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Meditation
I can show you two ways to meditate that are easy to learn:
Qigong Meditation
Guided Visualization
These two forms of meditation give your mind something to actively focus upon, which is MUCH easier to do than typical meditation practices of watching the breath while your thoughts run wild.
What is Meditation?
Meditation is an ancient practice that dates back thousands of years. Despite its age, this practice is common worldwide because it benefits brain health and overall well-being.
Meditation is a practice that involves a single-pointed focus or clearing your mind to train attention and awareness to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm, and stable state.
Qigong Meditation
The Nei Kung “Internal Form” Qigong practice is an easy form of meditation. Qigong meditation involves using breath and concentration to direct the flow of energy in the body through energetic pathways, or meridians. These exercises develop our ability to maintain a single-pointed focus while refining our internal energy body.
The form of Nei Kung I teach is the “8 Extraordinary Meridians” practice. The 8 extraordinary meridians exist throughout the body, connecting the 12 major organ meridians.
The two “8 Extraordinary Meridians” practices that are best for fertility are the Microcosmic Orbit and the Chong Mo. The Microcosmic Orbit is a circuit comprised of two meridians (Governor Vessel and Conception Vessel), which move upwards from the base of the spine to the head and downwards from the face to the perineum. The Chong Mo, also known as the thrusting channel, lies in front of the spine. The "Smile Down" to your organs practice, as well as Yin Jing Sexual Cultivation practices may also be taught.
Circulating the Microcosmic Orbit is naturally relaxing because it places the energy body back into an in-utero state, which was how the energy flowed when a person was still in their mother’s womb. The Microcosmic Orbit practice is the foundation for most Qigong “Internal Alchemy” practices, including the Taoist Sexual Love arts, which tonify the ovaries, uterus, and vagina.
Learning the Nei Kung practices is an easy way to develop our meditation ability because we can focus our Mind on moving Qi (Energy) through our internal energy pathways (meridians), which control random thoughts.
I can audio record the meditation so that the client can listen to it while at home (never listen to these audios while driving). This homework practice would strengthen our work together in the session. Listening to the audio at home provides an easy way for the client to meditate on her own. The audio would relax her body while her mind follows with a single-pointed focus, which is the definition of meditation.
Guided Visualization
When clients attend a hypnotherapy session, I lead them through a guided visualization, which is a form of hypnosis. This session can relax the body while focusing the mind on suggestions to improve their predicament.
During a guided visualization meditation, the client creates a positive mental state by imagining a peaceful scene. The client would focus on specific images and go on a mental journey while conversing with the people who appear along the way. In this way, she can process difficulties in a safe place and clear mental turmoil with situations or people in her life.
How Does Meditation Help Fertility?
It is widely known that meditation lowers the stress hormone cortisol level in the body. A Huffington Post article from March 2013 states, "a new study in the journal Health Psychology shows an association between increased mindfulness and decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol." Click here to read the article.
In today's world, problems arise when we experience chronic stress and anxiety without ways to release this stress from the body. Pregnancy struggles increase stress levels (and cortisol), making conception more difficult to acheive. It is a bind that is hard to break without help. According to a study entitled "preconception stress increases the risk of infertility," published in the journal of Human Reproduction in March of 2014 states, "women who had high levels of a biomarker for stress in their saliva took 29 percent longer to become pregnant, compared to those with lower levels, Those with high levels of the stress indicator were also twice as likely as others to meet the clinical definition for infertility." The abstract for this study can be found here, in the Human Reproduction section of the Oxford Journal.
Knowing that stress decreases fertility rates and meditation can lower stress levels, one can postulate that meditation would increase fertility. This hypothesis has been scientifically proven. An October 2013 study done at Harvard University and published in Fertility and Sterility entitled, "Mindfulness-Based Program for Infertility: Efficacy Study," showed that "women who attended a 10-week Mindfulness-Based Program for Infertility revealed a significant decrease in depressive symptoms, internal and external shame, entrapment, and defeat. Inversely, they presented statistically significant improvement in mindfulness skills and self-efficacy to deal with infertility." For the women who participated in the program, the clinical pregnancy rate was 52%, compared to 20% in the control group. These women became pregnant without needing assisted reproductive technology within 12 months, regardless of their age or medical diagnoses. Read the PubMed.gov abstract here.
To research the additional benefits of meditation, please read the article published by the Mayo Clinic entitled "Meditation: A simple, fast way to reduce stress," which can be found here.
If you want to get pregnant, you need to decrease your stress. Intuitively, you already know this. Practically, you need some extra support to learn how. Whole Fertility can help.