What This Practice Helps With
Bowel predictability and pelvic floor coordination are paired neurologically with bladder function, and rated by people with spinal cord injury as an equally significant concern — the unpredictability itself often weighs more heavily than the physical function. This practice targets the felt sense of that function: recognising the bowel's signal, and working with the pelvic floor's release and hold.
It works by rehearsing the two-way conversation between brain and bowel — signals travelling down from the brain, and signals travelling up from the body — using the pathway that's still there, even where signal recognition has become unreliable. It doesn't replace bowel management strategies or medical care; it's something to try alongside them.
Find a comfortable, private position. If you have a regular bowel routine, you may find this practice fits well in the calmer time after that routine — but trust what feels right for your body today.
This practice pairs naturally with the bladder awareness practice — both work with the same neurological territory at the base of the spinal cord. Some people find it helpful to do them on the same day; others prefer to alternate.
If at any point a part of this practice increases discomfort or feels wrong, stop. Try a different practice, or come back another day.
The Four Parts
This practice uses three different ways of working with your mind. Each one does something different for your brain and body. They flow into each other — each part helps the next part work better.
Breath and Light
You begin with the breath. A soft light enters the top of your head with each in-breath and stays with each out-breath, gathering warmth as it settles low into the pelvic bowl.
Nothing is asked of you yet. This opening creates the calm state the imagery needs in order to land.
The Ideal Being
A figure appears in front of you. It might be Jesus. It might be the version of you who feels strong and whole. It might be a being made of light. Whoever feels right.
This figure has a body whose bowel moves at its own rhythm — predictable, manageable, without anxiety. The system is calm and trusted. You watch them at first. Then they step into you, and you become them.
The Bourbeau 2020 research found that unpredictability of bowel function was rated as more distressing than the function itself. Imagery of a predictable, working system addresses the actual emotional weight, not just the physiology.
The Pathway Through Your Body
You follow the signal pathway down from the brain, through the spinal cord, to the sacral level — where bowel control lives. From there, out through nerves to the colon and the pelvic floor.
You listen for any sense of how the bowel is. You gently try the intention to release, then the intention to hold. The trying is what counts, regardless of what happens on the outside.
This is genuinely a two-way conversation — signals up from the body, signals down from the brain. The practice traces both directions.
A simplified schematic rather than an anatomical reference, drawn from the front. The vagus nerve reaches the bowel from above without ever entering the spinal cord; the sacral and pelvic route below the changeover does cross it. A fine dashed line marks the gut's own nerve network, which keeps the bowel moving regardless of injury level.
Breath and Light
You return to the breath. The warm light pooled in the pelvic bowl during the practice stays there as you settle — the same imagery you opened with, returned to deliberately, framing Parts II and III rather than only following them.
The closing rest gives your brain space to consolidate what just happened. The practice continues beyond the formal session — in moments of quiet attention during the day, and especially while you sleep.
Recorded in Jeremy's own voice — no AI or synthesised narration is used anywhere on this site. The full written script is below if you'd rather read than listen.
The Script
The text below is the script for the audio above, word for word. It's here if you'd rather read than listen, or if you'd like to follow along while the recording plays.
Read the script
Part I · Breath and Light
Find a position that feels comfortable. This practice works with bowel awareness — if you have a regular routine, you may find it fits well in the calmer time after that. Trust what feels right today.
You're here. You can hear this. Your breath continues, in and out, with no effort from you. And simply noticing it means the practice has already started.
Take a slow breath in through your nose, and let it out through your mouth. Again. Slower. Let your breathing find its own rhythm.
Bring attention to the top of your head. The crown. Just above it, a soft point of light — felt, not pictured. Each in-breath, brighter. Each out-breath, deeper.
Now let the light begin to travel. Through the crown, the throat, the chest, past the navel, into the pelvic bowl. A soft golden warmth pooling in the lower belly.
Part II · The Ideal Being
A figure begins to form in front of you. Whoever this figure is for you. This figure has a body whose bowel moves at its own rhythm — predictable, manageable, without anxiety. There are no accidents, no endless waiting. Just a calm working system the figure trusts.
The figure moves toward you. Steps into you. And at a moment you don't need to mark, the watching ends. You are the figure. Their calm working system is yours. Their trust in their body is your trust in your body. You feel from inside the quiet awareness in your lower belly. The light still warm in the pelvic bowl, settling everything.
Part III · The Pathway
Now we move closer in. Begin at the brain — the part that has always known how the bowel is. Follow the line down through the spinal cord, past the chest and lower back, to the sacral level — where the bowel lives.
This is where the conversation happens. Signals up from the bowel, signals down from the brain. Feel the nerves leaving the spinal cord, branching outward, reaching the colon and the pelvic floor.
Gently — bring awareness to the lower belly. Listen. And as you listen, the belly can soften a little more. Then send the gentle intention to soften the pelvic floor. The intention to release. Then reverse — the gentle intention to hold, the pelvic floor lifting just slightly. Whatever happens or doesn't happen on the outside doesn't matter. The sending is real. Feel the whole circuit, in both directions.
Part IV · Breath and Light
Return to the breath. The light is still in the pelvic bowl. The work is settling in. The signals you sent are real.
Your body moves through natural rhythms all day. About every 90 minutes, your mind drifts. When you feel that drift, return for a breath or two to the warmth in the pelvic bowl.
At night, as you drift toward sleep, the practice is especially potent. A few breaths of pelvic awareness as you fall asleep carries the work into your dreams. Same when you first wake.
Take one more slow breath in. Let it out. Notice the room. The light is yours. The pathway is yours. The practice continues. Thank you.
When to Practise
Once a day is good. Three to five times a week is the dose used in studies that produced measurable results. But the formal session isn't the only time the practice happens. Three other moments in your day are also potent — and free.
When your mind drifts
Every 90 minutes or so, your mind naturally softens. When you notice that drift, return for a breath or two to the warmth in the pelvic bowl. Just a moment of attention.
As you drift off
The minutes before sleep are when your mind is most open. A few breaths of pelvic awareness as you fall asleep carries the work into your dreams.
First thing
That quiet minute before you reach for anything. A few breaths. The lower belly. The light. The waking edge is as receptive as the falling-asleep edge.
This practice is based on published research into mental practice, brain plasticity, and what happens in the brain when you watch someone move. Several proper studies — the kind with a control group, so researchers can trust the results — support mental practice as genuinely helpful when it's added to normal rehabilitation after a spinal cord injury. Bowel function specifically hasn't been the direct target of that research; the practice extends findings from motor imagery studies of other functions to this one. The point about unpredictability being more distressing than the function itself comes from Bourbeau and colleagues, 2020.
The specific four-part structure used here — Part I (breath and light), Part II (the Ideal Being), Part III (the pathway through your body), and Part IV (breath and light again) — is my own creation. Nobody has tested this exact combination in a clinical trial. Each piece on its own is backed by research; putting them together like this is a reasoned choice, not a proven method.
This is not a treatment. It's a free practice, meant to sit alongside — never replace — your bowel management plan and your clinical team.