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A Cure for Incontinence
One Woman's Story of Hope
By Lyn Mettler
As a longtime yoga practitioner, Nett had used yoga to help her live with the fibroids before her surgery. One day after surgery while practicing her yoga, she felt a contraction in her pelvic floor that she had never felt before. She immediately went to look up that muscle in her anatomy book. "From that awareness and that knowledge, I started doing more research," says Nett. Step by step she started learning how to move and not move the appropriate muscles in that part of the body and over a period of months cured herself of her incontinence.
Today, that's the method that Nett shares with students around the world, young and old, who are struggling with daily incontinence.
Nett, who also teaches psychology at a local college, begins by helping her students validate themselves through telling their own story – be it out loud or in a private journal. "The first thing that a woman has to do is be validated," she says. "Incontinence is very embarrassing. The self-esteem tends to be low."
She starts by sharing her story in a very open manner. "There is a hunger, a need for people to be very frank with (women with incontinence)," says Nett.
Next, she educates them about their bodies, presenting the anatomy of the pelvic floor and the physiology of where urine comes from. "That empowers them with a little knowledge," says Nett. "It's amazing how many people don't know simple things about how the body works."
Then, using visualization techniques, they begin to learn how to make contact with the two main muscle groups of the pelvic floor. Understanding and invoking these muscles together is unique to Felt Sense,says Nett, as other methods for trying to access these muscles only direct one to "contract and release" or try to stop the urine flow. Students learn how to make conscious contact with these muscles both separately and together.
Want to see more?
- When Laughing Makes You Leak: Fast Facts About Stress Urinary Incontinence
- Active Living: Managing Urinary Incontinence
- Staying Active, Controlling Incontinence: A Primer for Men and Women
- Breathe In, Breathe Out: The Art of Yoga
- The Art of a Kegel
- Turn up the Heat! Reshape Your Body With Hot Yoga
- Talk about it!
