kim_vopni (00:01.72)
helena welcome thank you so much for joining me today
lena_watt (00:07.274)
thank you for having me
kim_vopni (00:09.24)
yeah we have known each other for a while and several years really i just trying to think back it's probably like seven eight dish somewhere in there yeah for sure so having talked together and we have had kind of an overlapping passion and interest in pelvic health so i would love for you to really start out with your story about what got you into
lena_watt (00:17.174)
yeah i was going to say is more than six years
kim_vopni (00:38.78)
be becoming passionate about public health and then also what led you to where we are today which is what we're going to talk about but i'll let you tell your story and we'll unravel a little little more from there
lena_watt (00:50.894)
well my my yoga star story started when i was like sixteen um actually in this this kind of all ties in so i was diagnosed with pinabifta when i was sixteen i was having like chronic pain and i and we weren't sure what was happening um different specially so to wit schooliosis finally i went to victoria and got diagnosed with spinabifta and that's what brought me into yoga so i went into yoga i was an athlete and i
wanted a little bit more balance and harmony in my life and also to find some ease and softness and to hopefully help my body age with grace and to have less pain and still be able to do all of the things that i love so fast forward a whole bunch of years i did a whole bunch of trainings all over the world as well as here locally on vancouver island and close in calgary to
and my love for yoga just kept expanding and expanding and growing and growing and my love for movement and the body and like all of it i even before i started doing yoga trainings i i went in to be a physical teacher so i loved anatomy love the body i could just like nerved out with muscles and bones and all of the things
and then i had a brain injury and this was nine years ago now almost nine years ago now and i was in a really bad car accident and the man hit me like head on and he fell asleep at the heel hit me head on i flipped multiple times for me it was like this near death experience my i felt my grandpa like in the vehicle with me kind of protecting me and from that
my whole head was cut open and i think i had like seventeen staples and and some stitches and i was diagnosed like months and months later with a t b i a traumatic brain injury and it's a very um it's probably one of the most challenging parts of my life like uh yeah deep a lot of things that bubbled up through that
lena_watt (03:21.074)
and one of the things that came up was and i didn't even realize this at the beginning i wasn't even aware of it because my body was just trying to function and heal and i was trying to re learn so many things like every single thing exhausted me i spent most of my days laying on the floor and i couldn't even remember half the time if i ate breakfast or lunch or what i was doing
and my parents eventually had to bring me into their basement because i couldn't take care of myself any more but i got to this point where all of a sudden i think it was like four or five months i was slowly starting to heal i was slowly starting to build those narrow pathways and connections and then i realized wow i haven't had my period in four or five months wow i haven't i had it
any sensation or feeling there and when that awareness finally came in um i realized that i also had not had an orgasm in that amount of time and then even when i tried after the awareness came in i couldn't and that was my first experience going to a palbic floor physiotherapist um with that accident i also had a partial dislocation with my left
kim_vopni (04:25.56)
m
lena_watt (04:50.754)
hip area um so i think there was stuff that was going on there as well so
kim_vopni (04:59.22)
can i interrupt for one second and just ask you with pelvic floor physio is that something that you had been aware of before or how did you find out about pelviclorphysio
lena_watt (05:02.894)
m
lena_watt (05:09.454)
no so the physiotherapist and gold over and i had no idea because i had gone to her before because i was in two other car accidents previous to that um but she was also public plorphysio so she was trained in that but she just didn't really advertise it so i had never even heard of that so i was going to her and then i was just telling her about this and she's like well i'm also trained as a public for physiotherapist do you want me to check and i was like yes
kim_vopni (05:21.56)
m
kim_vopni (05:24.96)
got it
lena_watt (05:39.314)
s and she did and it was really interesting i was hypotonic on one side and hypertonic on the other side and
kim_vopni (05:48.96)
so hypo meaning not as much tone hyper meaning more tone okay
lena_watt (05:54.134)
so it was like very unbalanced and it took about two years to get my period back and it was close to that it was a little bit i started gaining sensation before i got my period back which i was very excited about and then i was able to orgasm in between gaining sensation and before i got my period which was also very exciting and then the healing came in once i could like
fully bring those connections into my public floor um and that was really challenging because i had never i had heard of a keegle i done a keegle all of that but i didn't have a regular practice of any of this and i also had never even heard of hypotonic or hypertonic or any of that lingo so to have like one side being having more
and then the other side having less tone it was really challenging to re balance that area of my body and there is also pulling in my pelvis and other things and like pain and low back obviously because of everything going on so i dove really deep into pelvic floor health because i was like oh my god our pelvis is really like we think about it the center of our body right the legs are below the spine as above
