After I obtained pregnant with my first daughter, I knew my yoga practice (and, effectively, my entire life) would change. As a yoga instructor, I frightened I wouldn’t really feel “myself” once I wasn’t in a position to follow in the identical means, and I questioned how that may have an effect on my instructing.
“Nothing can actually put together you for the way you’ll really feel or be shifted whenever you turn out to be pregnant,” says Rachel Welch, a yoga instructor, ladies’s well being advocate, and founding father of Revolution Motherhood. “Aware and embodied motion throughout being pregnant provides you self-direction and comprehension of your altering physique.”
Initially, I couldn’t see that working towards whereas pregnant and within the postpartum interval would really make me a greater instructor and scholar of yoga within the years to come back. Not solely that, nevertheless it’s additionally made me a kinder, extra affected person dad or mum and individual.
1. My follow turned my very own
After I practiced pregnant in studios, I discovered myself craving a slower tempo and, in some poses, full stillness. I additionally turned conscious of how briskly I used to be shifting in all these Vinyasa lessons I’d been taking earlier than I used to be pregnant, and I noticed there was a draw back to probably not stopping and feeling every posture.
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So I introduced my follow dwelling and dedicated to 5 breaths in three poses (a minimum of) per day. Holding poses for just a few breaths is widespread in Hatha yoga, and it’s nonetheless my most well-liked fashion to follow right now. Holding the poses, over time, helped me develop extra energy and adaptability.
“Being pregnant lends itself to slowing down,” Welch says. “If you hear deeper, you have got the chance to inhabit your physique and energy deeper and extra utterly than earlier than.”
2. My steadiness (ultimately) improved
I thought of myself ungraceful earlier than I obtained pregnant (sure, at the same time as a yoga instructor). However throughout being pregnant, the additional weight within the entrance of your physique offsets your middle of gravity, which may have an effect on your steadiness and lift your threat of falling, in accordance with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
Practising yoga, nonetheless, has been proven to assist improve balance and coordination, in accordance with Harvard Health Publishing. In prenatal yoga, you’re even inspired to make use of props to help your self in numerous yoga poses that can assist you work in your steadiness in a means that feels protected.
I labored on balancing poses, like tree pose (Vrksasana) and supported half moon pose (Ardha Chandrasana), extra once I was pregnant, and I seen actual enhancements in my coordination and stability over time.
I didn’t wait to “bounce again” or “get well” to start out treating myself with the love and respect I deserved.
3. I discovered methods to (actually) take heed to my physique
It’s widespread to listen to an teacher say “take heed to your physique” firstly of a yoga class. The intention is to carry consciousness to your inner bodily sensations, which helps construct energy and keep away from harm.
In being pregnant, there’s typically no different alternative however to take heed to your physique: Being pregnant signs are uncomfortable. Not solely that, however you’re working towards with a brand new physique that’s altering at warp velocity, so it’s no secret that issues are going to really feel a bit (lots) totally different.
Each day, I rolled out my mat and laid down for a physique scan meditation, which took about 10 minutes. Physique scan meditation is a way wherein you shut your eyes and focus your thoughts on the sensations you are feeling in particular person components of your physique, one after the other from focusing in your physique’s sensations, from head to toe or vice versa, in accordance with the Cleveland Clinic.
Whereas I used to be pregnant, I held my physique in excessive regard because the automobile that was creating, carrying, and on the brink of beginning my child. The place prior to now, I’ll have tried to “combat via” discomfort or low vitality, I practiced accepting my state of affairs because it introduced itself every day. I noticed many signs have been my physique’s means of asking for extra consideration or relaxation, and I decidedly honored every request.
“Being pregnant and motherhood are alternatives to embody the largest, brightest, most genuine expression of you,” Welch says. “The adjustments you encounter on this chapter are your guides to self-understanding, to learn the way your physique works and to re-pattern your bodily and psychological energy.”
Most days, I did simply that: I moved slowly and gently on my mat. I tuned in with curiosity and compassion. I took the time I wanted for me, to honor my very own wants and meet them.
The entire level of yoga, some would argue, is to attach the physique and the soul, or the you that exists within the right here and now, not the “higher” model of you that exists someplace off sooner or later.
So I didn’t wait to “bounce again” or “get well” to start out treating myself with the love and respect I deserved. I discovered via my prenatal follow that acceptance is the true superpower, and progress (or development) comes out of it—a lesson I’ve taken with me off the mat.
