358: The Cooch Ball's Brilliant Solution to Pelvic Floor Health (Including Incontinence) w/ Jana Danielson

 
 
 

What do incontinence, painful intercourse, cold feet, and severe menstrual cramps have in common?...Your pelvic floor health! Today's guest, Jana Danielson is the award-winning entrepreneur behind The Cooch Ball, the world's first patented pelvic floor fitness tool for women. Listen to her unique story of creating the Cooch Ball and how just 3 minutes a day can help solve some of the most common women's health issues. And now you can too! Get your amazing Cooch Ball EXCLUSIVE PACKAGE HERE.<---------Click here. 

Jana Danielson is an Amazon International Best Selling Author, Founder of Lead Pilates and Lead Integrated Health Therapies and the Metta District, her online wellness community.  Jana is the host of the Medicine of Mindset Summit and a member of the Holistic Leadership Council. She is also the creator of the Cooch Ball, the world’s first patented pelvic floor fitness tool for women. 

 

Hi! I’m Sarah!

You deserve to live a healthy, happy life my friend. I’m here to help you find tools and information that help. I’m cheering you on. xo

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Dive deeper:

Hard Surface Floor Cleaner 

From: Kelly Morrison, Boone, NC

Ingredients:

add to a gallon jug of distilled water 

  • 2 capfuls Thieves household cleaner

  • 5 drops Lemon or Pine EO

  • 1-2 tsp vinegar for laminate or vinyl floors (vinegar not recommended for wood)

Direction:

shake to combine and use in a spray bottle or refillable mop.  (TEST SMALL AREA BEFORE USE)

 
 

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Episode Transcript

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0 (2s): Above all, be the heroin of your life, not the victim. Nora Efron,

1 (9s): Empowerment in Education. Two powerful elements that will help you break free of convention and transform your passion for wellness tool level beyond the status quo, the essential oil revolution where you're given the tools to supersede an ordinary, everyday lifestyle, inspiring speakers, DIY recipes, healthy living tips, and more. You'll discover it all here. So tune in and get ready for a wellness revolution.

0 (39s): Hello and welcome to the Essential Oil Revolution. I'm your host Samantha Lee Wright. Now I have two children. They are 10 and eight at the time of this recording, and ever since my daughter my second was born, so for the past eight years, I've had a problem with incontinence. My children ask me if I wanna jump on the trampoline with them, and I say, no, mommy doesn't wanna pee on herself today. Sorry. I mean, how embarrassing is that? And I share this frankly and openly because I mean, hey, what else is this show for? But to just tell it as it is, and I'm sure there's many other women out there who struggle with the same thing.

0 (1m 20s): Newsflash, you are not alone. So when I was approached by today's guest about a collaboration around her product called the Cooch Ball, I was very skeptical, but very intrigued. But after talking with Janna on this interview, which is for the record, one of my favorite episodes of all time, I couldn't cut much of it out. So it's definitely longer than most of our episodes because it's all that good. I have just been blown away. I've been using her product, the KO Ball now for a week or so, and I can already tell a huge improvement on my pelvic floor health, including the incontinence issue.

0 (2m 4s): I'm working my way up to the trampoline, and I have no doubt I'll be there very soon. But the Kopa, which you'll learn about on this episode, is about so much more than just not peeing on yourself on a trampoline. It is about all the aspects of pelvic floor health that tie into so much of our overall health from circulation, right? If you deal with having freezing cold feet every day, if intercourse is painful for you, there are so many things that the Koch Ball and the exercises that go along with it can help with forewarning, as you probably are. Do you realize this episode does acknowledge the existence of sex?

0 (2m 46s): So if that is inappropriate for any of the listeners out there, you may want to skip or put some headphones on. Stay tuned to the end to hear Jana's incredibly gracious, offer to try her products out exclusive to just our listeners. So make sure you scroll down to the show notes to take advantage of that. I can't wait for you to hear these incredible stories in a moment, but first, let's pull a recipe out of our D I Y dugout. This is the segment of our show where we read a recipe that's been submitted by one of you, our amazing listeners, and once a month we like to pick a winner out of all of the people who have submitted recipes. And this month our winner is Kelly Morrison of Boone, North Carolina for her recipe called Hard Surface Floor cleaner.

0 (3m 32s): Super simple to make the hard surface floor cleaner add to a gallon jug of distilled water, two cap fulls of thieves, household cleaner concentrate, and five drops, lemon or pine essential oil. If you have laminate or vinyl floors, you can add one to two teaspoons of vinegar for this. Vinegar is not recommended for wood floors, however, just shake to combine and use in a spray bottle or refillable mop. Make sure you test in a small area before use, just in case you've got some floors that might react to any of those ingredients. Thank you so much for your recipe, Kelly, and congratulations on being our winner.

0 (4m 13s): We'll be sending you a bottle of orange essential oil and our e-book full of our favorite essential oil recipes. If you would like to enter to win our monthly giveaway, send us your recipes that use essential oils. Just email diy revolution oils podcast.com. HelloFresh

(4m 33s): Thanks to HelloFresh for their support of our show. As a busy entrepreneur and mom of two, it seems like I'm constantly heading to the grocery store. To grab that last minute ingredient, I need to pull off dinner with HelloFresh, though I never have to worry about having the right ingredients because they're easy to assemble meal kits that are delivered directly to my door have everything I need to pull off a delicious meal in around 15 minutes. So if you've been looking for an easy way to eat well and save money, try HelloFresh. You can cut back on expensive takeout and delivery and get started with HelloFresh today. HelloFresh

(5m 13s): You'll learn just how fast, easy, and affordable it is to whip up a restaurant quality meal right in your own kitchen. And whether your gluten-free, paleo, vegetarian, or more HelloFresh has over 40 recipes to choose from each week, and they're all completely customizable, you can swap proteins or sides or even add protein to a veggie dish. With so much variety, you'll always find something even the pickiest eaters will enjoy. My favorite thing about HelloFresh is that you can taste the quality of their ingredients. Everything is so fresh and delicious. In fact, ingredients travel from the farm to your home in less than seven days, so you know they're fresh. HelloFresh

(5m 56s): Skip the meal planning and the grocery store runs now. Go to hellofresh.com/essential 65 and use code essential 65 for 65% off, plus free shipping. That's hellofresh.com/essential 65 and use code essential 65 for 65% off, plus free shipping.

