Journal Tag: meditation

How to find calm amid the chaos

Meditation with Gina

Is now the right time to develop a calm meditation practice? I think it is and I want to help in these tricky times, so I’ve decided to offer FREE group meditation sessions on zoom.  Hopefully you’ve been able to join the first two and I’d love it if you would join me on the final session on Wednesday 6th May at 8.30am.

The Benefits of Meditation

I’m sure you’ve already heard much about the benefits of meditation.  So I’m not going to rave on about the benefits (much).  If you haven’t yet heard meditation can help you with an incredibly diverse range of things such as providing immense relief from your anxiety and stress, resetting your circadian rhythms, regulating a daily practice of deep rest, facilitating repair in your body, encouraging a deeper sense of connection and wholeness – the list is endless. These are just some of the top few that are relevant to our current circumstances.

This may be your opportunity to include meditation within your daily ritual so that you can use these crazy COVID-19 days to hone a skill that can serve you in other challenges that will inevitably come over the years (to all of us).  Life brings us all shades of circumstance – some we perceive as brilliant, others perceive as not so. We know that there will always be more challenges. Thankfully, adopting meditation as a daily practice can really help you rise to any occasion and keep calm amidst it. Through meditation you can enhance your resilience, your capacity and your ability to think clearly.

What can we do?

This current situation isn’t something we can run away from, it is our life. The only thing we can be certain of right now is that the current lockdown will continue for some time. So we can choose how we wish to show up each day over the next number of weeks and what practical things we want to do each day to support our own health and to help others.  

I have taught people meditation for a number of years now and I hear common questions about obstacles to meditation – I’d like to share a few insights with you.

Common Questions

My mind is so busy I just can’t settle and meditate

I have news for you, everyone’s mind is busy.  That is what minds are built for – to think and be busy and look out for us.  This isn’t a hindrance to meditation and we’re not trying to empty the mind of thoughts – that’s a bit like saying we can stop getting older….  we can’t and we don’t want to stop our thoughts.  So yes everyone can meditate.

I don’t know what meditation style to follow

There are many ways to meditate and you can place your attention on various objects like breathing,  sounds, a candle, or you can count or recite a mantra.  There’s no right or wrong and it’s a matter of finding a style that suits you.  You can also use different objects on different days.  Following the breath is the most universal and this is the style that I’ll teach over the free sessions.

Will meditation make me too relaxed so that I’m not motivated to do anything?

In fact meditation can help you to do the opposite.  It’s helping to train the mind to focus on an object of awareness and this in turn helps us to know when our mind wanders.  It can do wonders for our ability to focus on a job and not on distractions and to use our time more effectively.

How can I find time to meditate in my busy life?

Hopefully now many of you are at home or working from home this may be easier to find some time whether it’s 10 minutes or longer.  Once you develop a routine it’s much easier to incorporate once our lives open up again.  It really is a matter of prioritising our health above other things like netflix!

Can I meditate on a chair or lying down rather than sitting on a cushion cross legged?

Yes you can meditate sitting on the floor on a cushion or on a chair or even standing or walking meditation.  Although you can meditate lying down this might be best to do as a relaxation before bed as you may well fall asleep.

Calm on

Spending time regularly sitting and being with ourselves and listening to ourselves is highly productive.  If you would like some support in making meditation part of your daily routine I am offering a final meditation session this week.  Simply sign up and we’ll send you a zoom link. I will lead some meditation sessions followed by a question and answer session.  The session is 30 minutes and the date is Wednesday 6th May 2020 at 8.30am.

Gina Fox

Naturopath & Fertility Educator

Are you looking for support with your fertility, health, or mindset? You’re welcome to book in with Gina Fox.

How to make meditation part of your daily routine

By Gina Fox, Head of Naturopathy at Fertile Ground

5 Top Tips for making meditation part of your daily routine
1.    Do just that – make meditating a routine.  Sit at the same time each day and your body will start to want to do it.  First thing in the morning is best and you can take a piece of that calmness into your day.  Make an intention to yourself to remember this quiet space if you start to feel frazzled later on.
2.    Choose a place and make that your meditation place.  When you go to sit or lie there your body and mind will already know what’s coming and start to relax even before you’ve begun.
3.    Even if you hear yourself saying “I don’t have time for this” or if you start going through a long list of what needs to be done.  Just decide to do it – even if you sit for 2 minutes.   Ideally 10-20 minutes daily but 2-5 minutes is good too.
4.    If you tend to get bored mix it up a bit.  You can follow your breath (see the suggestion below) count your breaths up to 10 and start again, follow a meditation in an app. like smiling minds or One Giant Mind or if you are trying to conceive or pregnant try one of our special fertility guided relaxations. There’s also a wonderful meditation for sleep if you tend to have insomnia or wake during the night.
5.    To get the most benefit out of your meditation or guided relaxation it’s best to open your eyes slowly and not to hurry into an intense conversation or task.  Become aware of your surroundings, have a gentle stretch and take that mindful awareness of really listening and seeing into your day.

