Building Dynamic Self Care Into Your Life: How to Recognize Your Needs and Heal From Within with Christa Gowen Artwork

The Postpartum Revolution

Welcome to The Postpartum Revolution! This podcast was born because, as a pelvic health physical therapist, I’ve heard and seen the ways our system has failed postpartum people in America. Newly postpartum people have repeated the same questions to me, with fear in their eyes and fatigue written all over their bodies, and I’ve grown tired of soothing them with the reassurance that it’s “all a part of the process, it’s normal to feel like this”. I began to wonder - what the hell kind of “normal process” is this, that produces tired and scared mothers? While not everyone has a negative experience with childbirth and postpartum, many people do. A lot of factors influence our postpartum experience: understanding how your body recovers, how much community and financial support you have, and how well our society helps to support a new family. My goal is to provide education about the postpartum recovery process, so you can set yourself up for a successful return to the things that bring you joy. I also want to bring awareness to the larger, systemic challenges that pregnant and postpartum people face, so that collectively we can start to turn the tide of our culture, and our children won't be trapped in an unhealthy and unsupported birth and postpartum culture. We have lost our power in the birth and postpartum world, and our loss is directly linked to other people's gain. It's time to take back the power over our bodies, our births, and our postpartum health. We are the change we have been waiting for. Let's go.

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The Postpartum Revolution

Building Dynamic Self Care Into Your Life: How to Recognize Your Needs and Heal From Within with Christa Gowen

November 13, 2020 • Annie Hopkins, Christa Gowen • Season 1 • Episode 26

“After trying all the things, and being in talk therapy for years, I realized that I don’t have anything else to talk about… and I still had anxiety and panic attacks. I wondered, if the problem isn’t in my head, then where is it? And then it hit me - the issue was in my body.”

Overwhelm, lack of control, constant stress, and anxiety - sounds a lot like being a new parent, right? So how can we find time to ground and heal ourselves when we have so many demands on our time, our bodies… and so little support?

Today I talked to Christa Gowen, a certified TRE (tension and trauma releasing exercises) provider, yoga instructor, and owner of Inside Out Healing. Her coaching practice helps to empower other mothers on a journey of healing trauma and doing deeply transformational personal development work.

We discuss...

- How unmet needs don’t leave our bodies until they are met, and motherhood just serves to amplify these traumas

- The commercialization of “self-care”... while bubble baths and a glass of wine are nice, it doesn’t meet our deeper needs.

- Dynamic self-care: this practice fills our cup and resets our nervous system in the moment, and it can be as simple as a quick breathwork exercise.

- Intergenerational trauma, and how becoming a radical mother can heal the generations before us, and the ones who follow

- Nervous system literacy - learning to cultivate self-love, self-compassion and self-awareness

- Polyvagal theory, and why the way you breathe influences everything from your stress response and hormone levels, to pelvic floor function

Because, as cliche as it sounds, you really do have to fill your own cup. And fill it until it overflows, mama… when you are a more balanced and regulated person, others will benefit as well. Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s what will break cycles of trauma and heal the world.

Connect with Christa:

www.christagowen.com: get your free download of The Ultimate Reset List or find out about her 4-week TRE & yoga virtual series (next one starts 11/15!)

facebook.com/groups/theradicalmotherproject

instagram.com/insideouthealing

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be on the show? Email me at thepostpartumrevolutionpodcast@gmail.com

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