5 Ways to be More Mindful in your Pregnancy
Pregnancy can feel overwhelming at times for a lot of us. With so much advice from experts, friends, parents and everyone in between, it can be a lot of, often contradictory, information to take in. But being mindful in your pregnancy can help you to start to trust your own choices and know what advice will work for you and what is not a fit for you and your baby.
If there’s one piece of advice I would give you it would be that “There’s no one right way to do anything”. Which really means that there are a lot of options and YOU can choose the one that feels best for you.
But this does mean we need to create some stillness in our lives and build that connection with yourself and your baby so you can start to understand and listen to what that best choices for you is. Whether it relates to how you want to give birth, how you want to feed your baby, what your sleep set-up will be or anything else in parenthood.
So, here are 5 ways you can be more mindful in your pregnancy:
1.Start Journaling in your pregnancy
Spend some time in your pregnancy journalling on how you’re feeling and spending time contemplating what feels right for you when it comes to the most important decisions regarding your pregnancy, birth and postnatal period. You can use the journal prompts we provide in our free Pregnancy Toolbox, or find yourself a pregnancy specific journal, and start to go deeper on the decisions you need to make. Journaling allows us to get our feelings and ideas out of our head so we can start to understand ourselves a little better. So start journaling, whether it’s daily, weekly or even a monthly reflection will help you get clearer.
2. Talk to your partner
You are (in most cases) going to be parenting with someone else so it’s important to communicate well and start to work as a team. You may not always 100% agree on every decision bit agreeing to respect each others views and talk about what’s important to you and work through it together. If something is extremely important to you then communicate that. The important thing is that you are on the same side and respect each others differences. And if you have differing opinions on certain topics then you want to know so you can mindfully work through them together.
3. Practice Yoga
Being mindful and aware of what is going on in your body during pregnancy is so important. Yoga is one of the best and most recommended forms of exercise during pregnancy for a reason; it’s low impact, you can adapt it to your own energy level and it allows you to destress and get more in tune with what is happening in your body. It’s also a perfect time to connect with your baby and start to strengthen the bond between the two (or more) of you. Yoga offers you the perfect opportunity to listen to your body and strengthen awareness while navigating the many changes that happen in pregnancy.
“Yoga offers you the perfect opportunity to listen to your body and strengthen awareness while navigating the many changes that happen in pregnancy. ”
4. Be mindful of what you consume
By this I mean on social media, when watching tv, reading, anything! Anything you consume about pregnancy and motherhood will naturally have some sort of influence on you. Now I don’t mean toxic positivity, as it’s wise to be aware of any challenges and complications that can arise in pregnancy and birth but if all you are consuming is negative stories and narratives then that will only have a negative effect on your wellbeing. Make a commitment to look at and understand any potential risks or issues but then put that aside. Don’t drown in it. And spend time also reading and looking at positive stories. And then trust that your body and your baby are on the same side and by building awareness and being more mindful in your body and mind you will make the right decisions when you need to.
5. Learn breath work and meditation
Nothing helps the mums and mums to be that I teach more than the relaxation in our classes. The stillness we find in meditation and in focusing on the breath is where that peace can be found. That knowing and truth of who you really are and what is best for you is easier to be heard when you create that stillness. We live with so many distractions now that we need to consciously create some stillness and quiet and I couldn’t recommended meditation and breath work more for this.
So if this has inspired you to want to feel and be more mindful in your pregnancy then we have a free download for you…
The Mindful Pregnancy Toolbox is the first step towards a more mindful pregnancy and includes a free pregnancy yoga class, meditation for pregnancy, affirmations got pregnancy and a Journal for your pregnancy!
