Well, if I ask myself truthfully, I guess I trust my mind more than my body. I am working on strengthening that love and trust with my body through things like yoga and acupuncture – not just for fertility.

And of course, there’s always that dreaded fear that thinking too hard or worrying or stressing over having a baby reduces the odds of that very thing happening.

A new book I’m reading, The Mind-Body Fertility Connection: The True Pathway to Conception by James Schwartz actually draws upon studies and research to create a real connection between stress and the body’s physiological reactions to it. Like, a woman’s muscles around her fallopian tubes tightening during ovulation as a result of a past stressful situation.

RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association, promises that stress does not cause infertility, but struggling to conceive certainly creates stress and they encourage women to look into daily practices to help minimize that stress.

Melissa, both at Stirrup Queens and in her weekly column at BlogHer takes issue with the quick correlation between stress and fertility:

even if the mind-body connection exists and stress levels affect hormone production, pointing out how stress affects the body and asking those in a health crisis to relax through therapy, yoga, and meditation is reductive (and, in turn, raises stress levels when you hit that brick wall). If it were truly a solution, the infertility crisis would be moving towards resolution rather than chaos as technology improves and stress reducing outlets increase.

Good point.

Tell me, what’s your take on the mind/body connection? Does thinking about it stress you out even more?

Image: Newscom 

Post from: Blisstree

Which Comes First, Chicken or the Egg? Stress or Infertility?

flows within us and around us, giving all things life, animation, warmth and form. Similar to electricity, Qi is invisible but its effects can be seen. When the Qi is flowing in harmony, the body is able to take care of itself. However, the flow of Qi can become obstructed or unbalanced.

And balancing and freeing up that Qi is a big part of what acupuncture can do for you – get it flowing smoothly again throughout your body and more importantly, to those baby-making parts that need it. But you don’t need to rely on those little needles to get your Qi back in check. There are lot of things you can do to help.

Perhaps I shouldn’t say “do” because what restores your Qi isn’t necessarily doing, it’s just being. More from Fully Fertile:

most of your daily activities deplete Qi. Working, playing, worrying, and exercising all cost us some Qi. We develop or cultivate our Qi by eating nutritious, well-cooked foods, meditating, practicing Tai Chi or yoga, walking for pleasure, appreciating art and music and other types of restorative or non-activities.

In other words, its about finding a balance.

Fully Fertile recommends keeping a Qi Drain/Qi Gain journal, if only for a week or so to recognize which side of the equation is off for you. It didn’t take more than a few lines for me to figure it out.

Lately, I had been feeling a lot of anxiety related to work and multiple pending projects, and that had begun to seep into my personal life, I am sure to the detriment of my fertility (and my relationship with Michael). “You are being awful,” he said to me at one point last week. And I couldn’t argue. Do you ever have those moments when as words are actually coming out of your mouth you think to yourself, wow, I am being an *sshole, but you keep talking anyway? I was having a lot of those moments. So reading this chapter and really thinking about that balance and working towards even-ing it out again couldn’t have come at a better time. I was putting so much of my time into doing, that there was really no time left for being. Every time I sat on the couch with Michael, I felt guilty. Every moment I wasn’t at my computer I was seeing as a lost moment, when really it is the opposite.

So this is what I have been doing to cultivate my Qi:

• I went kayaking – a smooth, midweek, peaceful jaunt up the river and back, through the reeds. Being in the water is my ultimate meditation and I think I somehow forgot that;
• I bought a kayak - in the hopes of not forgetting that again;
• I spent all of Sunday morning sitting on my balcony in the sun reading a book (guess which one) and gently reminding myself that Monday didn’t matter, at least not yet. This moment in time was for me; and then
• I spent Sunday afternoon playing with my in-laws dogs and basking in the sun. Weekends are not made for working. This is my new mantra

This week has been easy to fit in some Qi time because my boss has been on vacation. Let’s see if my resolve and my balance maintains once she’s back.

What are some things that you do to cultivate your Qi?

Post from: Blisstree

What are You Doing to Cultivate Your Qi?

From a mystical standpoint, the breath is believed to bring prana, or life-energy, into the body. This life-energy is considered divine, the spark that illuminates all beings. When we are full of prana, we are healthy and at peace mentally and spiritually. For fertility, it stands to reason that we want to maximize prana.

that sounds reasonable to me. How do we gain prana? According to Fully Fertile,

• Deep, mindful breathing
• Eating non-processed, organic foods
• Interaction with/contemplation of nature
• Prayer

How do we lose it?

• Stress
• Physical Illness
• Obsessive thought (what? are you saying thinking about something you want 24/7 isn’t a good idea? oh.)
• Strenuous exercise
• Poor diet, too little/too much food

Its funny, I decided to give yoga a second chance just to get more mindful of my own body and the mind/body connection, you know, to get my head right. I really hadn’t been thinking about it (at least not consciously) as a tool to facilitate my fertility. But the more I read, the more it seems it could do just that.

Bonus.

What are your thoughts on yoga? Weigh in on Fertility Notes’ latest poll.

Post from: Blisstree

Maximizing Prana for Fertility’s Sake