0 (6m 26s): I'm here with the amazing Janna Danielson, who is an award-winning wellness entrepreneur, who through her own experience with physical pain turned her mess into her message, which has now become her mission. She is an Amazon international bestselling author, founder of Lead Pilates and Lead Integrated Health Therapies, and the Meta District, her online wellness community. Janet is the host of the Medicine of Mindset Summit and a member of the Holistic Leadership Council. She is also the creator of the Koch Ball, the world's first patented pelvic floor fitness tool for women, which we are definitely gonna talk all about today.

0 (7m 7s): Janna, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here, 4 (7m 11s): Samantha. Thank you for having me.

0 (7m 13s): Love the work that you're doing. We have so much we're gonna talk about today in a lot of this revolving around women's health and pelvic floor health, which I am a fierce advocate for. I've worked a lot in the childbirth industry. I was a doula, I was a childbirth educator, and it is astounding to me how little pelvic health, pelvic floor health tends to get talked about when women are, especially when women are going through that phase of their life, if that's a part of their life. Not to mention how, you know, I think every like little girl should be raised knowing these things.

0 (7m 53s): And then especially moving into the later part of your, your years, we should all know about pelvic floor health. So why don't we talk about it more, you think?

4 (8m 4s): Yeah. So you know what, I feel like there are these belief systems that we have Samantha, that really truly no longer serve us. We grow up to feel like this is part of being a woman that, you know, we get our, we get our periods, we maybe don't have as much education around that. I know, you know, my mom definitely didn't talk to me like, and I'm the mom of boys, so I mean, I don't have daughters, but I think, man, if I did have daughters, I would do it little bit differently. We also see commercials, we see commercials of, you know, incontinence products or men and women, and that is what we believe is the solution.

4 (8m 47s): And did you guys know that the incontinence product industry is a 24 billion industry? So when we believe this, that becomes our, this is the solution. We don't even look beyond that. We feel like we are the only one going through laughing or coughing and peeing a little bit, or pelvic floor pain or pain during intercourse. So we just succumbed to the fact that it's just part of being a woman and we just go on with our lives without truly understanding that. Research has shown that in 90% of women with pelvic floor dysfunction, it actually is a movement slash fitness issue and not a medical issue.

0 (9m 35s): Wow. So we really have associated things like incontinence with just a natural byproduct of aging. But you're saying that really that's not the case, it's just more of a public health situation.

4 (9m 51s): Yeah, and I think there's this empowerment message that is just being completely missed. And you know what, if we wanna dive into, you know, a little bit of the, you know, the ancestral or emotional part of the, of the, of the pelvic floor, the, the main nerve that travels from our brain to the pelvic floor is called the ental nerve. Now women have it and men have it. This nerve has two main jobs. It is a sensory nerve, so it gives you the yummy, juicy or not so great sensations in and around the pelvic floor, the genitals. And it's also a motor nerve, which means that it carries messages to and from the brain, from the brain to this area.

4 (10m 35s): And back to the brain, the Latin root, and I just learned this about six months ago, but the Latin root of the word ental means ashamed. And so even the language that we're using around the anatomy in that part of our body is really grounded in, you know, shame. And, and, and that's why I just feel like we need to change and shift the conversation because there is actually a lot that we can do with simple strategies to improve our sensuality and our confidence and be able to, you know, live the highest quality of life that we absolutely can and not worry about planning trips around bathroom breaks or, you know, sexy time with a partner.

4 (11m 24s): Because we are really, you know, confused or frustrated, we feel like our body is not serving us.

0 (11m 32s): Wow, that is so fascinating to me. That tell, tell me that Latin word again.

4 (11m 37s): Yeah, so the Latin, so it's the Latin root is ashamed and it, it, that's what the ental nerve, that's it's rooted in the, in the Latin term. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Says

0 (11m 48s): So much right there. I mean that, wow. That's everything. Jana, I wanna like go back a little bit and pause, pause on this topic for a second and explore how essential oils tie into this work or, or your world in the health and wellness space.

4 (12m 5s): Yeah, you know, essential oils became a part of my life probably in a more meaningful way about five or six years ago. Prior to that, I mean, I just thought they made your room smell good and there were these, you know, fancy diffusers. And, but our middle son, when he was 15 years old, started experiencing after a wakeboarding accident, started experiencing digestive pain and it really mimicked the pain that I experienced in my late teens and early twenties. And I thought, oh gosh, here we go again. Like our, and, but I had confidence cuz I had healed my own pain.

4 (12m 47s): And so Will's pain, like I said, was digestive in nature. He was an active boy. His eyes sparkled. And over about a six month period, he probably had lost about 10 pounds. He did not have 10 pounds to lose. We were hardly sleeping at night. It was impacting his school. It was impacting his relationship with friends. He started getting a lot of anxiety because he didn't know when, when his pain was going to show up. And we had this,

0 (13m 20s): Describe that pain. I mean, what, what did it feel like this happened after the wakeboarding incident? So was it sort of chalked up to, to that and like an internal, like bruising almost? Or how would you describe that?

