‘relaxation’ Articles
Written by Corry on 31 August 2010
Got to love this exercise for what it does to your derrière! Not only is this a great exercise but also a move that you need to be aware of during pregnancy while picking things up around the house.
Picking items up:
Due to the increased weight strain on your lower back it is key to slowly lower the body down in a squat – knees following over toes to pick anything up off the floor (laundry, towels and young children). When standing up engage the abdominals by holding them in to support your lower back. Be aware of picking anything up that causes you to hold your breath or grunt, as this is dangerous to your developing baby.
Exercising:
Squats work all of the major muscles in the lower body. There are two ways this super effective exercise can be done during pregnancy.
a.) Have a chair behind and sit into the chair and then without using your hand stand back up. Repeat this exercise for 3 to 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps.
b.) Take legs out wider than shoulder width and externally rotate toes slightly. Lower down holding abdominals in, and then exhale as you stand back up. Repeat this exercise for 3 to 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps.
Interesting article/research about full squats (which are deeper and more intense than recommended here for general exercise during pregnancy).
http://www.articlesbase.com/womens-health-articles/full-squat-during-pregnancy-to-do-or-not-to-do-661743.html
Tags: health, pregnancy, sleep, trimester
Posted in health, pregnancy, relaxation, week by week pregnancy tips | No Comments »
Written by Stacia on 17 August 2010
Breathe and enjoy the blessings of a new life soon to be!
Meditation doesn’t have to be a long, involved process. It’s simply the art of slowing down, sitting quietly and focusing on your breathing for a few moments each day. It allows you to stay connected to your body and mind and lets you learn to listen to your body’s demands. No one else is listening to it, so do yourself a favor and just breathe a few times a day.
How to breathe? Try reverse pattern breathing.
Breathing is both a voluntary and involuntary action. Here, I’m going to teach you to focus your attention on your breath. Breathing in this manner requires focus to do it correctly. When you find your attention wandering, simply bring it back to the pattern.
This is not the style of breathing taught in Voice Coaching, nor will you find it in Yoga, Qi Gong or any other of the soft styles of movement. Each of those techniques has a specific outcome, to increase your lung capacity and to allow you to feel the breath and energy move along your body. Reverse Pattern breathing is only about focus.
Sit up straight for the moment, so you can really feel your body following the movements. The mantra, or phrasing you want to hold in your mind, is “In and up, out and down.” You’re going to breathe in, pulling your navel into your spine. And up, allowing your lungs to expand and fill with air.
- Breathing out, reverse it. Allow your lungs to collapse and your belly to round.
- Slow and steady. Repeat it at least three times to start and work yourself up to using it as part of your relaxation sessions. That’s all there is to it! Yoga and Qi Gong will teach you alternate patterns to focus your attention as well. I find this one works for me no matter where I am. If I focus my attention on breathing in this manner, I can control my blood pressure at the doctor’s office or even calm myself before stepping in front of a large group of people to give a lecture.
PS – You can teach Reverse Pattern Breathing to anyone! It will help a toddler calm down during a temper tantrum, help you control your temper and response in an argument, and even keep you calm at the dentist.
Tags: hypnosis, nutrition, relaxation, trimester
Posted in motivational, pregnancy, relaxation | 2 Comments »
Written by Stacia on 20 July 2010
It is important to establish a good support system through family, friends and Mom’s groups. Check out some support meetings for expectant Mom’s. Places online like iVillage and BabyCenter are great resources. We’re building a network here as well. Check meetup.com and see if there are any local moms looking to find others going through this same life-changing event.
The development of a strong support system can help you get through the rough patches of pregnancy as it can be a time of stress, fatigue and anxiety as well as great joy.
It is a time of tremendous change, psychologically and physically. Women need support, both emotionally and physically, through this important life-changing event.
The first place you will turn for help during pregnancy will be your spouse, then your family and your friends.
These are the people who are in your life on a consistent basis, so it is natural that you would seek their support first. You want to be selective with your support system. If there is a person or persons in your life who are being negative, you will want to limit your exposure to them. Surround yourself with the people in your life who are supportive and helpful. It is important to avoid emotional conflict and stress where you can because you will have enough of that on your own.
Other places to build a strong support network are prenatal groups and childbirth classes.
They can help you connect with others who are experiencing some of the same issues as you are right now. Your primary care provider, childbirth educator or hospital social worker can place you in contact with support systems in your area. Many times the friendships formed through these groups can continue long after the pregnancy and birth, and sometimes can be a support system for life.
