Ep 130: Using Birth Affirmations and Gratitude as Journal Prompts During Pregnancy

There’s power in writing your thoughts, in putting pen to paper, and processing feelings/emotions.  In today’s episode Dr. Shannon talks about creating a pregnancy journal to document this important and transformative time in your life.  From just writing down what you’re feeling, to using specific journal prompts to help you dig even deeper into your thoughts, journaling has the potential to change your brain, mindset, and energy.  Documenting your pregnancy through a journal can turn into a beautiful keep-sake.  But you can also reflect on birth affirmations in your journal which can become a tool you can use during labor and birth. 

Resources:
inside look with homebirth midwife Rachel Hart  episode 15
Re-defining self - centered with Rachel Hart episode 16
Permission to re-invent yourself - Dr. Shannon interview on Reconnect to Life podcast

Birth Affirmations
She births bravely 
North Atlanta Birth Services

Mental health episodes
turning anxiety into awakening with Dr. Meghan Toups - episode 79
Playtime therapy and perinatal mental health with Ashley Lingerfelt - episode 105

Other episodes
Prenatal Movement  - episode 128
Building Resiliency - episode 110

Transcript

Dr. Shannon (00:02.07)
Hello, hello friends. You're listening to the Aligned Birth podcast. I am Dr. Shannon. I'm one of the hosts of the show. And today, it's just me. It's a solo day and I have a fun little solo topic. And as this episode is going to go live, it's gonna go live just before Thanksgiving. And so this episode is gonna be a little bit about aspects of gratitude.

mental health aspects. And as I was writing the outline for it, as far as like, what do I wanna talk about and where do I wanna go with this? I guess I'm thinking of titling this episode, Pregnancy Gratitude Journal Props. And I wanna go through some thoughts that I've had and how journaling can impact your mental health. What...

writing thoughts and emotions and feelings down could do for you during your pregnancy. Granted these can also apply outside of pregnancy as well too. So that's where I want to go with it and then I want to touch on some using birth affirmations as the potential for journal prompts and to get kind of those creative juices flowing. So welcome to the show. I feel like it's a

This is a mashup of a couple of topics that I've wanted to do. I think there's power in writing, like pen to paper writing. Yes, typing things out can be great. Maybe I'm speaking to my age here, but there really is power in pen to paper and actually writing things down. I really do think it translates to memory so much better. But anywho, I'm a big fan of journaling.

As this episode's going live, I'm recording it right before Thanksgiving. And so of course, this is the time of year where we focus on thanks. We give thanks for things and we focus on gratitude a little bit more maybe than we do throughout the year. So I wanted to mesh those two together. I do have an interview lined up for later and I want to talk about the aspect of writing.

Dr. Shannon (02:20.322)
your birth story down and the healing power of that as well too. So these are kind of all together. So I've got that interview. I have someone that I want to bring on and she focuses on kind of like writing memoirs and stuff. And so I'm really excited about that at one point. But this is going to be all connected. And I, my oldest, so I have a 13 year old.

and he came to me the other morning and he goes, mommy what do you write about in the mornings? Like what is it that you do? And I thought that was a good question because I do journal every morning. I've gone through periods of time where I haven't journaled and I have felt a significant dip in

my emotional reserves and my mental health. And so I know this is something that is extremely important for me. Granted, you know, it looks different for everybody, but this is something, this morning time that I've gravitated towards. Now, again too, I'm at a season in my life and in my motherhood life that I do have the ability to have mornings to myself. I have an hour every morning to myself, just me and my dog.

and I am so grateful for that hour. It hasn't always been like that though, right? The times have changed of when I've had time to myself as you go through the seasons of motherhood. So this episode is never is not one that I want to be like, well, I can't get up at five and journal for an hour. So what am I supposed to do? So I don't I don't want that reaction to this, but understanding the season of motherhood that you're in, but I would like to

maybe give some thoughts and ideas of how you could create this practice in your life and what it could do for you. So he asked me, you know, what do you write about? And so I went through and I was like, well, I kind of write down my thoughts, right? I go through what happened in the day yesterday, good or bad. And I

Dr. Shannon (04:39.246)
I just kind of process things and it's kind of like sometimes things come to mind sometimes I'm writing that I don't really I don't really have anything to say But as he as I chatted a little bit more about like what it is that I'm doing It kind of came out that it's almost like I'm I tend to write my prayers And I think that's what it really comes and boils down to so you know my spiritual life my religious life my

my life in Christ is very, something that's very, very important to me. And I use that as part of my journaling and my morning time process. And there is something that can be said for writing out our thoughts, to kind of get things out, to get things out, to process things a little bit more. And...