4 (13m 33s): Yeah, you know, we went the traditional medical route and, and the wakeboarding accident and the trauma of his stomach, you know, hitting the water was, I'm gonna s i I am gonna say dismissed. It was dismissed. We went through a bunch of tests, you know, for celiac, and my doctor wanted to put him on antidepressants at 15 years old. He described his pain as a baseball that was on fire right behind his belly button. And of course, we know when we are in pain, we are programmed to round our bodies forward to protect, right?

4 (14m 16s): So will became this almost like this little turtle, right? His whole posture changed. I, I like he was, he was barely eating and we started going down a more natural way of healing. I took him to a reflexologist. He believed that learning through his big toe, that there was, you know, something stuck in the neocortex. And then they worked a bit with his amygdala and we started to, he started to feel changes, you know, he started to feel better. And then he took, took a turn really for, for the worst. My sister called me one day after I finished teaching a Pilates class and she said, listen, will's at my house.

4 (14m 58s): I picked him up, he doesn't look good. I think you need to take him into pediatric emergency. And you know, Sam, I walked into my sister's house and I saw him laying on her couch. And it was, it was a moment that I will never forget because I f for the first time I was like, does he have something that is going to take him from me off this earth? And I felt very helpless. And so we went to emergency and they gave him a pill that p take for arthritis. And the pediatric emergency doc that day said to me, we've given him 14 days worth of this medication.

4 (15m 38s): We hope that you don't finish these 14 pills because if you do, we know with a hundred percent confidence he is gonna be full of ulcers for the rest of his life. That is how strong this medication is. Ugh. And I was like, oh Jesus. Like are we not just trading one ailment for something, you know, we don't know what this pain is, but I do know that he's 15 and to be full of ulcers for the rest of his life. And so

0 (16m 5s): It was this like a pain pill? Like what was the function of the

4 (16m 8s): Pill? Yeah, yeah. It was, it was a pill that they gave for arthritis, arthritic conditions to decrease inflammation. And that's what they thought was the problem, was extreme inflammation. And they thought if they could get the inflammation down, they could then figure out what was going on. Because everything else was normal. All his blood work was normal, normal, normal, normal. So my dad found me that night and he said, listen, we are gonna take will to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where they have the pediatric part of the Mayo Clinic hospital system. And we went and we learned three things about will that day or that visit. We learned that he had low lipase, which is an enzyme that metabolize metabolizes fat. We learned that he had a higher than normal density of nerves in through the visceral system.

4 (16m 53s): So in through all of his organs there was a higher volume of nerves. And we learned that right from birth. He was born with his left hepatic artery that wasn't quite connected properly to his heart. Now not a major deal all separate, but when you put those three things together, add on the trauma of the wakeboarding, the level of he was really operating from a sy you know, his sympathetic nervous system, his stress hormones were just, you know, pumping through his body. His body was in a state of, of, of consistent trauma all the time. And we learned this,

0 (17m 30s): I'm curious too if this is connected to the, the area around his belly button. Cuz the belly button has more nerve endings in it than many other parts of our body. People don't realize that there's like over 70,000 nerve endings see in that naval area.

4 (17m 46s): And I think you're, you probably are exactly right with that. So we had a choice. We went to the pain clinic and the doctor said to my son, you know, we can give you a needle, we can give you a steroid. I don't know how long the pain will stay away, but you'll just continue to need new needles all the time. And, and here's the, here's the awesome thing. Will is freaked out about needles. And he's like, Nope, nope, needle for me. So we talked with this pain doc about other ways that we could start to really heal his body and obviously, you know, meditation and breathing and you guys, I'm a Pilates instructor and so he would hear it from me, but when he heard it from the doctor, it had a different level of, you know, oh my gosh, mom, did you hear what doc just said?

4 (18m 29s): Right. Breathing helps. Exactly. Breathing helps. So we went home with this new information. He was still in his pain cycles. I was using some castor oil on him. And then I spoke to my friend one night and she said to me, Jana, you need to get Copa iba oil and you need to start using this on him topically get little, you can get, you know, these little capsules from the health food store and put three or four drops in this. She told me all about this oil that is found in the, in the, you know, in the, in the rainforest and how it travels through the blood-brain barrier and all the amazing success stories that she knew about it.

4 (19m 15s): And I got this oil and I got the capsules. And you know what Samantha, like literally within, I'm gonna say about 72 hours of us starting to use the oil topically and through the capsule that it was like a, an answered prayer prayer to our family. And that is when I, my mindset switched from essential oils as a way to make your home smell great to the wisdom and the healing that comes out of these plants that we are gifted. And since then, my relationship with oils has changed.

4 (19m 58s): I've, you know, I I use them in every part of my life. I use them with my clients. And here's the cool thing, will is now 19 a sophomore in college. He plays college golf in Mississippi. He, I'm sure is probably the only 19 year old college athlete with essential oil diffuser in his dorm room. And his, all of his little, like his, his essential oils. One day he said to me, Hey mom, you know, one of his buddies came in, he had a little bit of, you know, kind of tweaked his hip. So he's like, what oil should I give to Thomas because, you know, he's got a little bit of a tweak in his hip. So I love that my 19 year old son is so dialed into respecting and loving what this natural occurring medicine is for us.

0 (20m 47s): And what was your answer to that question? I'm curious.

4 (20m 49s): Well, so I, I mean I do, I use a bunch of different oils, but I know he had deep blue from doTERRA. So I said, you know, give him some deep blue. And he's like, what about peppermint? I know that when, when I use peppermint, I just really like the smell of it. And I was like, well, if you like the smell of it, just I said, will trust your intuition, like your body. Yeah, your body knows. So he gave him deep blue and he gave him some peppermint, he had his little fractionated coconut oil that he gave to him and they mixed in a few drops. And so that's what brings me so much joy as, you know, a mom of these boys is that, you know, that is part of their realm of healing.

