This meditation is designed to support you in any journey to parenthood that involves your belly,
Whether it's pregnancy,
Trying to get pregnant,
Or going through IVF.
We're going to bring compassion to your belly and your heart space and whatever emotions are present.
Let's get started.
I invite you to get comfortable where you're sitting right now.
Take some wiggles,
Some squiggles,
Whatever you need to find a little more ease in this space.
You deserve to be comfortable right here.
There's no right way of doing this,
So why not make it a little bit more comfortable?
Once you find that space where you think you'll be comfortable sitting for a little while,
Go ahead and close your eyes if that feels good to you,
Or allow your gaze to tune out or to look at something beautiful.
Let's start by taking some deep belly breaths here.
We're going to breathe in to the lower belly,
Really noticing it expand as you inhale.
And really noticing it contract as you exhale.
Breathing in to the lower belly,
Noticing that expansion,
And noticing that contraction.
On this next deep breath,
I invite you to sigh it out once you breathe in.
Inhale,
Let it all go.
The sigh can have a beautiful effect on the nervous system.
When you're running from a tiger,
You're not going to be sighing.
So this can just naturally shift us out of any fight or flight response to the nervous system.
We might be in,
Help move us into a more calm,
More easeful state.
Now,
If you haven't already,
You can let your breathing normalize as much as it wants to.
There might be an element of control here.
That's okay.
Just notice your breathing as it is now.
Notice where you feel the breath the most as you breathe in.
And notice where you feel the breath the most as you breathe out.
As you do this,
Your mind is going to wander off.
That's part of the human experience.
That's perfectly okay.
Just call your attention back to the breath when you notice your mind has wandered.
There's a lot of power in doing this.
It helps prepare you to focus and direct your energy and attention in the future.
Now,
I invite you to take the fingertips of one hand and place them against the fingertips of your other hand.
Make really small circles with your hands,
Noticing your fingertips moving against your fingertips.
Beautiful.
When the mind wanders,
Now it goes right back to the fingertips.
Now,
Drag your fingertips of one hand,
Gently down your fingers and palm of your other hand,
And notice those sensations.
Now,
You can let your hands move in any way that they want to against each other,
Really tuning in to all of the feelings right here as you do.
Beautiful.
Now,
I invite you to see if you can notice the sound of one hand moving against the other.
If not,
It's okay,
But we're just tuning in to that sense of the sound right now.
Lovely.
You can relax your hands now and notice the sound of your breath.
Notice how it sounds different as you inhale and as you exhale.
Now,
Notice the sensation of that breath on your nostrils.
As you breathe in,
As you breathe out.
On your next breath,
See if you can notice that pause between the inhale and the exhale,
Between the exhale and the inhale.
Now,
Let's continue to watch our breathing,
But move the focus to the chest,
To the heart space.
Notice the rising and the falling of your chest as you breathe in,
As you breathe out.
While we're here in this heart space,
Let's just check in to what other sensations are happening in this region right now.
See if you notice any buzziness,
Jitteriness.
Maybe there's an open feeling.
It could be a really relaxed feeling.
It could be tension.
Just notice what's there.
If you start to judge what's there,
That's okay.
That's normal.
Just bring your attention back to noticing what's there,
What's going on in that space.
Let's drop the awareness a little bit lower now,
Down into the belly.
Maybe you want to place your hand there,
And notice what sensations you feel in this space.
Such a beautiful,
Beautiful space.
It does so much for us.
It digests our food,
Grows new life,
Has the potential to grow new life.
Let's just take some time here to honor and have some reverence for this space,
For all of the potential that it holds,
That it's been with us through our entire life,
Through the hard times,
Through the best times.
It continues to be here to work with us now.
Bring some love here to whatever's happening in this space for you at this point on your journey.
Is this space preparing you for a future life that'll grow inside?
Is it nourishing you so that you can have energy to care for the beings that you bring into your life or that are brought into your life?
Is it growing the material,
The eggs that are going to turn into your future children?
It's so beautiful that it is doing all of this for you.
How grateful are you for this incredible part of your incredible body?
Maybe you can even visualize yourself bringing some love into that space,
Carrying some love down from the heart.
Maybe you can visualize some green light being carried down,
Surrounding your whole belly,
Your whole womb space.
Maybe you want to move your hands in circles here and just bring love to whatever's inside.
Let's shift our awareness back up now into the heart space again.
Do another check in here.
Notice what sensations are in this area.
Again,
Is there jitteriness,
Openness,
Tension?
Notice the intensity of it and the strength of it.
And notice if this has shifted at all from when you initially checked into this space.
Oftentimes,
Tension,
Anxiety,
Fear,
Worry that we're carrying starts to disappear or dissipate when we bring a loving sort of attention to it.
It's going to have a lot more power many times than trying to push those feelings away or pretend they don't exist or busy our minds with something else or logically explain to ourselves why we shouldn't be having those feelings.
So continue to check in with this space and I invite you to take note of this and decide that you're going to come back and do this again later today and again tomorrow.
And pick a time,
It doesn't have to be an actual time on the clock,
But a moment when you're going to do this.
It could be when you sit down for a meal,
When you pick up your water,
When you lay down in or wake up in your bed.
Pick this time for yourself and now visualize yourself doing this,
Checking in with the heart,
Feeling what's here,
And checking in with the belly and feeling what's there when that time comes.
So when you're holding that drink or laying in bed or whatever time it is,
Just allow yourself to see yourself doing that.
And if you can't see things like that,
If that's not the way that your mind works,
That's fine,
Just pretend.
You can tell yourself the story of it to prepare yourself for when the time comes.
Beautiful.
This is where a lot of the magic lies in the preparation work that we do.
Because our journeys to parenthood,
They have a lot more uncertainty than a lot of other things in life.
There can be more triggers,
More stresses,
More things out of our control,
More hormone fluctuations.
But it's the same tools that help us through this,
That help us through everything else.
We just need to be more vigilant,
Practice about using them,
About using them before we need them.
Because there are more little things in life that are likely to throw us off a little bit.
So when you come back here,
When you practice this tomorrow morning,
When you're feeling relatively good,
That's going to help you notice more quickly the anxiety,
Stress,
Uncertainty starts to build.
And you'll be able to bring yourself back from that place more quickly.
And you can do that by returning to this meditation.
Just continue to breathe here for a little bit,
Noticing the rising and the falling of your body as you breathe.
Returning the mind as needed,
Giving the mind that gift of being anchored in the body when you remember to anchor it.
And let's pause for some gratitude here,
Gratitude for yourself,
For taking this time for you today,
Gratitude for everything that you've done to get yourself here on this journey,
For the things you're going to continue to do,
To your body for making this happen,
Or doing its best.
And if there's anything else that your body needs right now,
Go ahead and take it.
And actually,
You can ask right now,
You can ask your body,
Is there anything that you need in this moment?
Is it a hug?
Is it some gentle touch?
Is it a big stretch?
A deep breath and a sigh?
Go ahead and give yourself this gift,
Which you deserve.
And know that all this work that you're doing here,
This time you're taking,
It's not just serving you.
It's serving the life that you are cultivating or getting ready to take care of.
It's going to serve you right now.
And it's going to serve you on your journey as a parent.
A couple more deep breaths.
Big stretch if that feels good to you.
If you're returning to your day here,
I invite you to slowly blink over in your eyes.
If not,
If you want to stay in this space,
That is perfectly okay.
That's a beautiful choice to make for yourself.
