Prenatal Meditation Tips

Each part of pregnancy brings new experiences and new opportunities to connect with baby. Bellybuds has just launched Journey Into Pregnancy, a meditative series of intentional explorations for the expectant mother. Designed to complement an expectant mother’s journey as she progresses from conception through birth, this four-part series begins with meditations on balancing the chakras and continues through the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd trimesters.  For every album sold, Belly Buds will donate a portion of proceeds to Little Ripples, a Darfuri refugee preschool program tailored to a population exposed to severe trauma.

Journey Into Pregnancy is narrated by Khalsa Way Prenatal Yoga instructor Stacey Martino. Here are a few of her prenatal meditation tips:

• The best place to meditate is a quiet place where you feel comfortable and won’t be interrupted. Traditionally a straight spine for the flow of prana (sanskrit for life force) is best, but when pregnant, lying on one’s side is perfectly fine.

• Even five minutes makes a difference in how we feel and experience our day. Many traditions believe twenty minutes of meditation twice a day is ideal, but there is no minimum time for self-care. Our goal in pregnancy is self-care more than focus.

• Setting our intention to clear our mind can put undue pressure on ourselves. Rather, setting our intention to accept and release our thoughts, feelings ,perceptions, memories and associations instead of labeling or changing them is the traditional focus of meditation. During pregnancy, however, we may want to create a specific feeling state based on health, peace or trust, for example. In this series of exercises, we are using our senses, imagination and attention to explore and create particular feeling states of awareness and experience which are beneficial to mother and child.

Happy pregnancy!