There's lots of ways to do that. So you've got The power of writing your thoughts down and getting things out Movement is another one and we've talked a lot about movement episodes and movement resources in pregnancy But thinking of movement as a way that it impacts the vagus nerve it impacts your rest and digest part of your nervous system Like that is a very healing thing to do I'm also gonna say I think that you know

Chiropractic care is a very healing thing to do as well, to process, gosh, to process things. I mean, how you are living your life and your perceptions of reality is how your nervous system is perceiving your reality, right? So whether you really are running from a bear or you think you're running from a bear, your body is gonna respond in that way. And so I wanted to outline some, how that writing process kind of relates to everything as far as...

processing your emotions. Sometimes I think if we don't let things out, and I mean in a healthy manner, then they can kind of fester and kind of can kind of stick around. And for me, writing has been a very therapeutic process. I often thought too, I am an only child, and so sometimes I think that it speaks to that aspect and in that

Dr. Shannon (07:00.794)
maybe I didn't have that sibling or something to really dive deep into emotions or communicate with. And yeah, I had very, very dear friends growing up. But sometimes I think it's an only child trait. But then talking to a lot of people, it's like, no, it could be for anybody as far as how big or small of a family that you have.

Dr. Shannon (07:25.97)
I have pillars of health that I talk about in the office. I have movement, I have nutrition, I have sleep, mindset, and then chiropractic care. So those are my five pillars of health and where I try to guide people in when we're on this healing journey, where are those places that we can go to if we want to make an impact, right? So sometimes we can get overwhelmed, so then it's more of like, how can I add movement in? How can I impact my nutrition? Sleep is so very important. How can I make sure I'm sleeping well?

But the journaling aspect, I think, really speaks to the mindset, stinking thinking. And so if we do harbor a lot of, I don't know, stinking thinking, then that can stay and stick in the body. And so, like I've said, journaling can be a way of unlocking that. And...

Our friend, Rachel Hart, who's a local home birth midwife, we interviewed her on the show, it's episodes 15 and 16. She also talks about self-care, and I did an interview with her, I'll put the link here, where I really talked about my transformation in what she titled the episode, Permission to Reinvent Yourself, because I guess I have reinvented myself. But I share a journal entry from that at a very...

Dr. Shannon (08:45.07)
traumatic, intense part of my life. And it was neat to go back and read that. Like I actually shared my journal entry from December 31st of 2018. So, but she talks about four seeds of self-care. And so hers also has that prayer, that meditation, that introspective aspect of self-care. And so I'm gonna link everything, all of those things in the resources and the show notes here as well too.

Um, but, you know, very distinctly in my life I do, and I recently sent a newsletter out at my office and there was a point in my life where I really felt like all I had was Jesus in my journal. And that journaling has ebbed and flowed and changed over the years. I've talked to some people where they do go back and reread what they've written. I don't necessarily do that.

So in some aspects of it, you can go back and it can help process things. I like to write things as far as to maybe not even just journal entries, but the aspect of something big that's happened in your life. It's nice to write it out and to document that as well too. And to kind of speak your truth a little bit as well, even if no one else is gonna read it. And it's a way to process things, but.

If you do go back and reread your journal entries, remember, no judgment there, right? You're processing things, so you can't judge yourself for them either. But when we look at it from maybe the different mindset of a pregnancy journal, maybe this could be a really fun way to just document your pregnancy. And I don't have a pregnancy journal. I journaled throughout, but just my normal everyday morning routine that I would do.

I didn't do one specifically for pregnancy. And it's something that's been on my mind and heart lately as far as I think that would have been a really cool thing to do is to really document that time and go through the trimesters and to really put it all out there of what I'm feeling and what I'm thinking and what I'm hoping for, right? With the pregnant, like there's so many things that you can write about and process. And so if you haven't necessarily thought about doing a pregnancy journal, and there's a bunch of ones out there with journal prompts, you can also just

Dr. Shannon (11:09.966)
blank journal and go from there. But I wanted to mention a little bit of some journal prompts. So sometimes you may not even, like I've said before, I'll start writing in a bit. I don't even know what I want to say, but I want to get some things out. And some of the, you can maybe use birth affirmations as a journal prompt. And so I've got two links that I'm going to put in the show notes.

