Nauli question

Body: 

Okay, so I juuuust ordered my bundle, but I've been stalking this forum since yesterday when I decided to look for non-surgical solutions. I only found my prolapse four days ago (and I was DEVISTATED)... anyway, with the Nauli, do you do it standing or are you supposed to do it sitting/lying down to lessen the pressure on all your lady bits?

Forum:

Good to see you jumping right in, but I don't recommend starting with Nauli especially if you don't yet have your bundle. Concentrate on posture and firebreathing for starters. Posture you can start now. Firebreathing, you'll get all you need from the book and DVD. That'll keep you going for awhile! Others who are old hands at Nauli may jump in here, but I'm here 3 years and still haven't tackled it yet. I do, however, live well with my prolapse and you will too. Don't despair. There is SO much you can do, and the more you throw yourself into this work, the faster life will get back on track for you. We've all been in your shoes so welcome to the club! - Surviving

That's a good point! Hahaha. I didn't know what a Nauli WAS and people talk about it a lot on here, so I Youtubed it to see if there was an example of how to do it. All the clips on there have people doing it standing up. Even though I haven't read through the book it seems like we're sort of trying to avoid standing up exercising (at least in the beginning) besides walking in posture. I can't wait to start! I'm still in "GET ME OUTTA HERE!" mode. I was devistated because I'm only TWENTY-EIGHT! My life can't be over already. And my husband and I wanted a big family. I cried for like, two days straight. And surgery is out of the question for us anyway because we don't have insurance. So this os my only hope (besides prayer!), and I plan on really throwing myself into it.

The work that we do standing up, is the most important posture work there is. The force of gravity, along with our breathing and WW posture, are the things that restore the lumber curvature and allow our organs to be held forward over the pubic bones and not crammed into the vagina. So start right now getting used to the feeling of that relaxed belly and pulled-up chest. This was a very big shift for most of us who have been doing the suck-and-tuck for years. But it is actually natural posture, which you will see if you take a good look around at children. When we lost it, our organs lost their support. You'll do great. Don't overdo at first, though. - Surviving

PS - lots of great moms on here who have gone on to multiple births after a diagnosis of prolapse. They are none the worse for wear, and in many cases much better because of what this posture work has taught them.

Hi Pennelope

If you want to learn nauli you can to youtube and see a few lessons by some very buff and mainly (though not all) male yogis. I am a Whole Woman Practitioner and still can't do it. However, I was flying from Melbourne to Perth yesterday, firmly strapped in to deal with the turbulence. In the last hour of the flight I decided to teach myself how to isolate my right rectus from the left, and from all the other muscles that try to get in on the act of nauli, when they need to 'just sit there and watch'. It is amazing how much you can learn about your body when strapped into an airline seat, and not be allowed to get up, or go and do something. It is in the silence imposed by a seatbelt, a movie that had finished, and where I was, that allowed me the brain space to simply concentrate on separating the right rectus from the left. It took a lot of attempts, but I finally got some small, accurate muscle contractions, when I wanted them.

Next will be getting into firebreathing position, hands on knees, and moving the rectus from side to side, firstbackwards via the spine, then forwards via the navel. Then I will combine them into a full circle. Then I will add the epiglottis lock that creates the abdominal vacuum that amplifies the movement by sucking all the other organs deep into the body and back towards the spine. That's my plan.

I suggest that you just make a start by learning to separate the right from the left, and take it from there. If you don't happen to be strapped into a bucking airline seat when you start, you can go straight to any posture where you think you can most easily separate right rectus from left, and you have slack RA, ie not Whole Woman posture. Rectus abdominus is primarily a trunk flexor, for getting extra oomph during coughing, vomiting and giving birth. Contracting it and shortening it will reduce lumbar curvature, but just contracting it without shortening it doesn't reduce lumbar curvature.

The signs of success will be that your right breast and ribs will move downwards with no other movements anywhere when you contract the right rectus. Beware involvement of the obliques which will make your waist move from side to side. Beware involvement of your transversus abdominus, and also glutes and hamstrings. And keep your tongue in your mouth if doing it in public or it looks really stupid. ;-)

Good luck, and hope your Bundle arrives very soon. You can start learning nauli before you get your package because nauli is an exercise done with decreased intraabdominal pressure, so nothing is going to push further into your vagina. If it does, then stop and adjust your technique. You are not doing it right.

Also remember that nauli is a very strong exercise/asana, which has the power to move organs around inside your torso. It is not done on a full stomach (leave a couple of hours), or during menstruation, or during the first weeks postpartum, while you are still bleeding; or during pregnancy, or if you are physically ill, or in the recovery period after any surgical procedure, or if you have had pelvic organ prolapse repairs of any sort. If you have had an Hysterectomy? There will probably have been other procedures done at the time of the hysterectomy which would contraindicate nauli, so it is unlikely that it would be suitable.

Louise