Ep 110: Building Resiliency in Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum

Certain types of stress (eustress or good stress) can be beneficial for the body. Chronic stress is what can be detrimental to your overall physical and emotional health.  In this episode, Doula Rachael and Dr. Shannon discuss 7 Ways to Manage Stress During Challenging Times (a blog Dr. Shannon wrote several years ago.) They share how these practices and tools can be used to handle the natural and/or unexpected stressors of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.  In this episode, they discuss:

• How regular chiropractic care can build adaptability reserves
• The power of exercise and sunshine
• Breathing techniques for pregnancy and postpartum
• Meditation, prayer, and birth affirmations
• Yoga for connecting movement and breath
• Using essential oils aromatically during labor
• Journaling can help process emotions
• And more!

Resources mentioned in the episode:

• Episode 73: 5 benefits of  prenatal chiropractic care
• Episode 70: Tips for exercise during pregnancy 
• Episode 61: Breathing exercises for pregnancy and postpartum
• Episode 85: Visualization techniques for birth and life 

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• 18:00 (Cont.) Ep 110: Building Resiliency in Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum

Transcript

Speaker 1  0:47  

I'm Dr. Shannon. I'm one of the hosts of the show. We have doula Rachel here today as well. So we've got one of our wonderful, earthy conversations. This was kind of fun because it was not originally a birthday conversation. It's kind of loosely based on a blog that I wrote quite a while ago. But it can have earthy aspects to it and some good prenatal aspects to it. And so, we're going to talk about stress. Of course, of course that can be related to pregnancy, labor and birth, but I want we really want to touch on the aspects of not all stress is bad stress. And so it's more of there's such thing as you stress which is good stress, eu STR ESS, and there are things that's what causes us to grow, right? We stress our muscles when we exercise and that causes them to grow. But if we do it too much, right, you get to chronic stress that can be that can break you down a little bit more. So that's what we're talking about today and looking at ways that we can build something I like to call like building resiliency or building some reserves. If we are in some stressful situations and chronic stress. So these are definitely ways things that can be applied during pregnancy as well too. So I have quite a few things on the little list here. So that's what we're going to chat about today is building some of those reserves that you can tap into when a stressful situation arises. Because it will it will so that's okay though. That's what we're going to talk about building our reserves. So I'm happy and excited to chat with you today. Do a Rachel about this. Hello and welcome to the Allied birth podcast. We are so glad you're here. I am Dr. Shannon, a prenatal chiropractic

Speaker 2  2:40  

and I'm Rachel a birth doula and childbirth educator and we are the team behind the aligned birth podcast. Between us

Speaker 1  2:47  

we have experienced as a Syrian birth a VBAC hospital birth and home birth. Our personal experience has led us to where we are today. We share a lot in common.

Speaker 2  2:57  

We are friends from high school who reconnected through our work. We both changed career paths after the birth of our own children. We light up when talking about health and birth and we are both moms to two young boys.

Speaker 1  3:09  

This podcast was created to share conversations and interviews about topics from pregnancy and birth to motherhood and the importance of a healthy body and mind through it all. Our goal is to bring you fun, interesting and helpful conversations that excite you and make you want to learn more.

Speaker 2  3:24  

We believe that when you are aligned and body, mind and your intuition you can conquer anything. We hope you enjoyed the episode

Speaker 2  3:44  

Dr. Stanton, very excited as always, for our conversations, and that's a great one because when I was looking over and preparing for I was like, Dang, this applies across the board. And I feel like you can kind of interject it into many aspects of life. So it's a great tool to learn about, if you haven't already, during pregnancy to use that as a launching pad to use as a moment of like, reflection and then introspection into like, how am I feeling? And each kind of day moment doctor's visit, you know, why stress? And then how can you use these tools to kind of navigate that build those reserves and also kind of addressed them in the moment. So I think it's really really helpful and I know we also wanted to share before we got started about a few ways to connect with us and kind of become direct listener supporter so we have our newsletter. So if you wanted to have a show up in your inbox as soon as an episode drops, give us your email. It's super simple, we're not gonna bombard you. We just want to help build our community and also put our put our episodes in your inbox. So you're like, you don't have to go hunting down you know when a new one has come out, and we'll include information about the episode as well as like all the links to the additional resources that we share in the episode because sometimes tracking them down through wherever you're listening is not as easy as finding them in your email. So I want to

Speaker 1  5:14  

interject real quick too, because what we'll also put in there is if some of the folks that we've interviewed are doing or running specials or doing online programs, or if you're local to the Atlanta area, you can go those are going to come into your inbox as well too. So pelvic floor PT word mental health counselors, like all the people that we've had on the show, we're trying to kind of gather events and things that they have from them. So that's why you want to sign up as Yeah,

