The best Self-Care to Prepare for Pregnancy
This may or may not come as a surprise but my advice for the best self-care when preparing for pregnancy is the self-care that you can do every day. Not the massage you get once a month or every year for your birthday, not the pedicure you might get every three weeks. Self-care should happen daily (preferably multiple times a day).
One thing I work with clients on is how to redefine self-care. Self-care should be something that brings you joy, and something you can do consistently. One of the self-care habits I have built is to make time for meditation, even if it is only 5 minutes a day. Five minutes every day is better than 30 minutes once a week (but I'd also argue that 30 minutes once a week is better than none at all).
Other self-care that I sprinkle throughout the day includes making a conscious effort to move my body more frequently (this could look like some stretching at my desk, or a dance break in the kitchen with my kid), get some sunlight (preferably first thing in the morning), walk barefoot in the yard, and choosing foods that nourish my body.
The thing with self- care is that you aren't going to see the effects overnight, but all the little efforts add up to make you feel more calm and collected.
When it comes to self-care you have to figure out what works best for you personally with the goal of helping your body get out of fight or flight. Stress are inevitable and our modern environments are full of stressors coming from our foods in the form of food sensitivities, and pesticides, typical everyday stress like work deadlines, sitting in traffic, etc., and environmental stressors such as the blue light coming from your phone or computer, phthalates in our personal care products, BPA in receipts and plastic food containers, or other chemicals in our tap water to name a very limited few.
Regardless of whether you feel like you are in fight or flight, when the body is experiencing an imbalance in one area, if left unchecked it will continue to cause imbalances (such as hormonal imbalances that affect fertility) in other areas of your body.
The best way to mediate this is to develop tools you can practice to help your body get out of fight or flight, but also to build resilience to the stressors in the first place.
There are two ways I suggest approaching self-care to help you not just prepare for pregnancy, but to help your body feel more safe in general.
Think of some things that you enjoy doing that you can consistently do throughout your day. This is your self care hygiene. Things that become part of your normal routine like brushing your teeth or showering.
Some suggestions could include: dance breaks, deep breathing, 3 solid meals a day
The other type of self care might need to be a little big more thought out if you can’t make it happen throughout your day with consistency. So here’s my advice.
Choose one thing you really enjoy doing. Maybe it’s reading a book, going for a bike ride.
Figure out how much time you can realistically dedicate to it each week.
Schedule it into your calendar.
If you already have kids, and find it hard to schedule in your self-care, here are two things to consider:
Get creative, what is something you can do with your kids that also teaches them about self-care themselves
Learn to ask for assistance. This can be hard but it is NECESSARY.
Click the image blow to check out a quick YouTube video on Redefining Self-Care. I’d greatly appreciate if you gave it a thumbs up or shared with a friend! Feel free to leave a comment on the video to let me know your favorite type of self-care or what you thought of this topic!
