In our fast-paced lives we are prone to living in our heads as we worry and stress our way through days, weeks, months, even years. Many people do not know how to ground their awareness into their body, particularly their lower body. As a yoga instructor, I see this reflected in how people breathe - an overthinker will very often have a shallow, upper-chest way of breathing that can amplify the stress response. In their yoga practice, these students have difficulty sensing into their body and tuning into it to make subtle adjustments or softening where needed. They will analyze everything, rather than feel. This is an example of dominant masculine energy that buries our innate femininity.

When the womb is ungrounded, we can be scattered, inefficient, moody, and exhausted. It can seem like we never have enough time to get what we want done, and the things we want always seem just out of reach. We can be reactive, unable to step back from people, events and relationship experiences to allow appropriate action. We feel like life is too fast, that it is passing by too quickly, and we cannot quite catch up to it. -- Padma and Aniya Aon Prakasha, Womb Wisdom: Awakening the Creative and Forgotten Powers of the Feminine

It’s important for our health and wellbeing as women that we form a healthy relationship with the lower two energy centers - our root (or muladhara chakra) located at the perenium and vagina, as well as our womb space (or svadhisthana chakra) located within the pelvis, specifically the uterus.

The womb is a woman’s creative center, the space in which we can create new ideas, new projects, and new life. Even if a woman doesn’t carry a child in her womb, it is still the energetic center for creative energy in our life. Every womb desires to give birth by receiving and releasing a particular energy; however, the way we use our creative energy is a matter of personal intention. One woman may use her energetic capacity for creation working as an artist or entrepreneur. Another woman utilizes her creative energy to nurture her children; whereas a reiki practitioner uses her intuitive abilities to support others in physical, energetic, and emotional transformation.

In holistic medicine practices, the primary blockages in the body are thought to be energetic in nature. These energy obstructions are believed to cause physical symptoms.

The free flow of pelvic energy is vital to a woman’s health: “Fibroids, endometriosis, diseases of the ovaries, and other pelvic disorders are manifestations of blocked energy in the pelvis.” -- Dr Christiane Northrup, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

The quality of energy flow in the female pelvis, including the flow of each ovary, the uterus, and the vagina, impacts a woman’s overall vibrancy. Like nutrients drawn from the soil that are essential for a plant’s growth, the flow of pelvic energy through a woman’s root determines the vitality of her womanhood. -- Tami Lynn Kent, Wild Feminine

Every woman possesses internal awareness of her body. Energy movement in the body responds to internal awareness and focused breathing; by visualizing a certain region of our body and directing our breath there, we can cultivate our own energy. It’s often easier to be more aware of parts of the body that are frequently moved or used, like the hands and feet. Since the pelvic area doesn’t receive regular attention, most women lack a sense of internal awareness about this part of their body except with intercourse or upon giving birth. Still, by working with the breath, visualization, focused meditation on the womb, or hands on touch, we can become more aware of and can even affect the energy of our core, bringing more creative flow into our daily life!

In Feminine Yoga, we talk about encouraging the flow of shakti prana within the pelvic area. Prana is the energy or restorative life-force that circulates throughout the body to enliven the cells and facilitate good health, and shakti prana is the sacred, feminine energy that is present in the lowest two chakras: the root and the womb-space.

Ways of Connecting With Our Feminine Energy and Inviting the Feminine into Everyday Living

Yoga Postures

Specific feminine yoga postures promote energy and blood flow to the pelvic area (poses such as goddess, garland, and pigeon to name a few). The pelvic tilting movements involved in cat-cow pose and supine pelvic tilts also move and generate energy in this area. Remember, the pelvis relates to the sacral chakra which is all about our creativity and ability to flow in life.

Movement

Most of the time we are moving at the pace of our mind and not the pace of our body. By using body-paced practices like slow, somatic, meditative, gentle movement to get into the body and unwind, we can find our own rhythm. Circling and swaying our hips is an intuitively feminine way to nurture and strengthen our feminine energy (shakti prana). We can incorporate these movements within our feminine yoga practice or simply put on some inspiring music and dance intuitively.