0 (21m 30s): Absolutely. So I'm curious, with this kind of new found respect and admiration for essential oils as as this form of plant medicine, how does that factor into the work that you had been doing? You were a Pilates instructor doing a lot of wellness work already, but then how did things shift for you from there?

4 (21m 51s): Yeah, so, you know, I really started to find ways to implement using the oils in my practices or if I was doing, you know, one-on-one work with a client to just start to educate them on what I knew. And that's why I feel like practicing what I preached was so, you know, was so important for me.

0 (22m 15s): And were your clients at this point, were Pilates clients or were they specific to pelvic health at this

4 (22m 20s): Point? You know, they were, they were a mix because the pelvic floor is the floor of our core. So when you're doing Pilates and, and breathing diaphragmatically, the pelvic floor is, and we can chat a little bit about that, but it's also integrated. So, you know, it was, it was clients from my studio that were coming for, you know, an up-level in their general health. It was my pelvic floor clients. It was even my patients from my clinic that were seeing my chiros or my physios or my nds because we really tried to bring that holistic picture, lots of different options and tools for people to be able to see what really resonates with them.

4 (22m 60s): And so it did it become, it became fully, fully integrated into what I did when I started moving some of my events online over the past two years. You know, one day v i p events for women, l you know, doing sessions on essential oils or bringing experts in to speak about oils was something that was a non-negotiable for me because there is, it provides in my opinion that that baseline fundamental cellular health that just plugs into all of the systems in our body.

0 (23m 32s): Yeah. So let's, from there, let's talk about what essential oils you integrate in with your work specific with pelvic floor health and, and also how did the cooch

4 (23m 45s): Ball come to be? I wanna start diving into that as well. Yeah, for sure. So the, the top two areas in our body that carry stress in the general population are the head, neck, and shoulders and through, you know, the abdomen, the pelvic floor, the pelvis area. And so one, I mean, I love using, you know, my, my peppermint in and around just helping people understand, you know, the clockwise circular motion, even just through the abdomen and, and how that can start to relax the body, obviously going in a clockwise direction is important for our elimination. We don't wanna go in the opposite direction and, and really back things up or become constipated.

4 (24m 29s): And so, because what a lot of people don't realize is that constipation is actually often a symptom of a hypertonic or a toot tight pelvic floor. So I loved using oils in that way. I even just loved using oils as a way in my clients to wake up their sense of smell, I think. And that's one of the first things that I do in the morning is I wake up my senses and, you know, whether I'm holding my cup of my warm elixir to just feel my sense of feel. And then using, like this morning in my, in my diffuser, I put geranium and I just take, you know, five or six really deep breaths and that is kind of what kicks off my day.

4 (25m 10s): And so those little hacks that I do in my own life, that is what I, you know, what was coaching into the women who were choosing, you know, to work alongside me. So I mean, I love, I love eucalyptus. I love using vti ever on the big toe for those, you know, those clients of mine that have that, you know, neocortex, that c e o of the brain that just will not sh you know, shut off, will not allow that, that calming those calming subconscious thoughts to kind of take over every once in a while. So I'm a big fan of Vever. I really do love, you know, ang ang it just, you know, for it, it feels so girly and, and feminine.

4 (25m 59s): So, and I do kind of change my oils with, you know, with, with the seasons in the winter, I like to use and talk more about the more deeper spicier rooted sense. You know, in the springtime I love talking more about the the citrusy type of, of sense. And you know, one thing, I don't know if you know the author Lisa Lister, she wrote a book called Code Red, and it's all about our bodies and the cycles we go through in a month. And so she calls our pre ovulation stage our inner spring, she calls ovulation our inner summer. She calls pre menstruation our inner fall, and then menstruation are inner winter.

4 (26m 45s): And when you understand that we truly are four women within a monthly cycle, and you can map the oils to those seasons, it can

0 (26m 58s): Be very,

4 (26m 59s): You know, luscious in when we're in our inner winter and we might be dealing with a lot of menstrual cramps or a lot of, you know, headaches and we're just feeling like we just need to go within and, and hibernate. And that's where the inner winter comes from. Something really, you know, spicy and luxurious, some cinnamon bark oil is just, it can really make a difference when you understand what your body is craving through those cycles. So those, that's the other piece that I love to, you know, educate and inspire my, my clients and community about.

0 (27m 32s): I love that word luscious that you used as well. I mean, is there anything more luscious about really just bathing in your own feminine energy? I mean, it sounds really woo-hoo, but I just feel, I love the fact that I was born a woman and I get to experience life. I mean, not that it doesn't come with its challenges, but just really sitting rooted in that femininity. I think luscious, just that word made me think of that and the, the gratitude that I feel for being able to experience the world from that lens. It's, it's powerful and it's fun and it is, I love it. But yeah, as I said, it doesn't come without its challenges.

0 (28m 15s): And for some women, a lot of those challenges really revolve around that pelvic health, a pelvic floor, whether they're dealing with, you know, mens like terrible menstruation, pain or intercourse, pain or incontinence or, or all these things. A lot of, a lot of, I think, feminine health issues get really, are rooted in much more than just the physical world of it, right? A lot of emotional cultural things tie into that in the, when I would have clients come to me talking about some of these pelvic floor or just pelvic health issues, you know, I always felt very limited in the tools that were available to them, which is why I'm so excited about the work that you're doing and the invention of the, the cooch ball that you have, because it really puts that power into women's hands and the education that you're doing around it and the exercises and the tools.