if this area in my body is not in balance and not functioning properly then how can other parts of my body function properly like it was this big a moment for me and that's when i started diving into yoga therapy here on vancouver island and learning about tensegrity and oumatics and different types of movement that were very healing for me and then i also did some training out
and calgary so this was very specific with a pelvic floor physio therapist and a yoga therapist combined and was all on pelvic health and miofasha release so i went there for a few weekends and did some deep diving into that area of the body and it transformed how my body functioned and i was able to re balance my pelvic floor it took probably about a year
lena_watt (08:23.914)
for me um obviously because i was still dealing with the brain injury so learning new movements took me longer it just took me a lot longer to figure them out and then build that connection but it took me about a year and then i went back and everything was good
wonderful that pebook for well that physiotherapist moved away when i moved to camboriver i got a new one here in comberiver because yes i'm young and some of my friends would ask well why do you even need a public for physiotherapist you've never had a baby
lena_watt (09:04.874)
and even when i started i just laughed yeah
kim_vopni (09:07.08)
and i can then take a deep breath now and
lena_watt (09:11.594)
so many people that's what they told me right and even when i was teaching um about this like i teach pelvic floor yoga and different series about it a lot of people would say well how are you teaching this you've never even been pregnant or a baby and i'm like yeah i know but i have a pelvis and i also have a pelvic floor and i've had a lot of other issues in my body that have affected my pelvic floor not um not to do with being pregnant or having a baby and i
kim_vopni (09:28.74)
hm
lena_watt (09:41.354)
sure there are other people out there that have also experienced things like this
kim_vopni (09:46.4)
sen per cent
lena_watt (09:47.554)
yeah and i think it's just really important information for everyone to learn about because pretty much every human has a pelvis you know obviously some people might not be born with that but i would say the majority of people have pelvisis so why not learn about this area of the body
kim_vopni (10:08.64)
yeah yeah thousand percent um i want to come actually i want to start here i was going to i know there's another part of your story that we're going to get to but before we go there i want to bring in some of the things that you mentioned so yoga therapy and the term tensegrity this is something that some people are who have been practicing in the world of pelvic health may know that term but it's not used a lot in regular fitness movement practice s i would say so can you describe what tenegrity means what it is
lena_watt (10:25.394)
m
lena_watt (10:39.254)
um okay so i i'm going to describe it in the terms of a integrity repair yoga series so that's what i've been trained in um um through ana yoga in victoria and it's using balls and dowels and super slow movement so it's a it's a series of twenty six movements very particular movements that are design
nd to rehabilitate the body and to help bring balance and function and strength within the body to rehydrate our facial system as well it was a very different practice than any other yoga practice i've ever done and i really found that doing this practice helped ring an introceptive awareness into my body especially in
my pelvis and pelvic floor to help re balance that area
kim_vopni (11:45.46)
and the term integrity is is kind of like the balance between tension and an exactly so the forces that can create a balance
lena_watt (11:52.474)
question
lena_watt (12:00.974)
can i can i grab one thing right now
kim_vopni (12:02.88)
please yeah
lena_watt (12:15.674)
so this is what i used to teach about it people might have seen this before it's it's a child's toy so are
kim_vopni (12:24.06)
and for those are sorry just for those of you that are are listening to this it the video will be over on the youtube channel but if you can if you can imagine kind of colored spheres that are all joined by sticks and bands and different shapes will mean one band has a little bit more tension on it and while you're pushing on another one it might mean that there's less tension on that band so it kind of it kind of is trying to explain some of the
lena_watt (12:50.354)
exactly
kim_vopni (12:53.86)
amis in the human body
lena_watt (12:56.014)
yes and this is all derived from architecture right dr fuller and then from there put this concept into learning about the human body and also healing and repairing it so when we think of having an injury in the body okay there is holding in the body and you can see it right away look how it collapses there is tension in that area of the body okay so now what
i needed to do what other people need to do who have an injury is i want to be able to soften now that area of the body okay i'm going to soften and start to release that area of the body as well as strengthen so there's that balance right so the rest of the body can function properly now everything is fluid and moving but when that if that happens again you can see
things don't flow as well right so like for me that visual is was powerful
kim_vopni (14:04.86)
super helpful yeah yeah it's like it's it's the you know when we think of the face system so think about if you eat a piece of meat and the white tissue that surrounds it or think of if you open up an orange and there's the white film over the orange segments those are kind of good visuals in terms of fascia and the inside of our body we are all we are made up of all different types of facial it's a whole system really in the body and
lena_watt (14:18.354)
orange
kim_vopni (14:34.62)
when there is injury compression in that one area it can disrupt as you talked about that flow and the kind of the slide and glide that we want the freedom of movement that we need and benefit from in the body would you say that's fair to say
