The best pregnancy advice EVER!
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The best pregnancy advice EVER!
You have just found out you are pregnant which can come with feelings of excitement, anticipation and sometimes outright fear and overwhelm, especially if it was unplanned. All these feelings are expected in light of the huge changes that your body is about to undergo, both physically and emotionally.
There is no turning back, suddenly you no longer have just yourself to consider as you are now growing another person. With this new level of responsibility, generally comes a truckload of pregnancy advice aimed at supporting you to have a healthy pregnancy and ultimately grow a healthy baby, but the best pregnancy advice EVER is not likely to be amongst what’s offered.
It would seem that being pregnant, especially if it is your first pregnancy, is a green light for becoming public property where well-meaning strangers feel it is their duty to offer pregnancy advice on your choices. Now everything you eat, how much sleep you are getting, what type of exercise you’re doing, how your stress levels are, as well as making sure you are giving up alcohol and smoking, are all pieces of advice focussed on the wellbeing of the baby.
This can lead to the newly pregnant woman feeling more like an incubator in preference to a woman who happens to now be carrying a baby. Add to this all the expectations to prepare for a positive birth and it's not surprising that while some pregnant women embark on embracing healthy lifestyle changes, others just carry on, hope for the best and do little to prepare in reaction to all the outside pressures.
Although listening to advice that encourages making positive lifestyle changes may increase the chances of a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby, there’s a missing piece of pregnancy advice that is not being currently shared by strangers at the supermarket checkout. The best pregnancy advice ever truly supports women in pregnancy and beyond and it’s not just about the wellbeing of the baby, but encompasses the true health of the woman as a whole. This seemingly unknown advice is:
Pregnancy offers an opportunity to connect to what it truly means to be a woman, not from all the pictures and ideals we have taken on about being a woman, but from connection to the qualities of preciousness, beauty and inner stillness that each woman innately carries within her.
The ability to reconnect to these qualities is not unique to pregnancy as it is possible for every woman at any stage of life; however, when a woman’s womb is activated during pregnancy there is greater pull to live from these innate qualities.
You may be surprised to know that this piece of advice is already known within each woman, but when we are so busy being caught up in everything outside of us, including ticking off the pregnancy checklist, we don't give ourselves space to connect to these qualities. I know when I was pregnant with each of my seven children, connection was far removed from my reality as I was so totally immersed in all the things I thought I needed to do. There was rarely a moment to even check what I was feeling, let alone connect to what it means to be a woman.
"A woman's body flows naturally in the stillness of her grace when it is un-imposed by the rigours and onslaughts of our imbalanced world."
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings & Revelations Volume I, ed 1, p 526
The first step in embracing this known inner-knowing is to understand that every pregnant woman will be feeling the subtle messages from her body to connect to her innate inner stillness. The ways women may experience this pull include:
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feeling more tired
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needing to slow down and rest
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feeling put off with certain smells or foods
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not wanting to tolerate certain behaviours, feeling more sensitive to what feels true
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acting on what is needed or doing what is true and right for her body, no matter the outside advice.
All women are the same but different and have different experiences with each pregnancy. This is why listening to these messages, consulting our body and honouring what we feel is true for us is so important, instead of overriding what we feel or continuing to push through to meet expectations or ideals.
‘After ten years of offering myself and my body genuine self-care, then falling pregnant, I got to feel and appreciate the beauty and depth of stillness pregnancy offered. When I compared this feeling to what I experienced 12 years ago with my first child I can see that from the way I was living at that time I was in resistance to the stop, surrender and stillness pregnancy brings to a woman’s body’
You can probably relate to some of these subtle messages from your own experiences, which confirms that your body has already been letting you know about this key piece of pregnancy advice. All that’s needed now is for you to give yourself more space to listen to these messages without the distraction of all the doing and ‘have to’s’ and then you may find that you will be begin to feel the qualities of preciousness and inner stillness that lives within each woman. A great support to feel more connected to your inner stillness is to gift yourself the time to practise the Gentle Breath Meditation® and Esoteric Yoga as part of your pregnancy preparation and beyond.
With the awareness and commitment to reconnecting to your innate stillness, the next time you receive some random pregnancy advice aimed at what you should be doing to ensure you will have a healthy pregnancy for your baby’s health, you will know that by listening to the wisdom of your own body you are truly embracing the best pregnancy advice ever, which will naturally support you to take loving care of yourself and subsequently your growing baby.
Filed under
Pregnancy, Lifestyle, Stillness, Awareness