One is a blog from She Births Bravely. I just found it online and I'll mention some of the affirmations that she has. And then the other one is from Rachel, the co-host of the show from North Atlanta Birth Services. And they have a blog of birth affirmations and then they have a printable resource as well too. So I'm gonna link that here. But you could look at

Maybe these birth affirmations and these prompts can help you think about things that maybe you haven't thought about or think about things in a new way as well. And then I want to, in a minute, I want to go through and say, okay, this is what you can do. It's not, birth affirmations aren't merely just telling yourself, you know, looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, I feel pretty, but there's more to it. So the fact that you could maybe use these to write down your thoughts and feelings with it can really commit that to...

memory a bit more. So what about I am proud of myself, I believe in my body, the ability to give birth is a gift. That's a beautiful one. And then what comes to mind with those things? What comes to mind with these birth affirmations? I guess I want to start with, I feel like I'm all over the place with this. I, when I spend my morning time, this is something else I

actually I didn't tell my son this, but when I was writing, when I was writing the outline for the show, I tend to start my journal with processing what was happening yesterday or something. And I will say the past two journal entries, I've been disappointed in myself and certain actions that I've taken, words that I've said, whatnot. And it's okay to be disappointed in yourself, right? Because that brings a little awareness of where can we change, where can we be better.

Dr. Shannon (13:35.574)
What do we need to accept? What do we need to let go? But I don't want my entire journal entry to just be like, shame, and guilt on myself and just being really down and hard because hello, I am my own worst enemy and I can be my biggest critic. So being mindful and not using these entries as ways to just beat the crap out of yourself. But it's okay, process it, get it out.

So I tend to do that at the beginning and then I shift. I have two devotionals that I use. Because like I said, my faith is something that is very important to me. And this is how I almost turn the journal entry into this prayer. And what Bible verses do I wanna bring with me today? What prayer do I want to say? What are my intentions for the day? Can I let go of what was yesterday, good or bad? And can I bring...

some peace to today, can I bring intention and can I bring focus, right? Staying in that present moment and focusing in on what is happening right now. So I use my devotionals to then flip the script a little bit and that's where I'll start in with my prayers of what I want that day to look like. How can I pray boldly for my family? Anything along those lines and what I'm looking for and.

then I start to process and it turns into a bit of a gratitude post, gratitude journal, right? It's stuck in the age of social media. Turning into that, that gratitude aspect because that, when I end on that note in my journal in the morning, I have already put past the, the disappointments of yesterday or whatnot.

and I have shifted that and my energy, my frequency, my vibration, everything, my mindset has literally changed. I have changed my brain chemistry just by doing that. So what I would say and why I'm going back to that with these birth affirmations is maybe you start with a journal entry that's like, this is tough, I'm feeling sick, I've got fear, I've got anxiety, whatever is going on with you at whatever point you are in your pregnancy.

Dr. Shannon (15:49.794)
get that out and let that out, maybe then towards the end, turn it into that birth affirmation, right? All of the strength I need is inside me. I am built for birth, my body and my baby know what to do. And then when you flip that, now you can write on those. What are your intentions for the day? What are the good things that you can bring forth throughout the day? This is not ignoring everything negative. I'm not trying to do toxic positivity here, but.

your power there's so much power in your thoughts there's so much power it literally i mean biology belief that dr bruce lipton i mean your cells communicate to each other with this energy as well too and so you can speak life or you can speak death and i know i know no this for a fact and i also know for a fact that there is always something to be thankful for

And so I think processing it out at the beginning, getting everything out that you want to get out, not letting it fester. And then let's flip it into maybe you use the birth affirmations. I wanna share, so like I said, Rachel with North Atlanta Birth Services, she, they have a blog, I'm gonna put it, I'm gonna link it here, but they have a couple of things, they've got this blog post that has all of their, some of their birth affirmations.

One of them is beautiful. I acknowledge my fear every time I feel it and I let that fear go. My body knows what to do. I will surrender fully and completely. My courage and patience will send my baby into my arms. My body will give birth on its own time. Like there's so many, there's just so many, so many good things that you can write and then you can process that and use that to push you forth through the day, especially if there's.

a few hard things coming up. Now here's the big thing with birth affirmations. Birth affirmations is not just like where you say, all the strength I need is inside me, yay, and then you move on. You really do need to create an experience with the words. You need to create the emotions with the words because you can pull from that when you're in labor and birth. That's the whole point of it. It's finding those things. Maybe it's a Bible verse, maybe it's something, I don't know, but it's...