lena_watt (14:54.654)
a hand percent it can even affect our breath right if we just let go as simple as that it can affect our breath and our breath is moving everything in the body bringing blood flow bring oxygen to places in the body and it's super important for healing so if there is m restriction within the body within movement within fluid within breath within all of that it's going to limit how we heal
but the body is so beautiful and amazing when there's an injury we want the body to contract right we want the body to be able to heal beautiful then once it's healed enough we want to get into whatever area it was and try to move and find what you're talking about that slide and glide that fluidity because we want the muscles in the body the systems of the body to be able to contract and relax
just like our pelvic floor right we want it to be able to contract and relax like every other muscle in our body that's so important
kim_vopni (16:04.52)
and when we think about the breath anybody who follows me in the work that i do and really pretty much every single pelvic health professional that i know breath is such a huge component because it directly relates to the pelvic floor the inhales there's a lengthening or expanding that's happening in the pelvic floor and then the exhales there's a kind of shortening and contracting and lifting in the pelvic floor and so that makes sense especially in your case wanting to come and unravel some of that tension
lena_watt (16:16.934)
yeah
kim_vopni (16:34.66)
the injured spots from your accident to be able to increase blood flow in circulation and that mind body connection even again and then more freedom of movement to help balance out that that in balance of tone between the two sides
lena_watt (16:51.274)
exactly yeah and and that tensegrity practice was very integral in that piece of my healing yeah
kim_vopni (16:53.2)
so sorry go ahead
kim_vopni (17:02.84)
and so coming into that you had your personal experience with injury you also had your professional experience with being a yoga instructor which came from your personal experience but you you are a yoga teacher first and then brought in the layers of integrity and pelvic health how did you combine those two what does a yoga practice look like with you where you are bringing in the breath or the pelvic health or talking about integrity
lena_watt (17:21.634)
m
lena_watt (17:28.814)
i also did a year training and somatic movement so i bring that in as well so it
kim_vopni (17:35.0)
what somaticcan you just talk about what somatic movement is
lena_watt (17:38.174)
okay so how i describe it because there are everyone's going to describe this a little bit differently um for me somatic movement is slow mindful connected movement it's it's bringing everything we do slower and observing how our body is like moving through space
also connecting with how things are moving within so introceptively which is also to me very interconnected with the practice and teachings of integrity
yeah i think integrity and the miofashal in the public floor brought me into the somatics
kim_vopni (18:30.56)
got it and so now that you've pointed out is a really important piece of all that you do so what does coming back to my first question sorry to kind of derail you there but what then does what does a class or a practice look like where you are incorporating those different philosophies
lena_watt (18:49.234)
we always start with breath and just noticing not trying to change or adjust just to notice your breath i think giving a few moments to notice am i breathing up into my shoulders am i holding my breath am i even bringing my breath into my belly is there areas of my body that my breath feels sticky or restricted and then we usually will come into a radiant i call it a three dimensional breath so we're feeling
body in all directions trying to bring it into the belly into the front of the body into the lateral body the ribs and intercostals as well as the back body so coming into that three dimensional breath and then we i call them upon a value breaths it's a pelvic floor breath so i use this term and we'll get into a few of those and this is usually while we're laying on our back and then we'll get into some slow gentle movement so i like to do somatic rocking
to really like do some sentencing into the body and kind of feeling and that's really good for hydrating our facial system as well and then just to bring the rocking all the way up into the top of the head we'll do some releasing with balls i have slowmoballs and spiky balls and squash balls all different all different so we'll do different releasing every very practice is usually a little bit different
and then we'll get into some strength i always like to do some bridging also again exploring that with without a block i like to strap the legs do some icometric contractions out icometric contractions in as well and and then we'll do some core there's a few particular ones that i like to do to really engage our transverse abdominals or lower dominals and to feel that connection into our pelvic flo
and then we'll come up into seated i like to sit on a ball or bolster so we can feel our pelvic floor do some more breathing there i like to do them in different postures so like reclined hands and knees seated standing so people can connect with that and different types of movement
kim_vopni (21:12.3)
yeah i love that can you expand on the breath the did you call it the prana value or pont vue pon a vau
lena_watt (21:19.634)
pan a value so we have five different values in the body and a pan a is the value that governs are like root shock area and our pelvic floor and so um it's that downward is called a downward movement of energy so how i teach it is i use a pan value and then i'll bring the visual of like a jelly fish so on the exhale like a jelly fish moving through