I’d established early on in my pregnancy that I didn’t want to hear the ‘bad’ stories. I threatened to wear a No Negativity button just to keep people from sharing. What is it with us? We have to share all the pain and details of what wasn’t up to our expectation for that first pregnancy? Umm, hello??? Not all births are painful. Nor do they need to be. Industrialized nations are the ONLY ones who consider birth to be painful and pregnancy to be something other than the purely wonderful action it is. More natural regions, women have babies in fields and go right back to working….NO PAIN. I swear, it’s the media’s fault.
I surrounded myself with positive people.
I warned those who started down the path of a bad story to keep it to themselves. I and the baby could hear them. If I found myself obsessing over something too negative, I leaned into meditating or searching out positive stories.
Make sure others are aware of you’re no negativity zone. Friends and family may have great stories to share, but cut them off if they start to make you nervous. Remind them, good stories only! They’re supposed to be there to support you.
Tags: 1st trimester, baby, childbirth, health, relaxation
Posted in health, motivational, pregnancy, relaxation | 3 Comments »
Written by Stacia on 13 July 2010
It is important to get enough quality sleep and enjoy it now while the body still feels good! You’re growing a whole new person in there, so your sleep requirements will increase for now. Promise, it’ll level back out (just don’t hold me to saying WHEN it will level back out).
During your first trimester, you can’t get enough sleep. If you sit down, you fall asleep.
Just go with it.
Your body and your BABY need it. It is during this trimester, the sleep-inducing hormone progesterone starts surging through your body, and pressure on your bladder from your growing uterus sends you to the bathroom countless times every night.
Three issues you encounter during this time:
- The need to nap – caused by elevated levels of progesterone.
- The inability to get comfortable – sensitive chest, sensitive stomach.
- The need to pee
I remember well, I’d get home from work – which had become utterly exhausting, sit down on the couch and fall asleep. My husband would nudge me about an hour later to see if I wanted dinner. I’d rouse myself even though I wanted to sleep more. Then, the bed started to bother me. We still have all the pillows from my pregnancy. Somehow, we got used to them and kept them.
Some things that cause havoc on your sleep cycles during this trimester include nausea, hunger and vivid dreams. For more information on Sleep and Pregnancy, download our ebook or pre-order 9 Months In & 9 Months Out.
Posted in health, pregnancy, relaxation | No Comments »
Written by Stacia on 20 January 2010
My mother went through seven miscarriages to have me. Knowing this, I spent two years preparing myself mentally and my body to even attempt to carry a baby once I’d felt ready to care for one. I read everything I could about healthy eating, learned about working out in the gym, and made slow but steady changes in the household fitness and nutrition processes.
Some women out there are blessed. They get and stay pregnant at the drop of a hat. Others are more challenged and try for years; some with success, some without.
After two years of trying I’d given up. I wasn’t interested in in vitro. It’s a great option for many, but I didn’t want to chance the multiples or the disappointment. I figured, eventually, if I really felt the need to be mom, there was adoption. There are so many children out there in need of a good and loving family.
And, then, found out a week or so later, I was pregnant.
Excitement, yet a certain calmness settled over me. I started reading everything I could. A few books that shall remain nameless scared the hell out of me. I kept up my workouts, slept when I needed to and started playing a nightly meditation CD that I used through out my pregnancy.
Years and years before, I’d seen a show on the Discovery channel that showcased Hypnobirthing® and I thought, if I was ever going to have a baby, that was the way I was going to do it, calmly and without pain. Our society is so focused on pain and timing; we forget that women have been birthing babies forever and then going right back to what they were doing. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: childbirth, hypnosis, nutrition, pregnancy, stories
Posted in fitness, nutrition, pregnancy, relaxation | 11 Comments »
Written by Stacia Kelly on 28 May 2009
You’re going to be a mom soon, or you already are. One of the most valuable skills I think Mother’s should work on is the art of relaxation. You’ll hear it called by many names: relaxation, meditation, hypnosis. Whatever YOU choose to call it, it is a skill that will serve you well.
While I help my clients with any issues they’d like to tackle, I find I have the most success using my voice for my own sessions. And honestly, I think others have more success using THEIR voices for themselves as well. But, not many are comfortable or even know where to start. Since it can be a unique challenge, I thought it would be good to give a quick process to help you on your journey of making your OWN self hypnosis recording. This week, we’ll focus on Step 1.
Step 1: Learn to Relax
For hypnosis to work, really work, you need to learn to relax yourself down without falling asleep. While I believe you still receive benefits from listening to suggestions in sleep, I find they sink in much faster if you’re able to get yourself to a heightened state of awareness – aware, but completely happy with everything and everyone.
