Whether you should meditate during pregnancy seems to be a surprisingly common question that got asked in the meditation community. There are definitely benefits for having meditation during pregnancy and there are some things to watch out for. Let’s dive right into this interesting topic right now.
Meditation Can Help Reduce Stress During Pregnancy
Having a baby is beautiful and it can easily be the happiest thing that can happen to a lot of women. At the same time, the pregnancy progress can be very stressful. Meditation is known for being able to help reduce stress. In the following, let’s explore the sources of stress for a mother-to-be.
Stress Caused by Worrying about the Future Baby
Most of these stress come from the concerns about the health of the baby. Am I eating right so my baby has enough nutrients? Am I resting enough so my baby is healthy? There are questions that are often in the head of mothers-to-be, especially the first timers. These stress actually got multiplied by the media. Try read a magazine that is designed for mothers-to-be, half of the content is good information, the other half is excessive information that tries to scare the mothers-to-be in some way and try to make them buy unnecessary products.
Don’t Underestimate the Stress from New Financial Burden
Having a baby is 100% one of the happiest event in your life, but at the same time, there are some realistic problems that must be solve to prepare for a new life. Money can be an issue for a lot of families. Let’s be honest here. Not everyone is so well planed financially that they have already prepared the optimal cashflow for different stages of their lives. Most people are just okay or below-average planner and a lot of people don’t save that much money, some even have debt. I know it may be a little controversial but I think not having too many good planners in this world is probably a good thing for humankind. If all or us need to be fully prepared before we can have babies, the world population would probably decrease dramatically. Anyway, having a new baby definitely will cause you to increase your spending. For many people, they will need to cut their budget on something else or even find a new job to sustain their living. That can be really stressful. Although meditation cannot solve your financial problems, it can provide you with a clear mind to look at the problems clearly. It can also make your mind clear enough to understand that panic doesn’t help. The calmness that meditation can bring your brain back to can really make you feel better in this stressful yet special period of your life.
So Many Tasks During Pregnancy Requires a Clear Mind
There are so many things, may be small things but lots of things, that you have to handle during pregnancy. For example, the regular checkups, eating extra supplements, the additional body stretching and the list goes on and on. That doesn’t mean you can stop working on your 9 to 5 job. Meditation can help make your mind more clear and it is beneficial when you have lots of extra small tasks to handle every single day.
Don’t Meditate Too Much
I know there are monks and others who can meditate for hours everyday and they believe the hours of meditation is useful and valuable. I do meditate myself too so I totally understand the benefit of daily meditation but I just want to suggest that those of you who are pregnant should not meditate too much. In my opinion, don’t meditate for longer than 30 minutes a day. In my experience, for a normal person who practices meditation, meditating for too long can create headaches. For me, if I have to meditate for over 40 minutes in one single session, the headache starts to kick in. These days, I simply meditate for only 10 minutes every morning. I find it sufficient to make my mind clear and it works perfectly with my schedule. I think it is always better to be on the safe side especially if you are at a time when health is very important. I would highly recommend you to do my 10-minute meditation every morning routine.
You Can Do Other Things to Relax & Clear Your Mind
For those of you who are currently pregnant and who are thinking about starting to meditate to enjoy the benefit of having a clear mind, I would actually suggest that you may want to try something else to achieve the same effect. Although meditation is very useful, it is just one of many tools that can help clear your mind. In my opinion, the first few weeks of practicing meditation can be a little difficult due to the difficult to focus. You don’t necessarily want to experience a challenge like this in a time period where you already have enough challenges. To me, talking a walk is just as good as having meditation. I feel that a 45-minute walk can make me as clear-minded as a 10-minute walk and it also provides me with some nice exercise. A 45-minute walk may be a little too long for those of you who are pregnant and you may want something between 20 minutes to 30 minutes instead. Make sure you wear the right clothes to keep yourself warm when you go for a walk.
In conclusion, having meditation during pregnancy is very beneficial. First, meditation can help make your mind more clear so you are more calm and efficient when you have to handle the many extra tasks that you have to handle due to pregnancy. Second, meditation is a great way to reduce your stress. Stress during pregnancy usually come form the concern about the baby’s health. Stress can also comes from the additional financial need of the future new member. Finally, although having meditation is good, do not meditate too much. Having a total of 30 minutes of meditation should be good enough to make your mind clear. In fact, I only meditate only 10 minutes every morning and I find it very effective and time-efficient.