Inhale courage, Exhale Fear

In the lead up to your expectant birthing days, there is often this feeling of underlying anxiety, that you can’t quite put your finger on.

You think it may be: the birth, or not having the room ready, what kind of a mum you are going to be, or how your family life is going to change.

Maybe it is all of it, all rolled into one.

But in all honesty, those are issues you have looked at and addressed before, you have spoken to your partner, chatted to other moms, been over and over the birth plan, and nursery designs.

This feeling is a little different, this feeling is coming from somewhere far greater, far deeper.

In fact it’s not even your own anxiety.

These feelings, are coming from your little unborn baby, to help you get your mind in the game, to start tuning in, slowing down, and becoming more MINDFUL to the life within you.
This strange feeling of anxiety has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with your growing, developing baby.

It becomes a driver for the pregnant mamma to start tuning in.
Use this driver as an opportunity to listen to what your baby wants and needs in its final weeks of gestational development.

•Maybe it’s a change in lifestyle pace?
•Or a change in activity or exercise?
•Perhaps your baby is wanting a different form of nourishment or nutrition?
Listen to what this intelligent life is asking for.

Here are some tools to help you listen in:

•Become more mindful of your surroundings:
Do they make you feel comfortable or not?

Mindfulness provides you the opportunity to tap in, and see how your body is responding to sensations around you.
•Take a “time out” each day to do a full body scan- focus on each body part, and ask yourself how you are feeling? Has your body changed at all from day to day? Do you feel comfort, relief or tension?

•Spend a few minutes sitting in silence listening to your breath: simply following the inhale and the exhale- not judging the length or the depth? Not even judging how long you can sit for.
Just becoming aware of the effect of the breath on your body.

Notice if the body relaxes with the breath, or if you need to slow it down further?

•Practicing MINDFULNESS is a wonderful tool to help you tune out from the distractions of the world around you, and draws your awareness inward to the world of your Baby and your body.

This strange little anxious feeling is nothing other than a beautiful driving force coming from Deep within in, asking you to spend some time focusing on your own body, your growing baby and the final hormonal shifts and changes, in the build up to your birthing day.

My affirmation for this expectant time full of change and unknowing Is:

“I inhale courage, and I exhale fear”.
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