Body Conscious: A Book for Women

Body Conscious is for women who are seeking to connect with and understand their feminine body on a deeper level. It shares the answers to the questions women have about topics that are often considered too delicate to talk about.

This book is for women who want more than the western medical approach that offers a limited scope of wellness. Rooted in an understanding that we are more than our physical body, it offers an exploration of how our emotional, energetic, and spiritual health impacts our pelvic health and our overall wellbeing.

Body Conscious respects the multi-layered and dynamic nature of female wellness and the pain that we carry within – offering education, guidance, and practices, to help you reveal your unique healing path.

It is an excellent resource for practitioners that work with women, who want to broaden their knowledge of pelvic health and holistic pelvic therapy. Understand evidence based clinical concepts, whilst embodying practices that will ultimately support you in helping women to improve their feminine wellbeing.

Taryn Gaudin is a women’s pelvic floor physiotherapist and whole body connection guide. She helps women connect to their wholeness through simple embodied practices so that they may experience and express their fullness in all aspects of their lives.

Overcoming her own challenges with pelvic pain, she spent the last six years developing an alternative therapeutic approach to women’s wellness combining clinical evidence-based physiotherapy with energy medicine. Reflecting a deep appreciation of the connectedness of the physical, emotional, and spiritual body, her approach has been pivotal in uncovering the core issues of the physical pelvic symptoms that her patients experience.

What inspired you to write the book?

I was sitting by a beach bonfire with my family last year, and I had an overwhelming message come to mind – you need to write a book. Having worked with women as a pelvic floor physio for the past five years, and created a unique integrated approach that I had been developing over the past three years, I knew women wanted access to the information and insights that I write about within Body Conscious. This book gives women an opportunity to tap into their body’s wisdom, whilst understanding pelvic wellness on a physical, emotional, energetic and spiritual level. They can take this inward journey at a pace that suits them, in the comfort of their own home. This, to me, is so important.

What were some of the most significant discoveries along the way?

Perhaps the most significant discovery for me, now that this book is published, is just how many women are celebrating this book. Women are affirming that this book is something they want to read and share with their girlfriends. 

Along the way, my most significant discovery was how seamless a foreign process can be when we trust in the journey. I felt supported in the entire process, even though I had no idea what writing a book would look like or entail.

What is your experience with prolapse and how might the book help women with prolapse?

I remember the day when I first felt symptoms of prolapse. I was so devastated. My mind immediately went to worst case scenarios, and I felt like I was a victim in my body – that I was going to feel like this forever. It was emotionally and physically exhausting. It affected every aspect of my life. Having tried what felt like every physical therapy under the sun to fix my pelvic pain (and prolapse symptoms) I finally took the journey inward and listened to my body. It wasn’t until I healed my relationship with my body, that I healed my pelvic pain.  Throughout Body Conscious, I share evidence based physiotherapy practices that help prolapse, along with my understanding of the energetic, emotional and spiritual aspects of pelvic wellness. I draw on my clinical practice, my personal embodied experience, and the wisdom of women that I have been able to access through sharing my integrated approach to pelvic floor therapy. 

Can you share a small excerpt?

I’d love to. Following is an excerpt from the Holistic Pelvic Health section of the book. In this part of the book I share all about pelvic wellness – from how to find a pelvic floor therapist, pelvic floor muscle training tips, how to relax the pelvic floor, and how pelvic organ prolapse is managed. In this excerpt where I talk about the Pelvic Bowl and Pelvic Energy. 

THE PELVIC BOWL:

The pelvis consists of three bones, the left and right hip bones, and the sacrum. These bones form a ring. The circular ring of the pelvis and the underlying muscles of the pelvic floor create the pelvic bowl. On a physical level, the pelvic bowl houses the female reproductive organs, as well as the bladder and the bowel. This physical space in the female body is a powerful creative centre. Not only is it where life is created, but it is also the fertile ground in which all forms of creativity are seeded, fertilised, nurtured, grown, and birthed. 

This powerful centre of a woman’s body is also the space that holds the key to immense pleasure, not only of a sexual nature, but the simple pleasure that comes from experiencing the powerful connection we have with other women, our children, and nature itself. 

Throughout our lifetime, women are consistently brought back to this space in their bodies. From the beginning of menstruation we are gifted a cyclical reminder of our natural rhythm and our connection to Mother Earth. Through pregnancy, miscarriage, birth, sex, and menopause, our attention is drawn to this space over and over again throughout our lifetime. Women who live in tune with their body, in particular the pelvic space, know that this is no mistake. 

PELVIC ENERGY

You can see that from a physical standpoint, the pelvic floor has an important role in offering us support. Being the floor to the pelvic bowl, it has an intricate relationship to all that is housed within our pelvic bowl, in particular our female reproductive organs including our uterus/womb – our physical creative centre that produces life. The pelvic floor, along with the uterus and ovaries, hold valuable information for us around our acceptance of our feminine body and our feminine energy, and all forms of our creativity. 

As women, many of us have become disconnected from this space in our body due to societal suppression of feminine energy, and inherited belief systems such as ‘creativity is not as important as productivity’ or ’embracing your femininity is a sign of weakness’. Over many years women have disconnected from their feminine energy, and are now lacking in rituals and self-care practices that help us to honour this sacred space, particularly in the Western world.

Rather than reading about this space, feeling it for yourself is much more powerful. The Body Connection Practices (pages 271-303) section of this book contains a series of practices that you can use to help you connect with this space.

When we feel connected to this space in our body, we: 

• Feel the power of our feminine energy
• Understand the value of living in tune with the ebb and flow of our cycle
• Create at a pace that allows for potency and ease, rather than pushing ourselves into overdrive and forcing ourselves to keep on keeping on,
• Have clear, loving limits and boundaries in all of our relationships
• Have a healthy sexual desire and can express our desire openly and vulnerably in safe environments
• Can assert independent judgement
• Connect with others through grounded emotions
• Live with fluidity and trust in ourselves and our support networks
• Lean into the support of others and can sense the support that the universe offers to us always  

When we are disconnected from this space, or when it is requiring some attention from us we:

• Feel burdened by our feminine body and our feminine nature. Our monthly cycle is inconvenient, our body is never good enough.
• We feel like we are too much- too erratic, unstable, too emotional, too sensitive. 
• Lack healthy and clear boundaries in our relationships – in our sexual relationships, our friendships, our working relationships
• Feel an imbalance of our sexual desire – either it is lacking, or it feels like it’s in overdrive
• We feel like our feminine body and anything related to it is taboo, dirty, or wrong in some way.
• Lack independent judgement
• Have difficulty accepting support from others, and can feel like the world is against us more often than not

Visit www.taryngaudin.com and purchase Body Conscious here.