Speaker 2  5:37  

I thought it makes it a lot easier. And yeah, we're gonna respect your privacy and not bombard us so just your email and name and we appreciate it. Another way you can help support us is to become a direct listener supporter through we've set up like a community support situation where you can contribute what you feel comfortable with $3 or $5 or $20 a month, whatever you're comfortable with. Whatever you feel like would help support us and show your appreciation for us doing this work. You know, between the topic research, our one on one guest interviews, recording, editing, posting every week, this podcast takes time. We enjoy this time a lot. And we want to go to keep doing it. That's the thing. That's kind of the crosspoint that we've come to write. But it takes time. It takes effort and resources to bring this to you every week, right? We've been doing this now for 100 episodes. Every week. We're putting something together for you. So it does take time. And we're humbled and grateful for all of our listeners and reviews. That's another great way you can support us that we have received and appreciate that you continue to live for us but we want to keep this podcast focused on content that informs and inspires and entertains and it's mindful of your time. And so one way to accomplish that is through direct listener support. So it can help us help us grow help more listeners find us and help us keep doing this. We want to be intentional. We want to be consistent and kind of slowly create a ripple effect. So that's the the end goal right is to slowly but surely create a ripple effect that impacts lots of people and helps them learn more and help them on their journey through pregnancy birth and postpartum. So if you go to aligned birth.buzzsprout.com, you can pick your your level of support. It takes about 60 seconds total time and we greatly appreciate the support and any feedback that you have.

Speaker 1  7:35  

Yes, we do. We do and we love doing this so much. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you again. For listening everyone. I'm so yes, today's show is again about building resiliency building reserves. So again, it's based on a blog I wrote, literally called building resiliency, seven ways to deal with stress or something like that. I can't remember. I don't remember what I called it, but um, so we've got like the little bullet points and nuggets of information as far as how to build those reserves because like I said, not all stress is bad and sometimes it really is like our perception of stress or even I mean, there's painful situations too, but it's like that perception of pain and it's sometimes two I've even and you've even said this when and maybe instead of like the contractions or whatnot or flipping the script on the words a bit in the waves, the sensations like even those words shifts can shift your thoughts on pain it's the same thing with like stress to in how you know, a situation and granted to everybody deals with stress differently but he feels stress differently. So what might be a super stressful situation to one is maybe not as much for someone else. So yes, all things considered. But we did want to kind of chat about some of those ways to build that resiliency and how we approach stress because I see a lot of chronically stressed people in the office.

Speaker 2  9:10  

Yeah, I've been in the balance that's hard to find, and there's never a perfect balance. But it's sort of like you're never going to be free of stress. There's always going to be a degree of stress. So how are we setting ourselves up for handling stress as it shows up so that we are really minimizing or reducing like the type of stress that increases cortisol is your stress hormone. And that has negative impacts over time it works in events like we're in you in that fight or flight situation, right where you need to move quickly or act quickly in order to protect yourself that's good, but sustained levels of increased cortisol over time has a negative impact and in pregnancy, it can lead to preterm labor. It can also have the flip side as to preventing labor from starting so and then like you said, there's that good stress so growing our strength and growing our muscles and growing our mind and growing our lungs and, and and getting uncomfortable or or being better equipped to handle challenging situations like all of that kind of stress like that building that's like more like building and kind of putting ourselves in situations and setting things up around us. It's going to help us with growing our resiliency. So kind of understanding how stress works and being able to be introspective and see what what increases your stress. What areas do you feel like you can add some of these elements to and what are the good stressors in your life and sort of be able to reflect on that and implement some of these things? Right?

Speaker 1  10:58  

Exactly. And the list that we have is not like all encompassing you know, obviously this was just little things that you know had come to mind. Honestly, actually there's a little things that like I do that I like or that I talk a lot about in the office and so again to the vlog wasn't necessarily really related specifically to pregnancy, but you know, I see a lot of pregnant women in the office and we've got usually like aches and pains or something that's bringing them in, but it's a lot of times a bigger picture for me because yes, I want the aches and pains to be gone but I also want our nervous system to function. Better. So obviously the first one, the first one I'm going to talk about for building building resiliency and building reserves is looking at like nervous system function of things. And that's what I look at with moms whether they're coming in with aches and pains sometimes they're coming in with like fear as well too and surrounding childbirth, whether it's their first or fifth child, you know, childbirth is it's unpredictable. And so there's that level of fear of the unknown that can sometimes present itself and then that can manifest as we're higher up here. You know, and we've got more stress, right? And so I like to look at chiropractic care, kind of balancing that. So when I think of it too, you know, you've got these parts of the nervous system very simplified, but you know, your sympathetic and parasympathetic and sympathetic is more of what you had said earlier that fight or flight that gets us out of, you know, Stranger Danger situations and that type of thing. But our parasympathetic part of the nervous system is that's that calming aspect that rest and digest feed and breed whatever you want to whatever you want to call it. But those two can't really be on at the same time and that's what I like to try to hit home is that it's not that we always need to be in parasympathetic mode. No, we need to be able to move and function and action in a situation when we need to, so to do engage that sympathetic nervous system and it does lots of things in the body because that's where it's going to increase the heart rate increase as respiration. It's going to impact pupil dilation, like lots of little things there. But when we are in that chronic stress, whether we really feel it whether there's really a situation to be super stressed about or not, you know whether we're running from bear I always say the running from the bear, but we can't feel our body if our body perceives that we are continuously running from a bear. So that's what I really like to hit home with with chiropractic care is looking at functioning and helping balance that part of the nervous system. And it's even looking at where those parts of the nervous system live because I say top and bottom, cranial and lumbar sacral areas of the spine. That's where your parasympathetic nervous system lives. And it's in that thoracic spine where the ribcage is essentially is that's where that sympathetic nervous system lives. And so when I'm looking at Pier two, I'm looking at what parts of the nervous system do I need to adjust? I don't know if sometimes I've even talked about that before, but those are some things that go into it. And I know I did, recently did an interview with Dr. Pamela stone, McCoy and we talked about the fear and emotions and birth and so I remember her and I talking about like that aspect of staying out of that sympathetic air that thoracic spine area sometimes when we're doing chiropractic adjustments for prenatal women or anybody at that matter if we've got a lot of that stress, you know, do we need to really ignite that sympathetic nervous system? No, we need to maybe calm calm it down a bit and so turn on you know the parasympathetic aspect of the nervous system. So that's partly where I go with chiropractic care, obviously, related to pregnancy, but, I mean, I want that for everybody. For everybody that comes in.