water so there's not that gripping and clenching which can often happen and when i was first teaching this i was noticing quite a few people were gripping and clenching and not allowing the breath to flow and there was also a lot of reverse breathing so it was the opposite so on the exhale there's a gathering and a lifting and then on the inhale it's a softening and releasing and sometimes well even use the hands
they can be super helpful like a little jelly fish moving through water while we're connecting with the area of the body or flower sometimes they'll get people to in vision a flower opening and closing so there's a softness
kim_vopni (22:37.12)
yeah i love that and very aligned with with what i do and i've taken some of your classes at the retreats that we teach at together and and really really love what you do so um so then kind of now taking a bit of an escape so that's that was what you were doing you practicing teaching incorporating these into classes uhcovid came along but then also another event in your life came along
lena_watt (22:45.394)
m
kim_vopni (23:07.04)
you talk a little bit about the next phase of your story
lena_watt (23:11.894)
yes covid came along everything was shut down what did a lot of people do have babies
kim_vopni (23:19.2)
uh uh
yeah
lena_watt (23:24.014)
um this was something that we have been trying for two and a half years to so it was
it was a another even layer on to that so i spent a lot of time healing my root and sacalshakra there was i think it had to do with my brain injury and different different things i had experienced in my life an i d different birth controls that i had taken my i got lost i had to get it removed and i had to have a history oscapanaprosca pe and anyways two and a half
kim_vopni (23:54.44)
been there
lena_watt (24:00.914)
later i got pregnant so that was very exciting um it was not an easy pregnancy because i was considered a jeriatric pregnancy funny when they actually like my doctor actually had to use that term with me and write it down because there was all these extra testings that had to happen it was like okay can't it just be called pregnancy anyway
kim_vopni (24:30.18)
it's crazy it's crazy
okay so you're a jeryatric pregnant woman
lena_watt (24:34.334)
so yes i i'll just i'll just kind of fast board so my daughter was breached for a very very long time she was a footling breach so that means that there's a foot in the birth canal kind of like ready to come out so it was a high risk pregnancy i was not allowed to have a vaginal birth like at all i looked into that all across the island no one was doing that
all so kind of leo released that birth plan we had a plan s section she also stopped there was a point where she stopped growing and they thought she had microcyphaly so i was having to go like every two weeks to get her scanned and checked out so they wanted to have the c section like three or four weeks before my due day and i was like no if you're telling me that she is small and her head isn't growing
wait like the last minute so i just made that decision trusted my intuition in my heart and we waited till two days before her due date so she was born on march twenty second twenty twenty two beautiful day right right when are season was starting and the spring so was a beautiful day i bold was very beautiful
kim_vopni (26:01.76)
hm
lena_watt (26:03.834)
yeah everything seemed to go okay uh i think so and then a few weeks later i had a really bad infection so there was left over placenta and there was also a large blood clot they said like a five by six centimeter blood clot that was not able to come out of my body i was releasing a lot of blood and a lot of clots like daily my midwife kept checking in on them and then it got to a pon
where i wasn't healing and i was so sick and i could barely move and it was actually i was getting worse than when i first had the c section so she made me go in to the hospital and they did a second surgery right there to get the left over placenta and all the blood clot just kind of clean everything out um just like when you have a c section you're on a lot of drugs and there's not movement and all things
and i have a history of constipation from when i was like two years old my mom said so it's a large history i healed that through iorvada which was really powerful in my late twenties which i'm very grateful for but when you have a baby through c section they tell you you're going to be constipated for a few days when i hear that i'm like i don't want to be constipated all these visions
of past memories and i worked so hard at having like regular ball momus every day and being like pumped about that so i was like okay i talked to different doctors and different nurses and i think they let me go from the hospital without having a ball movement after my c section which i think was the first the first issue within it because i know
kim_vopni (27:36.28)
hm
lena_watt (28:04.014)
being pregnant everything has moved in your body right and then all of a sudden you have this baby and there's all that space right and pressure and different things going on and then i wasn't healing so it was like it's almost like this perfect storm and then so i was concempated for five days i finally had a ball movement wonderful um and then everything was good and then the second surgery the same thing was happening so
kim_vopni (28:31.06)
how far sorry to interrupt how far post post your scesarian so how far post partem was the second surgery three weeks okay
lena_watt (28:37.174)
three three weeks yea so it wasn't like i was not healed fully for sure yeah so then i had a second one at three weeks and same thing happened to they pumped me all full of drugs obviously for the surgery and i was constipated talked to the nurses talked to the doctors let them know what happened the first time they're like oh no that's normal
kim_vopni (28:43.5)
nope
lena_watt (29:05.494)
the second time it was three days so it was only three days my midwife everyone knew what was going on three days i was trying to have a bell movement and i was on the toilet i know for longer than i should have been longer than normal but i was like okay am like i'm feeling like it's going to happen
