Prenatal Anxiety Meditation

hello and welcome to the meditation Mama podcast a collection of guided meditations for expectant mothers created just for you during this wild and Ever Changing time of your life I'm Kelly and today I'll be leading you through your practice so go ahead get comfortable settle in and let's [Music] meditate hello mamas welcome to this episode of meditation mama so today we are doing a prenatal anxiety meditation of course this could also be used postpartum or anytime you're experiencing anxiety um I just personally happen to experience a good amount of prenatal anxiety so I wanted to do a practice for this and this practice is actually inspired by one that I put in my anxiety Journal you are not your thoughts um I'll link to that in the show notes if it resonates with you um but it is inspired by the one on page 60 fun fact from the third week of that journal um this is one that I used a lot when I was pregnant so I wanted to share it here with you so when you're ready you can take a moment to get comfortable maybe adjusting a little bit [Music] doing anything that feels good and supportive to your [Music] body just allowing yourself to show up how you are [Music] today and we're going to begin with a little bit of breath work to help calm the nervous system um and maybe turn the volume down on some of those physical symptoms of anxiety so we'll Begin by exhaling all of the air out of our [Music] lungs and then inhaling for a count of Four 3 2 1 just pause for a moment and exhale for 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 inhaling again for 4 3 2 1 pause for a moment then exhale for 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 continue with this this we're only doing a few rounds inhaling for four pausing for a moment exhaling for [Music] seven if you're really feeling anxious when you exhale you can breathe out with these slightly pursed lips almost like you're trying to breathe out of a straw just really take your time on that [Music] exhale just noticing how your body and your mind begin to respond to this breath just letting that inhale be nourishing allowing that long exhale to be calming [Music] do one more round of this [Music] breath and after the final round just release it and come to an easy effortless breath pattern just allowing the the breath to flow in and out of the [Music] [Music] body now in your mind's eye imagine that in your hands you're holding this little crystal [Music] ball feel smooth in your hands it's clear you're just holding it and as you continue to breathe smooth [Music] effortlessly you can see that through your hands this Crystal Ball begins to absorb those feelings of anxiety it absorbs the feelings the anxious thoughts and as you breathe and this Crystal Ball begins to absorb all of that anxiety you can see it begin to slowly turn colors no longer clear it begins to get a little bit darker starts to turn gray with each passing breath cycle more of that anxiety and worry gets absorbed into that crystal ball and is released from your [Music] body this ball is like a little magnet a worry and anxiety [Music] magnet you're slowly letting those feelings that anxiety the stress the worry it's just being absorbed contained in that little ball removed from your body and if you worry that any of that stress or anxiety you're experiencing has been absorbed by baby let the crystal ball absorb any of their feelings too just like a little magnet taking that anxiousness that stress that worry absorbing it from your body from baby's body although I'm sure baby is just fine and only feels your love but if you want to imagine that any stress they're experiencing is being absorbed to to that [Music] [Music] just continuing to breathe this ball it gets darker and darker as it absorbs all of that worry the anxiety and with each breath cycle that ball gets darker and you feel better feel more calm or at ease more relaxed [Music] for [Music] just taking one more final [Music] moment allowing this ball to draw out any little bit of lingering anxiety worry or [Music] stress and then to complete this meditation imagine you're taking that ball look at the color look how dark it is how much you've [Music] removed and then visualize yourself taking it and getting rid of it maybe you plant it in the ground maybe you throw it in the ocean maybe the sun dissolves it there's no right way to get rid of it but just imagine that nature is taking care of it in some way ex so that anxiety is gone never to be seen felt or experienced again [Music] [Music] then when you're ready take a big deep breath in through the nose and exhale sigh it out through the [Music] [Music] mouth then opening the eyes closing your meditation thank you so much for joining me today for this practice