While we may not be able to avoid stress, we most certainly can avoid strain by focusing on ourselves and our own responses, rather than trying (often in vain) to get a hold of circumstances beyond our control.
Express the FullRange of Emotions
Study after study has clearly indicated the negative impact of suppressing emotions. The quest for a pregnancy is rife with all sorts of emotions--anger, sadness, fatigue, fear, excitement, hope, discomfort, love, pain, envy, frustration, joy.
Many women mistakenly believe that they need to always be "nice," especially if they're trying to become mothers. It would be more accurate if they were able to appropriately express all their emotions, even the ones they feel are "unbecoming." What is suppressed festers.
Whether you find a support group, a religious community, a circle of friends, or a therapeutic relationship, the most important thing you can do is have someone you trust and that you can safely talk to about all your feelings.
Some pregnancies I've seen in my practice were initially blocked by unresolved trauma and/or interpersonal issues around a parent or a spouse. When those issues have been resolved, the women became pregnant.
Self-Talk: Verbal First Aid For Pregnancy
Charles Swindoll has said, "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on my life"Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."
What we think about ourselves and what we say to ourselves forms the bulk of our response to the world. Our thoughts, our feelings, our attitudes affect our behavior and our biology.
What do you tell yourself? What do you hear deep in yourself, in the small dark spaces between heartbeats? Do you tell yourself how hopeless it is, how awful you are, how unfair your life has been? Or, do you remember your strengths, focus on the gifts you've received, and stay loving and open? Do you zoom in only on what has failed and frustrated you? Or do you pick up a wider angle lens to see all that is around you?
Dr. Bruce Lipton has claimed that over 4,000,000 bits of information careen into our nervous system every second. We are only able to consciously register 2,000.
Which 2,000 bits of information do you choose to see?
"Spreading through the nations, The Tao brings peace throughout the world. How do I know this? Because it begins with you and me." (Tao 54)