kim_vopni (29:27.5)
m hm
lena_watt (29:29.514)
that was a different feeling it did not happen i was probably on there for like twenty twenty five minutes and i know that was way longer than i should have but it was like i was just trying to breathe and trust and and as soon as i got up i knew that i had a ractoprolapse right away i could barely get up i was in excruciating pain i looked in the mirror it was like a flower coming out of me
kim_vopni (29:31.1)
m hm
kim_vopni (29:42.74)
you're hopeful yeah
lena_watt (29:59.414)
i called to my fiance and i was like baby you need to look at this and he came over there and he's like man can i take some pictures
lena_watt (30:11.014)
we'll never forget that moment and i told them i was like no i don't think that's what we need to do right now i think and like thinking back on it he's also like an anatomy nor so i get it and um like the specialist and everyone that i went to oh did you take pictures and i was like well like i told my fiancee we had more important things but anyway like it wasn't that was not what was going through my mind oh we need to document this
kim_vopni (30:12.1)
uh uh
kim_vopni (30:30.7)
yeah
kim_vopni (30:34.42)
uh yeah
kim_vopni (30:40.3)
of course not yeah
lena_watt (30:41.474)
picture i was like we need to get to the hospital so we packed up a mara my baby we packed everything up and we had literally like this was probably the fifth time we had been to the hospital in like three weeks we spent so much time in that waiting room and so much time there
so i get there i can't even sit to drive there i'm like kind of holding on to the holy shit handle and like hovering and i just breathing and all i'm doing is my i'm bringing everything up with my breath i'm just focusing on bringing things gathering and lifting gathering and lifting gathering and lifting we got there i still had to wait i think it was like two and a half hours
i couldn't sit so i was just standing but i couldn't stand up straight so i was like standing on like an ell and leaning over the baby buggy and just trying to breathe and i was dripping sweat i was seat there was a lot of sweat and it was cold it was like the beginning of april but i was sweating a lot finally i got there and the doctor checked everything out and she said that i had breathed everything back in that shoe
very impressed that whatever i was doing was good so all they did was give me some drugs and
kim_vopni (32:11.28)
drugs for what drugs to help you poop
lena_watt (32:13.974)
for pain
kim_vopni (32:15.22)
okay
lena_watt (32:16.954)
not even pooping drugs
um it was jugs for pain and then a few suppositories and then they sent me home so it was there for like a few hours and and then oh and then they gave me a referl to a surgeon in case so i guess this was like worst case scenario um a referral to a surgeon as i guess with a rectoprolaps which
different than recto seal um if tissues if things don't heal properly within a certain amount of time it can cause like leakage and like other things um and so they gave me the info for a surgeon in case that was needed and i was like i'm going to do everything in my power to not have surgery and to heal this yeah
kim_vopni (33:19.2)
and just for the listeners who to distinguish who may not have heard the term rectrectoseal versus rectal prolapse if you've been following me you know i had a recto seal which is where the rectum can bulge in the back wall of the vagina in a rectal prolapse is where the rectum bulges out the anus and this can happen in both male and female anatomy so rectal prolapse is what you were dealing with and what you are potentially they were worried about potentially not healing properly increased risk of infection powell
lena_watt (33:48.294)
all of that yeah yeah so i come back home and i was literally on bad rest for oh my goodness five days i was so ill i was so sick like i remember i couldn't eat anything i was i could barely drink i could barely move it had just like taken a toll on my body and also when you're cons
kim_vopni (33:49.0)
continents all that yeah okay
lena_watt (34:18.134)
pated you literally feel like ship because you have ship in your body so it was like both of those things so i did some
kim_vopni (34:27.12)
and you are still three weeks post part and you have a brand new baby and you are dealing with all of the other like all the all the other ups and downs and and everything that goes with becoming a new mom
lena_watt (34:34.653)
yeah
lena_watt (34:41.334)
i had two infected breasts as well yeah and we had both had thrush and like it was like so it was it was just so much and so many things and i was still healing from the second surgery to use it as so short after i was so like
kim_vopni (34:43.98)
oh my gosh
kim_vopni (35:00.62)
did they go into the same previous incision or where did they go in okay got it
lena_watt (35:04.434)
it was just a dance so they just went in and scraped and got every scooped everything out yeah but if you've ever had a dance it's it also is not it takes a little wile to heal from that does not feel very good in your body but not as they didn't have to cut me open again thank goodness yeah they were able to go vagently
kim_vopni (35:09.24)
got it
got it okay
lena_watt (35:29.834)
so jade was pretty much back to work at this time so i lived in my bedroom upstairs in my bed with my daughter and i would just have food and water beside me and kind of feed myself and then breast feed her and then just hang out with her in bed i think it was like four or five days my mom came to help a little bit but i couldn't i wasn't allowed to lift her so you have limitations when you have a case
so you're not allowed to lift anything more than your baby well when you have a c section and then a dance and then a rectal prolapse you can't lift anything so i wasn't even allowed to lift her so i couldn't the only thing i could do was breast feeder in a reclined position i was not allowed to sit up so i had to breast feeder in bed in a reclined position and then as soon as i was done breast feeding i had to put her down and even breast feeding her was like very painful