I have found, for most people, a simple technique of walking your body down to relaxation works the best. This simply means starting with your head, moving down your body and naming each body part and asking it to relax. An example of this:
Continuing lower now, it begins to touch your forehead, and as it does, I want you to feel all the little frown lines, all the little worry lines in your forehead, just seem to disappear. The forehead smoothes out, feels so relaxed, and you feel this relaxing light coming around your eyes. Now, your eyelids seem to become very, very, heavy, so heavy they don’t even seem to want to open. They may flutter a little bit, but that’s ok, just feel how heavy they are – and as the relaxation comes down around the facial muscles now, all the little muscles in the face just begin to relax.
Relaxation comes further down around the mouth now, and all the hundreds of little muscles around the mouth just start to relax…so much so, that the lower jaw becomes heavy and the teeth part.
You proceed this way all the way down your body.
Learning this technique without falling asleep can take you several weeks to learn. If you find yourself falling asleep, try it sitting up in a chair.
Give a shout if you’d like help in creating your own relaxation script, or if you have more questions. I always love to help!
Stacia
Posted in holistic, hypnosis, relaxation | No Comments »
Written by Rain on 12 May 2009
A pregnant woman’s body is challenged, changed and stressed in many ways
It is not uncommon to experience leg cramps during pregnancy, particularly in the third trimester. According to Danforth’s Obstetrics and Gynecology, almost half of all pregnant women suffer from muscle spasms in their legs, with cramping more frequent during the evening. Leg cramps may be caused by the additional weight gain of pregnancy and changes in your circulation.
Massage can help give relief from muscle cramps, spasms, and myofascial pain, especially in the lower back, neck, hips, and legs by increasing blood and lymph circulation, which can reduce swelling. Massage can also reduce stress on weight-bearing joints.
* Using your fists, press into the sides of your hips just below the hip bone. Make slow circles with your fists pinning your fists firmly into your body so that you are not sliding over the skin. Move your fists a bit foreword and repeat.
* Push the base of your palms into the sides of your hips at the hip bone and slowly push downward towards the sides of your thighs. A little bit of lotion may help you slide smoothly but be careful not to use too much or it would be difficult to get any traction.
* Lean your body to one side and use the base of your palms to push into the back of your hip sliding down over your rear end with pressure. Repeat as many times as necessary to cover as much of the back of your hip as you can reach. Make sure to give equal time to each hip.
* Use your finger tips to pin your skin to the crest of hipbone between your lower back and rear end. Make small circles starting at the spine and moving out over the bone towards the side of your hip.
* Use either your thumbs or the back of soft fists to push down over the front of your thighs starting just under the points of your hips in the front.
* Any thing you can do with your legs will be great while you can still reach. You can gently beat your thighs with your fists, stroke up toward your hips from the knee or to the knee from the ankle. Anything to get the circulation going.
* Make circles with your finders tips all around your knees and ankles.
Posted in massage, pregnancy, relaxation | 8 Comments »
Written by Stacia on 24 April 2009
Post written by Stacia D. Kelly. Follow me on Twitter. This is an adaptation of a post on Mind-Body-Spirit Works.
I have been listening to a lot of audio books lately, and on a variety of topics. Let’s face it, my listening can range from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, which everyone should listen to since the author is the one reading and does a GREAT job, to Robert Allen’s “From Idea to Best Seller”. Honestly, the spectrum is a wide one.
But, the topic that struck home for me this week, while commuting was just a side bar in Robert Allen’s presentation. He highlighted Emile Coué. Now, seeing as how I’m a hypnotherapist (among my various titles) I should know this name, and honestly, I probably do and just filed it somewhere in my brain to be triggered later.
Anyway, what struck me the most from the start of my research was this:
Coué maintained that curing some of our troubles requires a change in our unconscious thought, which can only be achieved by using our imagination. Although stressing that he was not primarily a healer but one who taught others to heal themselves, Coué claimed to have effected organic changes through autosuggestion. (My mantra and practice as well.)
This is the perfect explanation of how I have helped myself heal in the past and exactly how I continue to do it each time I start feeling ill or making myself ill. And yes, my mother will freely agree, I used to MAKE myself sick and when I was done with it…I made myself better. I’ve even read documented cases of people using autosuggestion and imagination to heal cancer! He had a 93% success rate!
I applied this to getting pregnant as well. I worked at getting fit and healthy. I started eating better. I started working out. I started listening to meditations and hypnosis sessions to help myself destress and allow my body to prepare for being a mom.
Once I was pregnant (and let me point out…it took us two years to conceive), I used hypnosis birthing techniques to help myself to stay calm and focused. I focused on relaxation, which I also used during birth. Later during pregnancy, I added in affirmations. I think they truly helped.
Some great resources:
If you’d like some more information, keep checking back! I’ll be going through some of the methods in more detail.
Namaste
Stacia
Tags: childbirth, hypnosis, pregnancy, stories
Posted in hypnosis, relaxation | 10 Comments »