Focus on the breath – a simple meditation exercise to relax and renew
Just become aware of your breath and breathing, with the breath coming through the nose or focus on the rise and fall of the abdomen.

This basic breathing exercise is a natural tranquilliser for our nervous system:-
1.    Exhale completely  pulling in your lower abdomen
2.    Inhale slowly through your nose to a count of 4 or 5.  Your lower abdomen should expand out followed by your chest, keep your shoulders relaxed.
3.    Hold for a count of 2
4.    Exhale through your nose for a count of 5 first exhaling the air from your chest and then pulling your lower abdomen in as the air is expelled.
5.    Repeat 3 times

 

Gina Fox

 

Gina Fox is a naturopath with over 15 years’ experience. She trained under Francesca Naish (author of Better Babies) and has a Masters in Reproductive Medicine. As well as being an experienced clinician she is a speaker, naturopathic lecturer and student clinic supervisor.

Gina is highly skilled in providing naturopathic care for women’s health issues, pre-conception health, infertility, IVF support, pregnancy care and through menopause. She treats a wide range of issues including recurrent miscarriage, thyroid, auto-immune antibodies and she has seen good results working with men to improve sperm quality. She also enjoys the post birth appointments with mother and baby, maximizing wellness for the whole family and educating parents on how to manage many common childhood illnesses. Her professional approach involves working in collaboration with doctors and specialists to create an effective co-ordinated treatment.

Staying calm during the first 12 weeks

We are very excited to share this article written by our Head Naturopath Gina Fox, recently published with Concieve Baby…

Staying Calm During the first 12 Weeks

If you’ve just conceived it’s usually a happy time but may be tinged with feeling anxious about the development of your baby, especially if you’ve taken a while to get here or if you’ve suffered a previous pregnancy loss.  Typically the stress and worry builds up before each scan and then a feeling of relief floods through you at the scan; but often this relief is short lived.  What you can do to take back control, is to to take steps to change the storyline in your head. You may have noticed that the negative story we tell ourselves seem to stick whether it’s based on anything real or not.

In reality you don’t know the outcome and it’s useless to second guess but the truth is that at this very moment you are pregnant.  Developing a trust in your body (which can sometimes be difficult) that it knows what to do and that the hormones are effortlessly doing just what they should to support the growth of your baby.  I can hear you saying “that’s all very well but how exactly do I do that”?

How does keeping calm help your baby?

There are plenty of good reasons to support your emotional health during pregnancy and most importantly it’s been shown to be beneficial for the bub.  Short term stress is fine and normal and will be helpful for the the baby to be resilient.  The problem is ongoing stress during pregnancy – if you’re rushing around, feeling overwhelmed and constantly worrying, or experiencing low or anxious moods then this needs attention.

The stress hormones that course through your blood also cross the placenta and this heightened state of stress can cause change in the baby’s own response to stressors. Worry, anxiety and depression in pregnancy are all risk factors for adverse outcomes including pre-term delivery, lower birth weight, poorer infant development and behavioural and emotional problems in childhood (1).   It can have direct effects on early brain development leading to a delay in cognitive function and dysfunctional response to stress (2).

What can I do to help me stay calm?

This is not said to alarm you but to assure you that you can take more control. The benefits of meditation are now so well recognised for our health and wellbeing showing a positive impact on reducing stress and depression, improving our immune system, better sleep, heart health; in fact it supports a better functioning all round.  Pregnancy is a natural time of higher stress on the body and it makes sense to support yourself with a regular practice. Not only good in the first trimester but meditation is also a great preparation for labour and improved mood during the pregnancy and less risk of postpartum depression.  Allowing some quiet time also gives space for you to connect with your baby as well as feeling more energised and able to cope with everyday challenges.

You may not be able to change the stressful events in your life but you can change your emotional response to them and the effect they have on your own and your baby’s health.  Put aside some time for yourself each day to release tension and relax your body and you’ll both be glad you did.

To help women connect with and trust the process of the pregnancy happening within their body Be Fertile have created guided relaxations especially for this often tricky and worrisome first trimester.  These mindfulness meditations guide you with words which is often easier than meditating  in silence when you have a busy mind.  The very act of a daily relaxation activity gives a cumulative benefit – it helps your peace of mind and it helps your baby too.

You can also watch Gina’s Webinar on Stress and Fertility and register for the Webinar Series.

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