and then i couldn't pick er up or mover from anywhere in the house so this was for definitely a few weeks the first five days were the worst once i had that bowel movement and slowly things started like moving in my body i was determined to like get back to all of the practices that i've learned from
veda and yoga and all of the things to keep my pelvic floor healthy to also keep my internal body healthy my digestive system healthy and everything moving and flowing so my stool was soft like that just kept going through my mind i don't want to be a thirty something year old woman with a leaky rectum
kim_vopni (37:14.4)
mhm
kim_vopni (37:24.12)
it's good motivation hm
lena_watt (37:24.214)
like it was good motivation so i yeah i was doing all of those practices um one of the main ones is so starting your day with m i make it's ginger lemon hot water tumeric and black pepper i don't have tea i don't have coffee nothing and i drink that and then warm water warm water throut he day i don't drink cold water which is something i've been doing for years and
and then i wait till after i've had a ball movement before i eat too that's a really big one for me i have a lot of votin my constitution and nivata that's either an air so more prone to um to constipation so just eating a very vat pacifying diet and i wasn't allowed to move so none of my movement practices i could use so thank goodness i have a very strong meditation prac
because that was all i could do in bed so i meditated multiple times a day to really help keep my spirit strong and my mental health strong because it was getting to a point where i i just felt like i was a complete failure my body is going against me you know none of the visions i had of pregnancy and motherhood have come into fruition and
um maybe i wasn't even supposed to have this like all of the thoughts and feelings come into your mind and and you're like am i ever going to get out of this or something else going to happen so i just kept me meditating multiple times a day connecting into my heart and just trying to send my body some love and also trying to think my body even though i was very challenging because it felt like
my body was doing everything it could to be against me i just kept thanking it thank you for showing up thank you for doing all of the things that you do thank you for heat like healing whatever it was whatever came to me in that moment i just i sent it to my body and i thanked my body
kim_vopni (39:48.38)
i think that's something that can play such a powerful role but is so hard in that moment when you are feeling betrayed when you are feeling like you've done something wrong or you've failed it can be very hard to find gratitude in that moment
lena_watt (40:05.814)
yeah definitely and i think that's what just helped me move through that right when i couldn't i couldn't do my movement i couldn't walk i couldn't get out of nature i couldn't do any of my public floor exercises like i couldn't do any of these things
kim_vopni (40:23.36)
i was going to ask you were you allowed to do your pound of i u breath
lena_watt (40:28.454)
um so i still hadn't i made an appointment with my public for physio so i was seeing her throughout my pregnancy um i wasn't doing anything because i was afraid
i was
i was still doing a little bit of my pan a value breath i would say but it was super slow and super gentle but i was also afraid that if i do that too much is are my bowel movements going to be able to come out like there was this it was a lot of back and forth and just not trusting my body and then coming back into okay how can i trust my body again what little things can i do
kim_vopni (41:02.44)
hm
lena_watt (41:17.074)
just start um building that connection and building that trust back into my body
and then once i went to my pal book for physiotherapist she was like yep everything you are doing is good my bladder was also very weak so i guess from everything that happened when she didn't at first she did not do an internal exam because it was it was quite soon but eventually when she was able to my bladder was quite weak so when i was doing my pan value breath i was focusing on that front area where the bladder is too and like i was
focusing on certain areas um and then eventually i was able to do like a ten minute walk and then twelve like every week i could increase it by two minutes it felt like i just had to have so much patience
and thank goodness i've had other experiences in my life like healing from a brain injury i'm still healing and it's been nine years but i wasn't able to move for months so when i was laying in bed i'm like this is going to be a few weeks i can do this i've done this before i am strong like just repeating montre to myself i am strong i am capable i trust myself i trust my body and i know it has the wisdom to heal it
i've already done this before yet it's different but it's the same thing and i also um from that experience i came to a realization where healing is our lifetime so there's not an end date and there's not this pressure on it and i had so much relief in my body when i came to that realization that i have my whole life to heal it doesn't need to be at a particular time yes certain
lena_watt (43:13.834)
things need to happen at a particular time but i think we're always healing from something like if that yeah that makes sense to you
kim_vopni (43:26.1)
yeah absolutely there's yeah we have different every day there are different stressers and life happens right and and sometimes it's it's not a big deal and sometimes it's a really big deal and yeah i think that's a really beautiful analogy
lena_watt (43:27.494)
yeah
lena_watt (43:41.414)
