Fireworks! Backflips! Cheers! All things you should do when you reach your second trimester! Well, maybe leave the backflips to your partner. Congratulations, Mama. All the horrors of the first trimester (nausea, exhaustion, general ickiness) should be subsiding. You are starting to feel more like your old self, just with an amazing miracle growing inside you! If you’ve graduated to trimester 2, read on, lady, read on!
1.) Reset Your Mindset
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” -Anne Lamott.
Now that you have reached this new milestone, it’s time to reset your mind, body, and spirit. You owe it to yourself and your baby (and probably your husband and best friend!) to cleanse yourself of the past 13 weeks and start fresh. Only you can do that, though. Go to a prenatal yoga class, meditate, breathe, pray, take a walk and reset.
2.) Find The Magic
We all just need more magic and spirit in our life. It’s that simple, really. What inspires you? Causes you to dream? Keeps you faithful? Puts a smile on your face that starts deep down in your soul? Is it the ocean? An artist? A favorite book? Sometimes I get bogged down in the daily routine of my life, and I have to stop and remember what fuels my inner pilot light. If I get distracted from that, I feel it in a negative way. But honestly we should never feel “stuck” during this incredibly “unstuck” time in our lives. Never before have we experienced this much daily change. So go ignite that pilot light today…what are you waiting for? Can’t find the light? Meditate and/or cultivate a morning journaling practice. Once you devote a few precious moments to yourself and your thoughts, you won’t believe how quickly the creativity and inspiration bubbles to the surface.
3.) Smile
Ever heard of the phrase “fake it ‘til you make it?” Or how about pasting a smile on your face when all you want to do is frown. They say a person who even forces a smile on blue days will ultimately be happier than the person who sulks the hours away. Because the smile will win out in the end. That’s a fact.
4.) Laugh With The Gals In Your Same Boat
Seek out other pregnant women. It’s a lovely and entertaining club you are now initiated into…if you let it be. Shrug off unwanted advice or chatter that doesn’t suit you, and focus instead on the friends who inspire you, the friends who make you laugh your way through this often times hysterical adventure. There is nothing better than a good belly massaging and soul smiling laugh. And if it makes you feel this good…imaging how the little nugget is feeling too.
5.) Face Your Fear
“A little bit of fear never hurt anyone…”. A classic saying. What are you afraid of today? Fear can motivate us, paralyze us, piss us off, or just exhaust us. What are you afraid of today? Stretch marks? The health of the sweet baby growing inside you? Perhaps it’s a fear of losing the life you led before. It could be a million different things, but for today, for right now, pick one. Pick one fear and dwell on it for just a few moments. Acknowledge this fear to yourself, your heart and soul, and watch what happens.
Life will always be full of challenges sowing seeds of doubt that creep in to hinder you on your journey. The more we can see these fears, identify with them, let them have their moment, the easier we can begin to breathe through them…and send them on their way.
6.) Be Grateful
Being grateful immediately releases your mind from a negative focus. Some days are harder than others to stay light. The hormones can so easily take over and take control, and to what purpose? When I feel the negative thoughts begin to win out, I immediately start mentally listing all the things I am grateful for. From the biggest love to the smallest lavender plant in my garden…I change my thoughts. And my focus shifts. Every time. Whatever was bothering me cannot survive in that happy place.
7.) Don’t Compare
Comparing ourselves to other pregnant mamas may be one of the worst symptoms we experience in these 9 months. And now is the time it can get really ugly. Our amazing tummies start to pop, and every single one of us pops differently. It is so hard to simply let go and just enjoy. Just enjoy the amazing organ that is our uterus and never, not once, ever compare ourselves to someone else. And yet we do. So many of us out there waste precious seconds, minutes, hours on feeling not good enough, not skinny enough (we are pregnant, eh hem), that our bodies aren’t changing the way we want them to…
“There is no other organ quite like the uterus. If men had such an organ they would brag about it. So should we” -Ina May Gaskin
You and me….we are experiencing a miracle. Enjoy being a part of the miracle!
*Excerpted from The Daily Soul Sessions For The Pregnant Mama book: A daily dose of soul and inspiration for all thrilled, shocked, excited, and delighted mamas-to-be! Available on Amazon now! There are 280 soul sessions – one for every day of your pregnancy. Join The Daily Soul Sessions mama tribe at www.thedailysoulsessions.com. We are dedicated to helping mamas and mamas-to-be stay creative and inspired, and to figure out how to hold onto themselves and their passions while everyone else is holding onto them.
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Join The Daily Soul Sessions tribe! We are 3 sisters, 2 of us are identical twins, Grammy nominated singer/songwriters and recording artists from Denver, Colorado who, when we got pregnant accidentally the first time around, wrote a book about how to stay connected to yourself, your positivity, your creativity, and your inspiration during those crazy 9 months! Now we are all 3 pregnant again with our 2nd babies! Kara is due any day now, and Kate and Kacey (twins!) are due 10 days apart in February of 2017.
