right! Most beginners starting off with Pilates struggle with the breathing. It's ok not to get it, as long as you breathe! But if you do get it, it is integral to proper form, pelvic floor health, core strength and general well being.

One of the reasons people feel so relaxed in Pilates classes is because of the focus on thoracic (or rib cage) breathing. Day to day we …

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