yeah because the neurologist when i have my brain injury gave me this deadline two years and anyone that's had a brain injury may have experience that as well i was like okay you have until two years and then at that time they want to do all these assessments and then they say that's pretty much when your brain is going to heal which i don't even know why people say that because
lena_watt (44:11.054)
anything is possible in my opinion and exactly and any timeline is possible it's nine years and i'm still healing that was the whole reason we found out i was pregnant we thought my brain injury was getting worse so i went i was booking a neurologist my partner jade was like you need to go and see a neurologist again so i was booking a partner when into the doctor got all this blood work done and they're like oh you're pregnant
kim_vopni (44:13.84)
and any time line is possible
kim_vopni (44:27.7)
oh interesting
lena_watt (44:41.274)
i'm like oh i ad my period for three straight months no signs no i was just low iron so but i've been anemic previously so yeah it was we thought my brain injuries like oh no i'm just pregnant
kim_vopni (44:42.18)
pardon me
kim_vopni (44:47.04)
interesting
kim_vopni (44:59.04)
wow wow so you're now coming up almost like approaching kind of the two year marks of the two year your daughter's two year birthday is that correct did i get the one year okay so is it only been one really really in my mind it was to wow okay well that's the first time i can say that like usually it's like wow that it's going so fast but this has not well from my point of view i don't mean to put words in your mouth probably has been a different experience for you
lena_watt (45:08.854)
one year she's yeah
lena_watt (45:16.874)
nope
kim_vopni (45:29.32)
okay so coming up on she's ten and a half is months right now okay and you've seen your physio and you've kind of seen what happened she did some eventually did some internal assessment and then where what was your healing or what has your healing been where are you at now and what have you the other um practices have you put in place to help you
lena_watt (45:33.154)
yeah
lena_watt (45:42.494)
yeah
lena_watt (45:56.774)
i remember the first time i was able to go on a hike again i bawled like the first time i was able to go out of nature again i think it was about six weeks and i i just cried when i saw this waterfall i ball i was like oh my god okay this like i feel like my body is healing i'm moving forward and then even when i had that appointment with
kim_vopni (46:02.06)
m
lena_watt (46:26.574)
surgeon he was like i guess he was very surprised that i was a woman
lena_watt (46:34.674)
he said most of his clients are men
kim_vopni (46:39.46)
m
lena_watt (46:40.474)
so and not just not just a woman he was surprised that i was a young woman yeah i guess it's very rare so he said i've never had a young woman come into my office before um and he said no i think everything is good you can check back in six months if if it's happened again right through that piece like if it happens again then
kim_vopni (46:45.76)
young woman
lena_watt (47:10.414)
you are going to have to come and see me again and we can talk about that but if not and if you keep healing you should be good to go and in the clear so i kept booking appointments with my public for physio and i was doing so i was doing my point of value my keegles three or four times a day so quite often she wanted me to do them in the morning at night and then some time in the middle of the day and then i was doing different one so i do an elevator breath
and i do a four quadrant one front and back and then left and right and then fast and then slow a bunch of different ones um and then in a few months i became my tone was very very high so she's like you were doing your exercises and home work so well that well job lina she's like
kim_vopni (48:06.52)
very well
lena_watt (48:10.454)
i feel no signs of a rectal prolapse so like when she first was able to that wall was very soft and then the wall of my bladder so i had two areas that i was focusing on and then within six months she was like okay you've gone the complete opposite direction and i've been there before and i was like okay and i could feel i could feel it by she's like everything is
kim_vopni (48:26.6)
hm
kim_vopni (48:38.18)
yeah
lena_watt (48:40.294)
lifted so um now you got to focus on softening yet still do your exercises do them less don't you don't need to do them every time you squat and bend and do all of these things and then focused on the softening so i just went to this week and it's been another a few months and i'm only at about like ten percent tone so it was i was like sixty or seventy she said very high tone
kim_vopni (49:10.04)
hm
lena_watt (49:10.334)
now is brought it down and i don't have any low back pain or issues i was having pain with intercourse now no longer so i just let her know and she's like this may just be fine for you will just keep monitoring it it may be fine for you but be mindful if you become into pre menopause or menopause because that tone can create fatigue in the muscles over time and then during
kim_vopni (49:23.52)
hm
kim_vopni (49:35.74)
hm
lena_watt (49:40.354)
menopause and menopause or hormones shift or sell or tissue everything shifts so you could experience leakage or incontinence or something could happen during that time so that's kind of where we're at right now it's been this up and down journey of hypertonic hypotonic and and then i'm kind of at this balance she said there's a little bit of tone but even after a few minutes of
kim_vopni (49:57.98)
hm
lena_watt (50:10.934)
being in there and breathing she said it even softened so like and she checked all of my engagement everything was good with my bladder she couldn't like there was zero feeling that she could feel that i had erect prolapse which has not even been a year so she was so that and she said my engagement and how long i can hold my squeeze for and she said was like
kim_vopni (50:29.56)
it's amazing
lena_watt (50:41.094)
awesome so
kim_vopni (50:43.12)