0 (29m 15s): It's really like putting all of this in the hands of the woman, which is just phenomenal. So I, I would just love to hear more about how the kpa came to be and we'll talk about how it's used and why. Yeah. Give it, give it all.

4 (29m 33s): Okay, let's go there. So I'm gonna paint a little picture before we get into that because I feel like one of of the biggest pieces that is missing from a woman's repertoire is really understanding her anatomy. All right? So this is not gonna be like, you know, a full blown anatomy lab, but I want, I want your listeners to understand, Sam, that the pelvic floor is a part of our core. So when, when we think about strengthening our core, I bet 99 out of a hundred of your listeners would think, oh, I should do some abdominal crunches or I should do some planks cuz that's gonna strengthen my core. Now here's where that operating system falls flat, because our abdominals are literally only one part of our core.

4 (30m 21s): So we have our, think of our core from our armpits down to our hips. Okay? So we have this cylinder, and this cylinder has a floor and a ceiling. So think of the ribs and the organs and all those muscles as the cylinder. Now our diaphragm, which is our main muscle of respiration, is the roof of our core. The diaphragm sits inside the ribcage like a mushroom cap or like an open umbrella, all right? It is our main muscle of respiration and there is a large majority of us who do not use that muscle to breathe. We don't, for whatever reason, and it could be, you know, I'm gonna date myself here a little bit, but when I was in grade 12, acid wash jeans were very popular, and the tighter they were the better.

4 (31m 13s): So I would lay on my bed with my jeans, with my coat hanger zipping up my zipper because it was easier to zip up when you were laying down. And I know some of you that are listening are like, oh my gosh, that was me as well in the, in the mid nineties. That's okay. Or imagine corset wears or corset wears or even now, like those waist trainers. I mean there's always the, the, the newest way to make the waist look smaller. But, but ladies, let me say this. When we take space away from something, the contents of that, of what's inside of us have to go one way. It either has to go up or it has to go down. So what happens for a lot of us is we actually stop breathing with that diaphragm.

4 (31m 55s): And what, what the body does is it's like, oh, okay, she's not breathing with that muscle. So it sends our breath, 86,000 of them a day, 86,000 breaths a day into our neck, and we have these two little muscles called the scalings. And the sternocleidomastoids, they're like little kind of strips of beef jerky. Those muscles actually hold our head up on our spine. And now we're asking those muscles to also breathe for us. And let me say this, you guys, if you are someone that deals with chronic head, you know, headaches, neck tension, you know, temporal mandibular joint, TMJ issues, upper, you know those trapezius muscles always so tight and you cannot wait to get in to see your massage therapist and then 72 hours later you can't wait till your next appointment.

4 (32m 41s): It truly is because you're using those muscles to breathe and they're not meant to be marathon muscles and you're building tension in there. So the diaphragm is key. When you take a big breath in through your nose and fill your belly with air and then you exhale outta your mouth, that is how you start breathing diaphragmatically. Now here's the beautiful relationship between the, the pelvic floor and the diaphragm. When your diaphragm is not working, it's not if you're gonna experience pelvic floor dysfunction, it's when, because when the diaphragm does not expand and contract like a great big, you know, it's, it's almost like this big pump.

4 (33m 20s): When that pump isn't expanding and contracting the pelvic floor is gonna go to bed, it's gonna go to sleep and it's not gonna respond. When you start to learn how to breathe diaphragmatically, it's like giving c p r to your pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is like, wait, what? You know, she's moving up there. Well maybe I should start moving. Okay, so that's the first thing we need to understand is that pelvic floor health truly starts with our breath.

0 (33m 49s): This is a dumb question, but are hiccups a sign of diaphragmatic fatigue?

4 (33m 56s): Yeah, so a hiccup can absolutely be, I mean there's, there's some, there's some thought out there that it has to do also with digestion and things like that, but the diaphragm muscle attaches under our ribs. And so if you take your fingers between just right under your ribs and I'm doing it right now, if you were to breathe really softly, if you can put up to your, between your first and your second knuckle under your ribs, that's a pretty healthy diaphragm attachment situation. But most of us cannot, some of us can't even get the tips of our fingers under there. So the diaphragm kind of goes into a little bit of a spasm and, and we can get a hiccup that way.

4 (34m 38s): Okay, there's, there's, there's other ways we can get hiccups as well, but understanding that the diaphragm can be completely locked down and then that plays into our posture and it just, I mean, it goes right into our cellular health. So, I mean, we could, there could be a whole other episode. Just breathing

0 (34m 53s): Pause for a second and explain. Okay, so if, if I'm, I'm doing it now, if I'm, if I'm kind of digging my fingers under my ribs into my diaphragm Yep. If, if they're not going in very far or if it's really tender when I do that, that you're saying that is the diaphragm being weak or,

4 (35m 14s): Yep. 0 (35m 15s): So in my mind, I wanna think the opposite. I wanna think like, oh, like that's strong. Like you're, you are getting resistance, but it's really the opposite.

4 (35m 23s): So it is tight, right? If you can't get those fingers under there, or if you're feeling a little bit of that ouch factor, it actually is a tight or a frozen at those muscles are kind of frozen there. They're not dynamic, they're not, they don't have a good blood flow supply. They don't have the, the nutrients and the oxygen that, that those muscle fibers need to, to serve our body, right? 86,000 breaths a day. So what what we need to understand is that tight in the muscular world does not equal strong tight is actually weak. Think of a slinky, you know, those slinkies that we, you know, would go down such a wonderful toy, the slinky, slinky, it's fun for a girl and a boy, right?

