Emotional Health During Pregnancy – How to Look and Feel Good Series #CauseAChatter

In this series , I have talked about how to look good now let focus on how to feel good during Pregnancy.

Pregnancy can be overwhelming but if you are struggling to be happy than remind you, you are not alone. On other hand, if you find pregnancy to be your happy time than their are lot of women who enjoy this phase in their life too.

Experiencing vast range of emotions during pregnancy is quite normal. It’s is not easy being pregnant but it is also not that miserable that you cannot find happiness. While it is wonderful to feel happy during pregnancy but there are some external circumstances that can influence the way you feel this includes your financial status, whether you have a committed relationship, whether your pregnancy was intentional, age of the people involved and if their is any pre – existing mental and physical health conditions.

But why is it that some people are able to stay happy during their pregnancy while other’s find it difficult to handle their emotions. What can we do to remain happy during pregnancy?

Tips to Remain Happy During Pregnancy

Spend time with your loved ones

The more you surround yourself with the people you love and want to be with, the more positive you will feel about the whole situation. Try avoiding people who pushes you towards negativity or stress. Women adjust better during the transition to motherhood when they have satisfying and authentic relationships. As gratifying as motherhood can be it is inevitably taxing , so positive self affirmations and appreciation from people around you makes it easier to deal with it.

Spend time engaging in mindfulness

Meditation and mindfulness have innumerable benefits. It helps in reducing stress, aids in controlling anxiety, improves sleep, have controlled blood pressure, reduces pain, enhances self awareness, promotes positive outlook and makes you more kind towards other’s and yourself.

Connect with other expecting parents

Supporting and authentic relationships make a big difference in happiness during your pregnancy and the journey of parenthood. Sharing similar feeling and situations will aids you with solutions and guides you to to deal with unknown situation you might face during pregnancy. You will feel better to know that you are not alone sailing in this boat of pregnancy and you can take comfort that someone truly understands what you’re going through.

Exercise

We all know whether you are pregnant or not exercise has an ability to affect your mood positively. It helps in reducing anxiety and feelings of depression. Medically exercise not only bring feelings of happiness, but help reduce feelings of pain. Though it is important that you do not engage in any intense exercise without proper doctor’s guidance.

Eat healthy

A healthy diet is an important part of a healthy life style at any time but especially vital if you are pregnant. Eating well can keep your blood pressure, blood sugar levels and weight at healthy levels to reduce the incidence of complications. Eating healthy foods can also help prevent or treat common pregnancy maladies, such as morning sickness and leg cramps. When a women is away from all this complications and sickness she ought to feel good.

Sound Sleep

Pregnancy is a magical time in many ways, but sleep schedule during these nine months might be less than dreamy. The growing belly, the aches, the pains, the heartburn ,many women experience sleepless nights long before there’s a hungry, crying infant in the picture.

Pen down your thoughts, maintain a journal

Record how you feel and what you experience as it make beautiful lifetime memories which you can cherish for a long long time. This is like a stress buster as there are lot of things which you hesitate to share with others or experience you want to keep it to yourself can be written and revisited if that makes you happy.

Detach from Technology

We all know the usage of electronic gadgets like a cell phone or laptop is inevitable today. Although, we cannot avoid them completely but being informed of the radiation from these devices on children and pregnant women are necessary. The radio waves emitted from these gadgets may alter the DNA structure of growing fetus and unlikely mutations are possible. Too much usage also harm eyes and can be very stress full. Therefore Walks in fresh air and reading books are more holistic approaches to relaxing during pregnancy and keeping both mother and baby healthy.

A pregnant women exposes her child to all the experience she goes through. This includes the sounds in the environment, the air you breathe, the food you eat and the emotions you feel. When you feel happy and calm, it allows your baby to develop in a happy, calm environment. However, emotions like stress and anxiety can increase particular hormones in your body, which can affect your baby’s developing body and brain. It is normal to have occasional negative thoughts, dreams or fleeting doubts. With any new or difficult situation, sometimes you are able to cope with the challenge, and sometimes you can feel overwhelmed. So all I can say from my own experience is take each day at a time and do not get bogged down by new situations and feelings. Just remember one thing you are not alone.

This post is part of Blogchatter #CauseAChatter

This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawlaand generously SPONSORED BY Bugshield Clothing – Enjoy Outdoors More!

@Swati Mathur

Causes and Tips to Deal with Stress #CauseAChatter

Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven’t fallen asleep yet.

I feel our lives are far more complicated and stressful now than were in the past.  Stress is a broad brushstroke, it is the finer, emotional detail that causes us to behave in particular way. According to me stress itself in not negative but the way we respond towards different situations or emotions makes it negative or positive. But it is immensely imperative to know what are the causes of stress and how can we deal with it before we gets into perceptual darkness.

Causes of Stress

Unable to Express

We get stressed over what we have suppressed as opposed to expressed.  When a person is unable to express his/her anger and repressed aggression feels completely powerless and this will not only increases stress level but, in many instances, manifested as depression.

Feeling Dis empowered

When a person feel that they have no control over what happens in their lives, it is as if they are mere pawns on a larger chessboard, where their contribution and performance doesn’t mean anything and do not guarantee maintaining their job. In 1990, a Labour Force Survey in Britain revealed that one percent of the population suffers from work related stress, anxiety disorder or depression and within span of five years, the percentage has risen to 30% and if the scale were to continue , the percentage would now be even higher.

Continue reading “Causes and Tips to Deal with Stress #CauseAChatter”