Category: Mind-Body-Spirit
Guided Meditation for Reclaiming Serenity on Your Path to Motherhood
Instructions: Before listening, empty your bladder, put on loose comfortable clothing, and settle into a dark, comfortable space where you won’t be disturbed. For greatest impact, listen with headphones.
How to Be Treated as More Than a Pregnant Woman – Maintaining Your Sense of Self
Are you sick of people only talking to you about pregnancy, birth and motherhood when they see your belly? Here’s some tips to help you be seen as more than a baby creator (as amazing at that is!)
Email me at BaileyGaddis@yahoo.com if you have any questions about pregnancy, childbirth or early motherhood that you would like answered on this channel 🙂
If you would like more information about these topics, check out Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood – https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Mommy-Childbirth-Motherhood/dp/1608684717
Guided Meditation for Childbirth Fear Release
DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS WHILE DRIVING Instructions: Before listening, empty your bladder, put on loose comfortable clothing, and settle into a dark, comfortable space where you won’t be disturbed. For greatest impact, listen with headphones.
For more pregnancy, childbirth + early motherhood support, check out Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Momm…
Guided Meditation for a Blissful Journey Through Childbirth
DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS WHILE DRIVING Instructions: Before listening, empty your bladder, put on loose comfortable clothing, and settle into a dark, comfortable space where you won’t be disturbed. For greatest impact, listen with headphones.
For more pregnancy, childbirth + early motherhood support, check out Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Momm…
Nurturing Your Romantic Relationship During Pregnancy
Thoughts on how to connect + communicate with our partner as we near parenthood.
Great book for relationship support: “The 5 Love Languages” and “Non-violent Communication”
Email me at BaileyGaddis@yahoo.com if you have any questions about pregnancy, childbirth or early motherhood that you would like answered on this channel 🙂
If you would like more information about these topics, check out Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood – https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Mommy-Childbirth-Motherhood/dp/1608684717
Using the Five Senses to Transform Childbirth, Baby Bonding + Bad Moods
How to use sight, sound, touch, smell and taste to enhance the wild journey through childbirth and beyond 🙂
Link to relaxation recordings I mentioned: http://yourserenelife.com/wordpress/g…
Email me at BaileyGaddis@yahoo.com if you have any questions about pregnancy, childbirth or early motherhood that you would like answered on this channel 🙂
Discovering Your Unique Purpose for Motherhood + Beyond
Support for finding your customized purpose, which will stoke your energy and enthusiasm for motherhood and more.
Email me at BaileyGaddis@yahoo.com if you have any questions about pregnancy, childbirth or early motherhood that you would like answered on this channel 🙂
If you would like more information about these topics, check out Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood – https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Momm…
Developing Healthy Communication in Your Relationship Before Baby Arrives
Examining the super tricky, yet essential element of communication between partners before their baby arrives. Here’s a link to more info about Non-Violent Communication: https://www.cnvc.org
Email me at BaileyGaddis@yahoo.com if you have any questions about pregnancy, childbirth or early motherhood that you would like answered on this channel 🙂
If you would like more information about these topics, check out Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood – https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Momm…
Why Tears Are Crucial on Your Journey Into Motherhood
Whoever coined the term “don’t be a cry baby” was not only a jerk but doing a huge disservice to our health. We need to cry! It’s crucial for our mental, physical and spiritual health. If in doubt, cry it out.
Email me at BaileyGaddis@yahoo.com if you have any questions about pregnancy, childbirth or early motherhood that you would like answered on this channel 🙂
For more information about these topics, check out Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood – https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Mommy-Childbirth-Motherhood/dp/1608684717
How to Build Your Support System for Pregnancy + Childbirth
To dive deeper and receive more support, get your copy of Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood at https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Momm…
How to Practice Vibrant Self Care During Early Motherhood
For more pregnancy & childbirth tips, tricks, and support get your copy of Feng Shui Mommy, https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Momm…
Inspiration for Prenatal Exercise
For more pregnancy & childbirth tips, tricks, and support get your copy of Feng Shui Mommy, https://www.amazon.com/Feng-Shui-Mommy-Childbirth-Motherhood/dp/1608684717
5 Practices That Will Help You LOVE Your Postpartum Body
Body shame is a master at sliding in after baby slides out, potentially increasing your chances for postpartum blues or depression. This body shame is often a product of the early postpartum body appearing to be 4-5 months pregnant for many weeks or even months after baby is born.