Dr. Shannon (18:13.366)
Whatever it is, you can pull from that and then you can remember, God, that brought me such hope and peace on that day. That brought me such comfort, you know? And really committing those, not necessarily to memory, but committing them to an emotion and an experience and an actual something that you're feeling. So that is a big part of the birth affirmations. Now...

We could do a whole different show on birth affirmations, but I think maybe even journaling about that can be a huge process because maybe when you're writing those things down and it helps you remember what you're thankful for, maybe you're going through that gratitude because maybe you do know that your body can birth this baby and then you give thanks for that. You pull from those reserves when fear...

anxiety, doubt can creep their way in during labor and birth. You can pull from those reserves. Now, I've talked about, I don't know if I've talked about it on the show, gratitude reserves. We did an episode called Building Resiliency, it's episode 110, and it's based on a blog post I had done of building resiliency, like adaptive reserves. That's what I look at with chiropractic care as well too, that we are impacting how our nervous system...

is processing what's going on in our day. Can we process the stressors in a more positive manner instead of it becoming chronic stress? We're gonna have stress. And that's not, it's not eliminating all the stress. It's our response to it. Can we stay out of the chronic aspect? Can we stay out of fight or flight? Can we balance parasympathetic sympathetic parts of the nervous system? And can we have respond appropriately to an event?

not just a mental event, but to an actual event, right? Instead of, you know, it's that perception of what's going on versus, okay, what is really going on? So building resiliency was an episode that we did. And gratitude reserves. So now, like I said, there was a time in my life where I felt like Jesus in my journal and that's all I really had. And I have seen that get me through.

Dr. Shannon (20:29.81)
some of my darkest days. It's also gotten me through some of my highest highs, right? It's stayed there with me. But when we practice gratitude, it becomes easier to find it and see it in the everyday, even when the poop is hitting the fan. I think this is family friendly. We don't put explicit stuff on there. If you knew me in real life outside of the office,

there would be an explicit label, but I do very good on the show. Those gratitude reserves, when we practice gratitude, it becomes easier to do it and to find it. It's the birth affirmations as well too. When we speak those birth affirmations and it becomes part of our routine, it's easier to find that when we need it and it's easier to call forth and bring forth that when we need it.

Dr. Shannon (21:25.252)
Um...

Dr. Shannon (21:28.61)
Gratitude reserves, I just, I love that. And I, my, one of my very first blog posts was have an attitude of gratitude. I just know, and like I said, I've seen it get me through some very, very dark times in my life. And, you know, as we get older, we can look back on those experiences and know and see, at least for me, I can know and see, okay, this is where

those gratitude reserves have held me up. This is where my faith has held me up. This is where God has really shown himself to say, okay, I know that this is going to come back. I know that there's going to be this help there as well. But there's something to be said about gratitude reserves. Now, I do wanna do a disclaimer here that this is not,

going and journaling and saying, oh, I processed all my emotions and not seeking further help and guidance. That is not what this episode is about. So I do want to mention, we did an interview with Ashley Lingerfeld, who is a local perinatal mental health counselor. So we talked about playtime therapy and perinatal mental health. That was episode 105. Also Dr. Megan Toops was on, and she talked about turning anxiety into awakening and specifically this.

the aspects of motherhood. That was episode 79. So this is not a replacement for therapy, but that is why we have all of these pillars of health. That's why being healthy is not just eating right but it's moving right. It's nourishing your mind. It's sleeping right. It's to me, nourishing your nervous system health. Like there's facets to it. So it's the same thing with this as well too. This is not intended to be

um a replacement for anything. You know I did not do, I think I said this already, I did not do a pregnancy journal when I was pregnant with either of mine. I do remember you know vividly points but we're coming up on oh my god 14 years 11 years um ago that I gave birth and it's getting a little bit harder it's getting a little bit harder to remember.

Dr. Shannon (23:45.934)
um some of those those pregnancy things and so maybe a pregnancy journal is something that speaks to you and like I said there's lots of options out there for doing one on your own purchasing one whatever you whatever you need but I would challenge you to um begin to write some things down begin to shine some gratitude on things and this is not you know

podcast, you can find something to be thankful for all the time. So I would challenge you to maybe sit with those thoughts, see what comes forth, but I would look at this as a way to impact your birth, to bring forth some birth affirmations and to create emotions and experiences surrounding those birth affirmations and journal prompts.

So again, thank you for joining me today for just a random little bit of gratitude work that I think can make a huge, huge impact in your life, in your pregnancy journal, and in your mental health as well.