Let that tummy flop!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB6HyIoRA58

Transcript

Hey, team. This week I'm coming at you

with a very particular reminder

to let your tummy flop. Now,

you might be wondering.

This is very particular, Alessia.

What do you mean?

Well, I'm going to let you

into a little part of my life

so that you guys don't end up

making the same mistake that I have .

Growing up, I always held my stomach

in for multiple reasons.

One, I thought it was good.

I thought I was like working

my core strength,

like walking with my stomach and so on.

And so I thought I was being healthy, but

also societal standards and body image.

Things also caused me to do this.

The reason that I'm telling you guys

this is because I have recently learned

that this can have

a negative impact on the muscles

that surround your pelvic floor.

Your pelvic floor muscles are so important

for so many different reasons

childbirth, bladder holding, etc., etc..

And so it's crucial

that you give your body the best support

you can over time because of the anxiety

and the stomach holding.

My muscles have decided

we're tense all the time

so they don't know how to relax.

So the impact of a lifetime of being tense

inside of my body

has officially come to fruition

from the age of 22 to now 25.

And I've been seeing lots of doctors

and lots of specialists

in order to help me fix my body.

And so this is why I wanted to remind

you guys to let your stomach flop.

It's not worth holding it in.

It's not worth damaging your body.

So here are three valuable tips

that I would love for you to take

into consideration and adjusting

what you feel your body will need.

The first one being reduce stress

and anxiety in the body.

And you might think this is so obvious,

but it's so crucial

and I can't stress it enough.

I know Taz and I talk a lot

about the practices

that you can do to reduce stress

and anxiety into your life.

And I really, really encourage

you guys to continue exploring these

and putting them

into your daily practices.

Things like journaling, meditation, yoga,

your version of staying

calm might be through painting,

it might be through doing your makeup.

Whatever you can do to help

reduce that anxiety and that stress

and that tenseness in your body and

or in your stomach will help immensely.

This might not come as a surprise to you,

but breathing properly

is so crucial to a healthy body.

And I don't mean just getting the air

that's necessary.

I mean getting the air

into your body that's needed.

So you want to be breathing into

and using your whole lungs,

your whole diaphragm, and breathing

into your stomach and pushing it out

and just relaxing that whole torso.

There are so many YouTube

videos and breathing exercises

that you can watch to learn.

So I do encourage you

to have a little Google search

and see what works best for you.

My third tip is Don't be like me.

Let that tummy flop.

You don't need to be holding it in.

It's not worth holding it in.

It's not worth doing

the damage to your body.

Our health has to be our priority from now

until we are no longer here

and then again in the next life.

And my three tips essentially mean

find peace, breathe, and just let go.

This all might seem really logical,

but I truly believe that we don't do this

enough in our lives.

So I really encourage

you guys to find the best ways to relax.

Sending you all the love this week.

Let me know how you guys

will be connecting to your bodies

down below in the comments.

Now this is going to be a short but sweet reminder. A Life lesson that I learnt recently

and am passing on to you so that you don’t make the same mistake I did. You might read the title of this weekly reminder and think what is this girl talking about, you might even think “Alessia, this is TMI” but if I can help even just one person out there from making the same mistake I did, then it's worth it.

For a long time, growing up almost my whole life I have always always held in my stomach, so much so that it has become unconscious. I do it without even meaning to. I always thought “Oh well, I’m strengthening my core, this would be good for me” but I was wrong. I’m not going to go into much detail about why I did this; with societal standards surrounding body image I’m sure you would be able to piece together how and why this would have come about for me.

The reason I am telling you this is because I have recently learnt at how this can have a negative impact on your pelvic floor muscles. These muscles are important for so many reasons: childbirth, bladder control and a bunch of other things. Over time from a mix of my anxiety and stomach holding, I have almost lost the ability to relax and calm the lower half of my body around my pelvic muscles. The impact of a lifetime of being tense has come to fruition over the last two years. I’ve had to see multiple doctors and a couple of specialists to figure out what was going on with my body and make a plan on how to work through it.

Finally, I know what I need to do and let me tell you, de-programming and reprogramming your mind and body isn’t easy and it is also NOT cheap. So here are my 3 valuable tips that I hope you will take into consideration and implement if you feel necessary.

1. Reduce anxiety and stress in your body as best as you can. Whatever way you find works for you to do this, I implore you to continue doing it and even implementing more ways in which you can ease your mind and body. Whether its meditating, journaling, yoga, running, painting, swimming anything! If it brings you peace you’re on the right track.
   

2. Learn how to breathe. This might sound like a crazy one, breathing is so easy? Well there is a way to breathe properly and sometimes it can be the difference between you being healthy and not. You can YouTube breathing exercises in order to learn how to breathe using your entire diaphragm and into your stomach!
   

3. DON'T BE LIKE ME. Let your tummy flop. If you’re someone who holds in your stomach, it’s time to let it go. It’s not worth it.. for soo many different reasons. Our health has to be our priority, I don’t want you guys to go through what I have.

Find peace. Breathe. Let go.

It might seem logical, but we all don’t do this enough for ourselves and you know what? We deserve it. We deserve peace. We deserve to be comfortable. And we deserve to feel connected to our own bodies.

Have a great week. Sending love!