This “in-between body,” a body that is no longer bearing a child but is far from resembling its pre-pregnancy physique, can be challenging to feel love for.
But, doesn’t that heroic body that just accomplished an epic feat deserve to be looked at with awe, and lived in with appreciation? Yes, you and your beautiful body deserve to be loved and honored. And yes, it’s possible to get yourself into that sweet space of body-lovin’.
Here are five steps to help you begin integrating with your transformed body, learning how to love all of it in the process – maybe even more than you loved your pre-pregnancy body.
1. Find New Role Models For It
Instead of flipping through magazines featuring celebrities who “Lost All the Baby Weight in Six Weeks!” seek out role models for your body that are exemplars of health versus external beauty.
Find examples of mothers who learned to work with and adore their new body by offering it nourishing food, moving it in ways that felt good, and learning to touch it and look at it with pleasure and appreciation, even if it was bigger or softer in some areas. Seek out real women who became champions for their postpartum anatomy.
2. Honor It
Your body conceived, grew, and birthed a new human! Holy moly! What a miracle.
Your body is a miracle. Mull on that for a moment – really settle into a knowing of how amazing your body is.
When you shift your focus from what your body looks like, to what it can do, your love for it will expand exponentially.
Your body is a master craftswoman of humans!
3. Move It
One of the best ways you can show love to your body, and then feel that love, is by moving it – get your blood pumping, endorphins flowing, pores opening, sweat releasing, lungs expanding, muscles working, and mind clearing.
There’s no need to subscribe to a new extreme fitness regime, but walking down the street, taking the stairs, going to a yoga class, or engaging in any other type of movement that feels good to you can shift the way you experience your body and infuse a fresh dose of respect into your relationship with it.
4. Touch It
I avoided all contact with my stomach and nether regions for the first six months after my son was born – I would wash as quickly as possible, skip my belly when applying lotion, and put clothes on ASAP. I felt completely disconnected from a significant piece of my Self.
Even if it’s difficult at first, and your ego repeatedly cringes, make yourself gently feel your new body – all the nooks, crannies, soft edges, ripples, bumps and swollen bits. Find a private space, get naked, and explore the new landscape of your body.
5. Look At It
Now that you’ve allowed your sense of touch to become familiar with your body, introduce it to your sense of sight.
Much like the last exercise, it’s best to get naked for this experience. Stand in front of a large mirror, look into it and smile at yourself. Gaze into the depths of your eyes then slowly scan down from there, pausing on each section of your body until you feel appreciation for it.
Avoid the temptation to skip over aspects of your form you think of as “a work in progress” or “unappealing.” Every inch of your body has beauty and value because it is all a piece of the Miracle of You.
These integration practices will help you find peace with the current reality of your body, which often creates the motivation for you to continue taking healthy steps to get it back into its optimal shape (a shape that is different for everyone!)
You’ll also be pleased to discover that by loving your body as is, and releasing your resistance to that belly pooch or tapestry of stretch marks, fresh pockets of time open up in your day that can be filled with enjoying the precious product of your body’s hard work.
P.S. Until 12.31.17 you can get 10% off my favorite baby carrier at ErgoBaby.com! Just use the super simple coupon code BBMkp9VIniU 😉 And, FREE shipping!
Why the State of Awe Will Change Your Life
Little did I know that as my son and I sat in awe as we watched athletes dressed like Spider Man, Thor, Black Widow, and other Marvel characters flip motorcycles, spin on silks, and bend in every which way, we were slowing down our perception of time, enhancing our ability to be generous, and promoting our good health.
