Pain in my shin

You are absolutely correct, keeping the belly relaxed all the time if possible, is the cornerstone of this work. Anything new can cause a period of adjustment, so within reason, you just need to be patient and not push too hard. I presume you are staying in posture the rest of the time too, not only when you exercise? It sounds like this is a big change for your body, and it should be, because all that abdominal "core" stuff is what got you here in the first place. Relax the belly all the time. Relax the groin. Don't sit cross-legged. You'll be fine, but keep us posted. - Surviving

There is a lot of adjusting your body needs to go through while it is changing into the correct posture it was always meant to be in, so you will have some strange pulls and strains in different areas. I also had the same ones you mention, but I did overdo it and ended up really straining my knee. So ease up on those exercises if you start feeling too much strain. Also, do some good stretching before the routines. I started doing that after I strained my knee and it really helped.
We are not used to doing the turned out aspect that these routines have, so always be aware of how they feel as you are doing them.
It took many many months to really work into these routines and get my body to cooperate! Lol! And, of course, keep that posture going as much as possible.

Oh if only it were that easy, we wouldn’t have to work so hard to get this message out! There is no “cure” for prolapse, and managing your symptoms is something you’ll do for the rest of your life, in all of the various aspects that Christine teaches: Posture, exercise, diet, toilet habits, and all those other tools in the toolbox like jiggling, firebreathing, nauli, belly toss, etc. etc. etc. If you do all this, you will, as Aging Gracefully is so good at describing, be able to get things to behave for longer and longer periods. - Surviving

Doing this work has created a mindfulness of my body that is virtually always lurking somewhere in my consciousness. But that is a far cry from the fear and obsession that grip a person in the early days of prolapse management. A month is a blip on the radar, keep working hard and your body will take over some of these things on their own. My biggest leap came in the second year. You may need to adjust your expectations a bit. Your life will be full, as full as you allow it to be, but forgetting about prolapse is really not the goal. - Surviving

I agree with surviving,
Once finding prolapse, there is really no forgetting it, but you can't look at it as a hindrance anymore, but something you can successfully live with. Christine has given us all the information and tools to do just that, we just need to embrace this as part of our lives now.
Believe me, I can have some very frustrating days with my profound uterine prolapse, but I can't imagine living without my uterus. I am kind of attached to her, and the alternatives are unbearable in my mind. So I journey on, because that's what this new part of my life with whole woman is, a journey.

Hi Dear steadele,
I also found it more difficult in the beginning to feel comfortable doing the mat exercises in the sitting with legs out straight position.

A few months ago I started to do the Hips DVD as I had problems with my right hip and side. I had to straighten my arms and legs which were chronically bent, and stretch out all my muscles and fascia, and balance my body particularly with even weight - bearing and balance in general. I had no idea, and was shocked to discover how bent my limbs were and tight my muscles were. I am now also much more comfortable sitting on my knees and feet for some of the mat exercises which are done in that position.

The Hips DVD --- the upper body ( arms, head/neck) and abdominal - belly breathing exercises are done in a chair, which I have found to give me flexibility, and strength to hold up my torso, support my head - a strong neck and increasing arm strength.
The foot arch and hip/leg and mat exercises complete the workout on the whole body. I have gradually added hand weights to the arm exercises, and ankle weights for the hip exercises on the box.

I have since added the 1st Wheel DVD which reinforces my whole body progress. I find the forward bend stretches done from standing help & keep my legs and arms straightened, and there are some great groin stretching exercises, and more challenging balance work.

I was able to sit in a loose cross legged position yesterday without thinking about it while sorting a low cupboard and had no problems - the tighter cross - legged position is a challenge for me. I squat right down also which is a great position also. It will take time to heal my body as it took time to undo and create the issues in the first place.

I have had so many benefits that I will never look back. Listen to your body and it will tell you what you can do next - I tried the cross -legged position a bout 3 months ago and had my left side - knee etc protesting, when my instinct told me my body wasn't ready. In the end it is not one of my greater goals, and my body will surprise me one day when it is ready, as it has already done so many times on this journey.

Best wishes to you in this journey,
Aussie Soul Sister

Wow Steadele! That is groundbreaking news!! Thank you so much for sharing it with us!

That really is great Adele. Seeing this doc sounds like just the boost that you needed. By the way, you will see if you click over to Practitioners that the nearest one is in Toronto. The network is growing every year. Maybe you will think about it down the road!

In reading over the rest of this thread, I came to realize that when you said "cross-legged" and I said don't do it, I was for some reason picturing that you were talking about sitting in a chair with legs crossed. I realize you were talking about sitting on the floor in a lotus position. It's true that in these floor positions it can be difficult to hold a good lumbar curvature. But once you get a little more limber as Soul Sis says, it gets easier and there is such a benefit in doing it. Keep up the wonderful work! - Surviving

Sorry I missed that. It does say that on the site.