4 (36m 8s): So a slinky going down the stairs, that's fun to watch. It's dynamic, it moves, right? It's got a rhythm to it. Imagine if that's slinky was glued tight that it, it, it has no movement, there's no pliability to it. That's exactly what happens with the diaphragm muscle is that there is no movement. And when there's no movement, there's actually no life. So the pelvic floor is not gonna be responding even a little bit when that diaphragm isn't signaling to it that it's gotta, it's a, it's a partnership, right? When the roof works, the floor works, they're like anatomy besties. And when one's on a vacation, the other one's gonna be like, well, I'm gonna join you on the beach as well.

4 (36m 51s): So that's what a lot of women don't understand is just how critical, and I'm not saying you have to breathe diaphragmatically 24 7, like you guys, the recipe is 10 to 12 breaths, maybe three or four times a day. I do mine when I first wake up in the morning just before I have my lunch. I kind of wanna, before I have a meal, I do my diaphragmatic breathing cuz it, especially if I had a busy morning or a busy afternoon, I can eat a plate of food in like two minutes flat, right? Not even tasted. And my breathing just kind of brings me back. It nurtures my parasympathetic nervous system. It makes me pause for a little bit. So that's the recipe for the diaphragmatic breathing and that's how it plugs into, into our pe Can can

0 (37m 35s): You do like easily right now like how to engage diaphragmatic or is it more complicated

4 (37m 40s): Than that? No, let's, no, I can easily walk you through it. And so if you have access to your hands, if you're driving, obviously not, but if you have access to your hands, one hand is gonna go just between the breasts, like just, there's that flat bone called the sternum. So I like putting my left hand there. And then if you bring your right hand to your belly button, imagine now that on

0 (38m 2s): And is that I'm at for the left hand. Is that like if you're wearing a bra, like right in the middle of the bra strap? Is that what you're talking about?

4 (38m 8s): Yeah, you're going. So if you feel your cleavage, just, just go like, slide up a half a palm width from your cleavage and that's where you are just on that flat sternum bone. Okay. All right. Now imagine the right hand that's on your belly button. Imagine there's a painted bullseye on the palm. Okay? Just, just that bottom hand has the bullseye. That's the only hand. So now if you wanna take away the visual stimulation and just close your eyes if you want, if you take a breath in through your nose, I want you to aim your breath for the bullseye on the inside of your right hand that is connected to the belly button area of your body.

4 (38m 50s): So take a big breath in now as you exhale, it's out of your mouth, like you're fogging up a bathroom mirror, making an ha sound. Okay, now do that again. Breathe into that bullseye. I'm gonna give you one new cue this time. As you're exhaling, think of pulling your belly button away from that bullseye very gently and softly. And do two more like that. Inhale into that bullseye in the right palm of the hand, exhale, gently melt away, melt the skin away from that bullseye.

4 (39m 30s): And on this one I want you to notice which hand is moving more, the bottom or the top. Inhale and exhale. All right, Sam, so first of all, which hand was moving more for you in that last breath cycle when you did your little assessment? Was the top hand moving more or the bottom hand?

0 (39m 50s): The bottom hand.

4 (39m 51s): Amazing, amazing. And so in case there was anybody listening who was like, oh my gosh, my top hand feels like it has the bullseye and I just cannot get air to my bottom hand, gang, this is just, this is a moment, okay, this is your baseline, this is where you are, it

0 (40m 9s): Tells me and spiking air to your bottom hand. Do you, I mean if, if my bottom hand is moving in and out, is there any way that it's just like my abs reflexively like, you know how you can just sometimes push your belly out? Like when you, when you're a kid, did you ever like push your belly out for

4 (40m 24s): 10, right?

0 (40m 25s): Yes. Like is there a difference between like doing that versus actually getting breath into the diaphragm? Yeah.

4 (40m 34s): Super question. Yes, a hundred percent. So it shouldn't be like that pushing your belly out or like you're having a bowel movement. There should be nothing forced about it. It should be organic and natural and it might not feel like, imagine if you were filling a glass of water. Okay? So you want that air to start, you know, it comes in through your nose, it hits the back of your throat, it warms when it hits the back of your throat. Then just visualize that air going down into, you know, the deepest part of the core, right into that belly button area. And then it's gotta reverse. It's gotta come almost like the mercury in a thermometer. It's gotta come up back from that belly button up through the ribcage, out the mouth and then we, and then we repeat it all right?

4 (41m 22s): That is very different than forcing the air in and in or out making that belly button push out. Or like I said, almost like that bowel movement type sensation. What you're actually doing in that case is you are unnecessarily creating interabdominal pressure that can damage the pelvic floor. It can actually create a lot of unnecessary stress intention. And so we, we do not want that, okay? We actually want the face relaxed, like the eyebrows melting off the face and, and gang understand this, this is not, you know, if you watch a newborn baby breathe, their belly rises and lowers. We lose that ability as we get older.

4 (42m 3s): We just do. And so this is actually a rein entrainment of the brain to connect into the diaphragm. And for some of us, especially if we've experienced any sort of trauma, and I had a chat with Dr. Amy, a Pigon who was talking to me about trauma and she said her definition was trauma is anything that is too much too fast or too little for too long. And I'm like, oh my god, I love that definition of trauma, right? So we, you know, be humbled by your body and understand that you might think to yourself, your ego might think, what I know how to breathe and yes you do to sustain, you know, your bo your bodily functions.

4 (42m 44s): But what if you could tap into this very basic form of breath and up-level, literally your cellular health, your 70 plus trillion cells, what if they were just a little bit better next week than they were this week? What would that mean for your overall health? And this is where I think women's health misses the mark sometimes, is we, we focus on the puddle of sweat or we focus on the 21 day fill in the blank fitness challenge, right? And we don't go back to the basics.

