It’s profound and life changing. Yet you may not have the patience for it. While patience is a trait of the new way of coping with pregnancy and birth, it is the one that will be the most challenging.
Why is that?
Because the American culture drives itself in “doing”, not sitting idle, or wasting “time” as we know it. We are so “busy” in our lives that we forget to actually “live” it because we’re on auto-pilot.
As a result we are usually exhausted by the end of any day in the week and wishing for something else, or something more in our lives. What we’re missing is the opportunity to slow done, enjoy our lives with decreased, or at least, a manageable level of stress. We are surrounded by stressful events in the world and in our personal lives.
Add pregnancy and an anticipated birth experience to a woman’s life and stress is off the map!
90% of stress is self induced
Enter a new way of coping with and enjoying life, Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the here and now, moment to moment. Often out thoughts are focused on the past – what has happened, or thinking about the future – what will happen. The past is history that we usually base our lives, careers, relationships, and behaviors on. The future hasn’t happened yet and is a great source of stress.
The current moment is the only moment that is real, not a memory, but one that is being experienced and free of past or future thoughts. Thoughts are just thoughts we keep thinking and they can be an enormous source of anxiety, stress, and suffering. Yet in the moment life is clear and unexaggerated.
In childbirth, women fear the experience because they expect it to be painful. So thoughts about what hasn’t happened yet are rampant leading to increased stress and fear .
Mindfulness can help dissolve rampant thinking by paying attention to “what is” at any given moment. Mindfulness decreases stress, anxiety, and fears. It even decreases physical pain by experiencing what is and not magnifying it.
One of the amazing things about being a human being is we can learn new ways of”doing things and “being” and apply the knowledge to our lives. This is one of those educational moments where you have a choice to learn a new way of coping or just do what everyone else does – panics about childbirth. It no longer has to be that way.
Childbirth needs patience to be what it is. Women need to be patient during pregnancy and birth and allow it to happen on its own.
Cultivate your patience. Sit and wait for something with patience. Wait on lines in stores with patience. Wait your “turn” with patience. Drive your car with patience. Babies and children need patience. Parenting needs patience.
Are you challenged being patient? Let me know. Add a comment.
Birth bold,
Lesly
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