Pelvic Floor Activation

Engaging the pelvic floor, known in yoga as muladhara bandha, is a simple way to not only bring awareness into our root, but also to tone the pelvic floor muscles.

Breathwork (Pranayama)

In yoga we say that the breath represents and is a way to move and activate prana (energy) throughout the body. We can use the breath to strengthen and clarify our energy, to move stagnant emotional energy, and to clear negative energies from the core, replacing it with positive, loving energy. One of my favourite techniques is the soft belly breath. We can use this practice to breathe more deeply into our lower belly and pelvic floor area, activating and nourishing our shakti prana.

Meditation & Visualization

Meditation, in which we allow feelings to arise, simply watching and experiencing them without judgment, can support moving through emotions and purifying energy in the heart and womb space. Meditation and visualization can be extremely supportive to enhance the channel between the two feminine energy points of the heart and the womb, and helping us to inhabit our womb-space.

Touch

I often place my hands over my belly in an instinctive gesture for connection. This instantly helps me shift my awareness out of my busy mind and into my body. It reminds me to relax and soften my belly which helps to relieve stress and tension, nourishing my abdominal and pelvic organs.

Heart to Womb Connection

The womb and heart are the two key feminine energy centers within our psychic anatomy. One of the simplest ways to cultivate the heart-womb connection is by practicing the heart-womb mudra (right hand on the womb-space, left hand at your heart-center). This gesture is powerful in reminding us to not only feel and connect the energy behind the left and right palms, but also as a reminder about the important practice of self-love and self-care.

Mindfulness

Embody the art of being gentle with yourself. The concept of self-compassion is the overarching principle of feminine yoga, no matter where you are in your monthly cycle or stage of life.

Restorative Yoga

To connect with the feminine, we can explore deep relaxation practices like restorative yoga and yoga nidra over a more dynamic ‘yang’ approach to yoga. These more subtle practices foster ‘yin’ energy, the feminine, receptive qualities of our body-mind. Restorative yoga is particularly beneficial for this reason as it balances apana, our feminine, downward moving energy, with prana, the more masculine, upward rising energy.

Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is often referred to as yogic sleep and is a guided deep relaxation practice that we can use to regulate our nervous system and refresh our brain. We practice in a supported lying posture, withdrawing our senses and directing our attention inward to inner sounds, feelings and experiences. From a physically and mentally relaxed state we practice intentional awareness, “I’m paying attention to myself as I rest.”

Deep Rest

I know you can do more, but I wonder, can you do less? Take time to rest. If we’re not able to rest, there's no way that we can make decisions, plan, dream, or visualize. When we’re experiencing a state of constant tension, this actually turns off the area of the brain responsible for decision making, dreaming and creativity. Restorative yoga and yoga nidra help to physically rest and unwind tension in the body and mind. The more I rest, the more my creativity flows!

Cultivate Your Creativity

There is so much joy to be found in exploring something creative and expressing ourselves just for the fun of it! Beginning or renewing our commitment to our creativity can bring profound benefits to the health and vitality of our reproductive organs as well as our nervous system as we learn to relax more and find our flow. As mentioned, the womb-space is a woman’s creative power center. Finding ways to express our creativity can nourish our feminine energy! Taking up or reconnecting with a creative project can light us up, whether it be writing, painting, dancing, gardening, music, or decorating, to name just a few.

Laughter, Singing and Nourishment

The muscles of the mouth and pelvis are related to one another. They are connected physiologically and also in their purpose. The pelvic space relates to our feminine creativity, a form of our personal expression. The mouth and jaw are also involved in our self-expression. Because of these connections, relaxing the jaw muscles decreases pelvic tension. Expression through laughter, singing, humming, and other nurturing activities restores our feminine spirit and reenergizes our root.

I hope that you experiment with these practices to find what is most supportive for you in connecting with and nourishing your feminine energy - leading you to fulfillment, creativity and a life of ease!

If you are hoping to incorporate a more feminine approach to yoga for deep relaxation, deep rest, and deep healing, I would be honoured for you to join me within my new seasonal and subtle yoga offerings. To learn more, you can visit my website here.

Wishing you health and vitality, Colleen