Welcoming Prenatal Meditation

This guided prenatal yoga practice is an offering to support a mother's journey inward, welcoming themselves back into their bodies and nurture the vessel that is home to baby. I hope mothers find this time as a sacred space to connect with themselves and with baby.

These online practices are blosomming out of the need to keep everyone safe during the COVID19 outbreak. Although in person classes are cancelled, I am honored to offer the gift of connecting through yoga and meditation with mamas.

Transcript

Hey mama,

Thank you for choosing a time that feels of service to practice together.

Now take your time to find a comfortable and supportive way to stand,

Sit,

Or lie down for this guided practice.

Feel free to use any props like blankets,

Bolsters,

Pillows,

Or blocks to support your practice today.

Let's begin.

You're welcome to close your eyes or soften your gaze,

Whichever feels safe and supportive for your practice.

Today is an invitation for the art of welcoming.

We'll start by just taking a few breaths.

So breathing in through your nose,

And letting go out through your mouth.

And let's do that again,

Breathing in through your nose,

And maybe a sigh on the exhale,

Allowing for an audible exhale just to signal to your mind that you are slowly softening and relaxing.

And as you sit here and breathe,

Just trusting in your body that it'll guide you through your breath naturally throughout this process,

And as it usually does.

You don't have to change the way that you breathe as we sit,

Stand,

Or lie down.

We're just bringing a gentle awareness to our breath.

And check in now with your posture,

And do so with kindness.

So is there anything that would be supportive to you right now?

Perhaps you are feeling that you'd like to shift or move in any way.

Meditation doesn't have to be sitting perfectly still.

So notice throughout the practice,

What would be supportive of me during this practice?

And we'll start just with a guided visualization practice.

Imagine you arrive at a door,

And outside of the door is a welcome mat.

You see the welcome mat,

And you pull out a key and place the key in the door.

You hear the latch unlock,

And you gently turn the knob to open the door.

You enter the space,

And you take your shoes off on the welcome mat.

There's a coat rack for your coat,

And a bench to set down anything that may have been in your hands.

It's quiet and calm.

And you may be picturing a space that is familiar to you.

You might be imagining a fictional space or a space that you would like to visit.

And wherever it is,

There's a note just for you,

And you open the note,

And you see the words,

Welcome home.

And notice how you feel in your body as you hear the words,

Welcome home.

Perhaps you feel a sense of ease or relief,

A sense of coziness,

Or perhaps other sensations,

Or maybe no sensation at all.

Whatever it is that you're noticing in your body,

Stay with it.

Now taking a breath,

Maybe in through your nose,

And exhale out through your mouth.

Can we bring this quality of noticing into our bodies?

So perhaps just moving your neck or head gently in a circle,

Or maybe from the left to the right.

Allowing your head to come back up to a nice neutral spine and roll the shoulders down and away from the ears.

With the idea of welcoming ourselves home,

Let's see if we can bring this quality of attention into the meditation.

And we'll start back again with our body.

As the body changes throughout pregnancy,

It's vital to continue to re-arrive and land in the body.

Bringing some attention to baby.

So placing palms on the belly,

And if it feels comfortable,

To gently move the palms around the belly to greet baby.

As this part of the body changes rapidly amongst others throughout this journey,

Just inviting the mantra,

Welcome home,

As a practice for you to nurture the spaces and places that change,

Supporting you and baby.

Notice if any feelings or thoughts arise as we begin to lean into the body and welcome ourselves and baby home.

They may be useful or they might feel challenging or overwhelming.

See that welcome mat once again,

And welcome thoughts as they come.

Allow them to be seen,

To be heard and noticed.

You don't have to become them.

You can just notice.

In moments of meditation,

Your breath might serve as a way to land you back into the practice.

Breathing through the nose and letting a sigh out through the mouth.

You might also find that placing your palms back on your belly and connecting with baby is a way to guide the naturally wandering mind back into the practice and into the present moment.

Just imagine that as you connect with your body and with baby,

There's that note saying welcome home.

Trust in your body and the changes that are occurring to naturally support a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.

You might even use the mantra welcome home along with your breath.

So on an inhale,

Welcome.

On the exhale,

Home.

Try that a few more times.

Breathing in,

Welcome.

And on the exhale,

Home.

Maybe one more time.

Breathing in,

Welcome.

Exhale,

Home.

Now taking any movement that might feel good to the body to either stretch out,

Reach the arms up to the sky.

Placing the palms down back at heart center.

Take a breath in together.

Exhale,

Let it go.

Welcome home.

Thanks for practicing.