0 (43m 15s): Yeah, that is well said. Okay, well we started this conversation talking about pelvic floor health and the Koch ball and then we, we've talked about the diaphragm for so long now. I mean, when is this Koch ball gonna come into play? Okay, I need, I need to know.

4 (43m 30s): So here we go. Let's go into the Koch ball. So you guys, the Koch ball was my answer to a problem that I believe needed solved. The basics of the pelvic floor besides breath is that when our muscles are fascial tissue, which is connective tissue, a little bit different than muscular tissue, fascial t fascial tissue can stick to muscles and nerves and bones and joints. Fascial tissue also, when it sticks, it wraps around muscle fibers like a boa constrictor snake. And it doesn't allow blood flow in any muscle that is lacking. Blood flow is lacking. Its life force. Life source, all right?

4 (44m 12s): So many of you might, you know, use a tennis ball on your tight shoulders or a foam roller on your legs. That's where my mind went. I was like, okay, if we need pelvic floor or if we need blood flow in a muscle to create optimal function, then why would that not apply to the muscles, the fascia, the nerves of the pelvic floor? So we're doing all these Kegels and we're doing all the things we should, but yet we haven't created the environment for change. The environment needs oxygen, rich nutrient rich blood so that when we add the diaphragmatic breathing and good posture and all these principles adding our lifting and lowering of the Kegel, then we actually can improve our, you know, our confidence, our sensuality, the function.

4 (44m 58s): We don't have to worry about our organs falling out of our body as we age. All those kinds of things. And I couldn't find a product on the market that kind of really checked that box for me. And so I created one, I created one and I decided to name, I took the naming of this product very seriously, just like naming my children because I wanted it to have this really fun, sassy chic personality. I wanted women to either giggle when they were like, it's called the what ball, the cooch ball. Or I wanted them to be like, it's what, like kind of in a bit of disbelief. That's what I wanted from the first, you know, first thought of this product. And so yeah,

0 (45m 38s): There's, there's nothing subtle, right? There's no shame. I guess that's the best way to put it. Coming back to that Latin roots. Yeah, exactly. Let's

4 (45m 45s): Get rid of it. It is what it is. And so here's the deal in a three minute experience and you work your way up to three minutes when you sit on the cooch ball on a chair, on the floor, on your bed, on your couch, you literally put the ball, like if you were a mama hand sitting on a nest on your eggs, you put the ball under the perineum like it's, it's between the pubic bone and the anus. Those bony bones in our butt. The sit bones are like little library bookends on either side of it. You sit on this ball, you go within focus, your breathing inhaling and exhaling like we learned. And the weight of the body on the ball starts to melt through the fascial restrictions that eliminate that oxygen-rich nutrient-rich blood.

4 (46m 30s): The breathing practice that you do when you're on the ball creates the dynamic strengthening of the muscular area. So you get the release from the body weight on the ball, you get the strengthening from the breath work. And really in 180 seconds there is so much juicy goodness going on in your pelvic floor in that area. When you get off the ball, it feels like you have the grand canyon between your legs. Over time you will feel this beautiful tingly warm sensation. And that's how, that's the biofeedback where you're like, ah, that's it. There's the blood flow that I am searching for so that you can start to then use the breath to create the function.

4 (47m 15s): Cuz the muscle has to relax and it has to work, right? It needs both sides of it. And you guys, I wish it was more complicated than that, but that's really the missing piece. And I, and you know what, Samantha, you, you mentioned earlier, like young girls, I mean I, I wish young girls knew this or we were educating them more. The Koch ball is not just for, you know, the 40 to 55 year old woman. I've had moms actually buy the Koch ball for their tween age daughters and sons who are, who are wetting the bed and they just can't find a solution. You guys, that's a pelvic floor issue. We have little kids now that are very anxious little beings and we're seeing incontinence issues in these preteen kids.

4 (47m 60s): Like we would in, you know, 50 and 60 year old bodies. I had a 91 year old client from New York City call me and she said, well she, before she bought the ball, she said she wanted to get it for her husband cuz it is a co-branded product. It's the Koch ball for women and the Gooch ball for men. She bought him one for his birthday, he was turning 93. And she just said to me, Janna, he is just losing his spunk in the bedroom and I just want to give him this for his birthday cuz it's gonna help, it's gonna, you know, it's gonna bring joy to me too. So that's why I mean this, it truly is for every body and not just the pelvic floor.

4 (48m 41s): There's lots of other ways that we use it, but the messaging is pretty simple. Is that we do have the power within us to drastically impact our pelvic floor health men and women and, you know, let's not support that 24 billion incontinence product industry. Yeah. Let's learn more about our body and how we can, and it takes time. This is not a quick fix. Right? And that's what I, I want everyone to understand is that it is not, you know, a 48 hour turnaround and

0 (49m 15s): Yeah, that's, it's not quick, but it is simple and easy. Simple. Like, anyone can do this. Yes. Yeah. It should be just

4 (49m 22s): Like you brush your teeth every day. This really should be a part of your, of your wellness routine. It releases tight hips, low grade back pain, cold, tingly feet. It'll improve your digestion, your posture. Like there's just so many layers to what, what the pelvic floor is connected to as part of a muscular system in our body.

0 (49m 42s): Yeah. And for those wondering like what it looks like, I I would characterize it as it looks like the texture of a dodge ball and about the size of a grapefruit, a little like a big grapefruit. Yep. That's perfect. The best way I could describe it. Yep. Perfect. Amazing, Janet, such a, such a powerful tool. Also, I've already said this, but just the work that you're doing really is, it's so aligned with the mission of this show, which is to really put the power of health in people's hands, giving them the education and the tools they need to make these tangible improvements on their own right.