A study done at Stanford University [http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797612438731] found that when people are in a state of awe, they feel like they have more available time. In addition, the study, published in Sage Journals, reported that being in a state of awe also encourages people to prefer experiences more than material items, and promotes greater life satisfaction. They determined that “the power of the awe” primarily comes from a heightened ability to be in the present moment when experiencing something that makes the jaw drop and the mind pays attention.
10 New Ways to Afford Fertility Treatments
Before the birth of her daughter, Aurora, in 2016, Heather Huhman, host of the podcast Beat Infertility and founder of content-marketing firm Come Recommended, went through seven cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF), suffered four miscarriages and gave birth to stillborn twins, Eric and Alexis. As difficult and heartbreaking as the Washington, DC, woman’s journey to motherhood was, she never stopped working—she had to foot the almost-$60,000 bill for all those fertility treatments.
Heather is not an anomaly. A survey by FertilityIQ, a fertility doctor and clinic evaluation website, found that 92 percent of women undergoing fertility treatments are employed. Of those, 68 percent work a full 40 to 50 hours a week.
One big reason? More and more women are postponing pregnancy until their mid-to late 30swhile they’re furthering their careers—and this delay often makes fertility treatments necessary to start a family. But medical need isn’t the only reason working women make up the majority of fertility-care patients: The high price of help forces many women to continue earning a paycheck while trying to conceive. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine reported that the average cost of one IVF treatment in the United States is $12,400, not including the extra medications a woman might need and the added fees for using an egg or sperm donor, or gestational surrogate.
Hypnosis for Children
I’ve had the pleasure of many amazing clients under the age of 18 (many of them under the age of 12) come through my hypnotherapy practice in the past few years, and after seeing similar issues come up over and over again (in my own child as well!) I decided to make a set of short hypnosis tracks to support children with the trickiest issues such as sleep, fears and phobias, potty training and bed wetting, and much more.
All recordings are under 10 minutes and follow a very specific formula geared towards offering children a clear, gentle, and effective experience.
If you’re interested, check them out here. (P.S. The page takes a few seconds to load.)
Here is a complimentary sample for you to check out 🙂
5 Design Principles for a Peaceful Nursery
*Written by WHITNEY HARRIS (This is a piece I was interviewed for.)
Whether your design aesthetic is modern minimalist or shabby chic, it’s helpful to create a calm and peaceful retreat for your baby’s room. You’ll spend countless hours in there feeding, changing, playing with, and soothing your little one, so why not fashion a space that creates a smidge of sereneness for both of you?
We asked a panel of design experts to share their best tips for creating a nursery that soothes both baby and mamma alike—when the munchkin isn’t wailing like a siren, that is.
CHOOSE A CALMING COLOR
There’s a reason people often turn to soft pastels when decorating a nursery. Muted tones are best for soothing baby, and neutrals like whites and grays or soft shades of a single color are particularly calming, say Melisa Fluhr and Pam Ginocchio from Project Nursery, a site featuring DIY tips and advice to help parents design gorgeous rooms for their babies. When it comes to finding that one optimal hue, Pam says to follow your intuition. Each color has an underlying meaning—she says blue is serene, green is about health and renewal, yellow is warmth and hope, orange is inspiring and fun, pink is creativity and nourishment, purple is exploration, and light browns or beiges are nurturing. She warns to avoid red because it can be over-stimulating—save that for the playroom.
KEEP IT AIRY
Choose furniture in lighter finishes and let the rest of the room be open so light can bounce around, say Melisa and Pam. Empty space is a must for serenity and also encourages baby’s exploration, explains Bailey Gaddis, author of Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childhood and Motherhood. She recommends pushing the crib against a wall only if it’s directly behind the baby’s head, which can help promote energy circulation. She also suggests adding air-purifying plants to the room, like her favorite, the peace lily.