that's amazing that's amazing yeah yeah and i think you know it's actually been the way you've told your story it's been a beautiful kind of interweaving of you're the challenging parts of your life and what you with your curiosity went to find so that you could help yourself in that moment and then adding layers of different trainings along the way that have all brought you to where you are now with some other
lena_watt (50:44.354)
i'm very grateful yeah
kim_vopni (51:13.76)
challenges along the way and now being in a place where you
have i think again i don't want to put words in your mouth but i can imagine and and i myself in those shoes would be easier to find gratitude and be grateful for your body how would you describe it
lena_watt (51:38.074)
yes a hundred percent and even like i feel so blessed and grateful for the car accidents i've had and like all of the challenging times all of the struggles all of those down moments because they gave me the capacity the resilience the strength the determination the perseverance all of these things
to go through something like a rectal prolapse to go through even a sea section and then a second surgery and like all of the things that happened and who knows what the future is going to bring um that i didn't become depressed i think that my doctor was the most surprised with that she kept asking me about post partem and depression because of
kim_vopni (52:21.78)
hm
lena_watt (52:37.894)
all of the challenges that i was facing and i wasn't and i have been depressed before so i know how that is and i know what it feels like and um from all of the practices and experience that i've had i didn't go down that route and i think if i had gone down that route it my healing would have been a lot different and i also think if i didn't have my brain injury and that propelled me in to though
kim_vopni (53:00.34)
hm
lena_watt (53:08.014)
realm of healing that i was able to go into and pelvic floor health and tensegrity and somatic and yoga therapy and all of these healing modalities and i orvadigot deeper into iorvata there as well um that my experience of this would have been completely different
kim_vopni (53:28.0)
hm
lena_watt (53:29.394)
and my healing would have been very different
kim_vopni (53:32.08)
yeah for somebody who is who is maybe in that moment of having an early diagnosis recently diagnosed prolapse whether it's rectal prolapse recticel doesn't matter some sort of challenge with their pelvic floor who may not have the tools who may not have had the experience that that helped you through that where would you suggest they start
lena_watt (53:33.794)
and
lena_watt (54:01.734)
ask for help
yeah i number sent ask for help there are so many knowledgeable people kim you are one of the right as soon as i had mine i reached out to you i was like oh my god cimside recta seal like this is her jam she knows so much about this and you were super helpful my physio was super helpful my family my friends like that support network was so important to me especially when i was on bed rest and i couldn't move and right
think a key piece for me was knowing that the body wants to heal your body is so strong and capable and resilient and it wants to heal so get out of your mind get out of the fear and all that holding and come into trust and love and when we can come into trust and love with our body then we allow it to heal
kim_vopni (55:02.1)
give it the opportunity
lena_watt (55:03.914)
yeah and self care i can't say this enough especially to new moms i teach mom and baby yoga i'm always saying hydrate yourself make sure you are hydrated all the time nourish your body like healthy food get outside whatever it is that brings you joy and come in to your self care that's movement that having a chat with a friend
a warm bath a cup of tea whatever that self care is and not going out and drinking like to me that has a negative impact on the body so i don't consider that self care but actual self care practices taking time for yourself for me having a morning and night routine is super key to start my day with an energy and then also to end my day with an energy and then mental health
my meditation practice i meditate three times a day and i've been doing this for over a decade if i didn't have that it would have been more challenging so if this is something that's new to you there's tons of meditation on line you can find a meditation teacher like there's so many places and if sitting and trying to be still and silent doesn't work for you there are
kim_vopni (56:21.8)
hm
lena_watt (56:33.614)
fren types of meditation there are guided meditations there's breathing practices there's client there are right now i'm doing a yoganedraseries that's a very particular type of meditation one that really helped heal my brain and there's so there's so there's something out there for everyone i truly do believe that yeah
kim_vopni (56:52.1)
m hm
m yeah i am fascinated by your story i think it will provide so much hope and i hope optimism for people who are stuck in that place of fear and unsure where to go and which way is up almost so thank you so much for sharing your experience
lena_watt (57:21.814)
and i want to say one more thing ask questions and be curious there are no stupid questions when i teach my public force series i have women asking me all kinds of questions ask the questions especially if it's something that's coming up for you or something that you've thought about over and over again and be curious be curious about your body right if something doesn't feel right that is your body speaking to you don't ignore it
the more we ignore it and push it away the more it's going to start to scream and yell at us until we listen to it and then sometimes that it may be have gotten to a place that is worse than when it was first speaking to you whispering right those little whispers
kim_vopni (58:07.44)
whispering yeah
kim_vopni (58:12.18)
hm
lena_watt (58:12.694)
those little nudges
kim_vopni (58:14.84)
that's a perfect place to end thank you so much