0 (50m 22s): Total autonomy. So I, I love it. This has been phenomenal. Do you have any last words you wanna share before we move on to our closing questions?

4 (50m 32s): If you feel like you have tried everything, you know, done everything, seen all the doctors and the, and the experts. And when I was going through my pain, I was told after two years that my pain was in my head that I was seeking attention and my medical team wished me a nice life. And it wasn't until I had that kind of dark night of the soul that I realized that I was looking in the wrong place for healing. I was looking outside of me and really I needed to turn my focus inside and learn about my body, respect my body, you know, be humbled by my body. And so, you know, that's, that's the message that I would just love to, you know, plant in the minds of our listeners because you are, you are amazing, fabulous, spectacular human beings.

4 (51m 25s): And our body is meant to heal. We just need to find the right pieces of the puzzle to start that process.

0 (51m 36s): Janna, this is incredible. Thank you for, for sharing all of this with us. Before you go, we always love to ask our guests couple closing questions. And the first is, what's one or two self-care practices you try to do every day to stay healthy? I, I assume getting on your cooch ball every day is one of those

4 (51m 54s): Things. Getting on my cooch ball absolutely is one of those things. You know what else is a non-negotiable for me? And so our family moved from Canada to Mexico, and so we left the snow and we're, you know, we have the sand. So I do have the luxury of every morning going into my backyard, my bare feet on the grass, my hands on two palm trees, and just really grounding into Mama earth and just having so much gratitude for, you know, what she provides for us. So that for me is, you know, literally when I come down from my bedroom, I head outside and that's what I do. And, and I, and you know what, even when I was in, in Canada in Saskatoon, I would do my best not in bare feet on the snow, but to get outside and, you know, get my hands on, on a tree every single day.

4 (52m 41s): And then the other thing for me is just, you know, starting my hydration as early as I can in my day to wake up my thirst mechanism because I know that when my body is hydrated, that I am in a much better position to have a day that is, has clarity versus brain fog. And so for me, those, you know, those are the basics. A little bit of movement, some sunshine, some breath, getting on my cooch ball, and I try and do it in a stacking way so that I'm being super efficient with, you know, a 10 minute morning routine that checks so many of my boxes.

0 (53m 19s): Well finally, Jana, what's just one thing we should all ditch completely and replace with something healthier today?

4 (53m 26s): Yeah, I think we need to ditch the mindset that we have to, so this goes back to my fitness piece. I think we need to leave and ditch behind the belief system that we need to leave a puddle of sweat on the floor, or we need 60 full minutes to move our body, or it does not count. Let's dump it and let's find moments in our day, 10 minutes, five minutes, 15 minutes where we can move our body because those moments of movement turn into momentum. And that is a beautiful thing when we can get rid of that eagle based movement paradigm and move into this very fluid, blissful, easy way of, you know, bringing movement into our life.

0 (54m 19s): Well, Jana, obviously, I want to encourage everyone to go check out the Koch ball. It's just koch ball.com and that's c o o c h ball.com. But I understand that you have a extremely generous offer for our listeners, so I'll have you explain that.

4 (54m 36s): I do. So what I have for everyone here today is the Cooch ball bundle, and it's the complete bundle that you can't get on my website. So you get the Koch ball, you get all of the educational videos that come along with the Koch Ball. I've got a course called Create Your Pelvic Floor Upgrade for the, for the women and for the guys. I have a course called Gooch Powers. You get to share this with a special man in your life. And just because you are a listener and part of Samantha's community, I am gonna add what I call the Koch Fix Pack Mini. So this is three half hour sessions that with me on the Koch Ball, and I'm gonna show you how to use your Koch ball for eliminating bloating.

4 (55m 26s): If you have neck pain, if you have headaches, if you have any sciatic issues, digestive issues, we're gonna go through these three 30 minute sessions so that you can then use your cooch ball for head to toe body wellness tool. And the, so you guys, let me tell you, the, so as work that we do on the Koch Ball is absolutely amazing. It is an emotional release, it is a physical release. Say goodbye to your back pain, say goodbye to your, you know, your bloating and your constipation, and it just feels so, so good. So I would love to encourage you to take advantage of this offer through Samantha's community so you can get that Cooch Fix Pack mini as an added bonus.

0 (56m 11s): Oh my goodness. And those are three 30 minute one-on-one live sessions with you, or

4 (56m 16s): Like pre-recorded videos. They're pre, they're pre-recorded videos so you can watch them at your convenience, you know, when it works for you, and just really learn how to build the cooch ball into more than a pelvic floor tool.

0 (56m 29s): Oh, that is amazing. I am so excited about this. Thank you for sharing that with our audience. Now, like Janice said, you won't be able to find it on her website, so we'll put a link in the show notes to make it really easy for people. So wherever you're listening, whether that's on Apple Podcast or Spotify or through our website, you should be able to just scroll down a little, or there might be a show notes button or a more button somewhere. Just click on that and we will make that link really easy for people to find. Thank you again, Janet, that's so generous of you. And I'm just, I'm ecstatic if you, if you guys can't tell, I'm just, I'm in love with you. I'm in love with this woman.

0 (57m 9s): I'm in love with the Koch Ball and I'm just very excited that you are able to come here and share this message with our audience. So thank you, thank you. And we really appreciate you here on the essential oil revolution. I

4 (57m 22s): Feel the exact same way about you. So thank you for the way you show up and just, you know, lift up and, and help humanity rise. That's what it's all about these days,

0 (57m 33s): Right? Absolutely. The essential oil revolution is created by me, Samantha Lee Wright, thanks so much for tuning in. You can catch us here again next week, but in the meantime, keep on learning, keep on discovering, and most importantly, keep on treating yourself well. You are so worth it.

 

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