Speaker 2  14:48  

Ya know, I think the regulating of the nervous system is so important. It's one piece of our puzzle of our body and how we exist in the world with, you know, the mental, emotional, physical component and it's, it's hard to, I think, convey to someone without experiencing it about the benefits of that regulation. So even if you don't have aches and pains, keeping those systems in check, has has many benefits and then when you relate it to pregnancy, how many changes your body is going through, not just physically but then you have the emotional and mental side of what pregnancy brings. And you can't predict how you're going to feel physically or emotionally or mentally during pregnancy. So it's really important to misses that building those reserves so if you're able to get this all in check before you even get pregnant, it's gonna benefit you but the earlier you start the practice of regulating your nervous system through chiropractic care, it's going to have long term effects and then as your body's changing throughout pregnancy and you're dealing with a whole, you know, range of the mental emotional side. Having that consistent chiropractic care is going to reap benefits. And we do have a whole episode number 73 on the benefits of prenatal chiropractic care where we go into depth about all of those. But also, I think it's important to remind listeners, and I know you agree with this is that it's got to have some consistency. And and be committed to go and regularly just like how we work out or keep our exercise our heart. You have to do that regularly in order to actually reap the benefits. Chiropractic care is not a one and done year. You might feel better initially or get some relief pretty quick, but you know, in order to actually change

Speaker 1  16:45  

the benefit I yeah, I think yeah, yeah, she has to be

Speaker 2  16:49  

willing to go regularly, consistently. So maybe that's weekly, maybe that's monthly, but whatever it is for you, finding that that groove and seeing it as just that WellCare and using it when there are issues but really just seeing it as well care and beyond the physical, that it's also that mental and emotional balance that comes in chiropractic care, and we talk a lot in our childbirth class about the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system because in labor, like it not at all can't flow at one time and you're having increased stress and increased fear and increased like anxiety and so trying to, you know, use those when you need them, which is usually towards the end of labor, not in early labor. So how do you how do you reset those and keep those in check as you're going through a very intense thing, so that labor can flow, how it needs to flow and so that the tension and fear don't take over. So understanding that is super cool, and I appreciate the way you describe it. There. I think that's really, really cool.

Speaker 1  17:57  

Yeah, I have a review article too, that talks about it. So we'll link it in the show notes. I think our show notes are gonna be like, just for this one. Yeah, the massive amount of links give us that give us your email to you. Um, but it's, you know, when you say the nervous system, it can have these disruptions so that Brain Body Body brain connection, those disruptions that subluxation that impacts how the nervous system is functioning can come from a lot of different things. So thoughts traumas toxins, technology tribe, so um what I mean by technology is not only what you're ingesting mentally from it, but also the like hunched shoulders and how our posture is with a tribe really speaks more to like that microbiome because the gut speaks to the brain. The brain speaks to the gut via vagus nerve and so we're able to impact that with chiropractic adjustments, and that's what the research articulates. So if people want even more information on that, we'll have that linked in the show notes, but I want to share a little personal story of how I think chiropractic really helped benefit my family. And this is more of that aspect of building those reserves and that resiliency in stressful situations. So um, we've, I mean, I haven't been adjusted my whole life. Same thing with the family, but ever since my second kiddo was born. So golly, about 10 years now then we've all been under care. How did that happen? Um, we've all been under care and that's regular chiropractic care and then even you know, through school, all those sorts of things. So, um, golly, it was probably five years ago now. This Yeah, five years ago. We were in a very terrible car accident. And so we actually were interests up I was driving the whole family was in the car but we flipped we rolled in the SUV on the highway, but we rolled about 10 times. And we landed on the wheels and you know, all the things fire department came here to be cut from the car like it was obviously a very stressful situation, you know, by the glory of God. We all survived. Minimal injuries and stuff there but dealing that was super stressful. That was very, very stressful for everyone involved. And I remember I called my chiropractor at the time, who's Dr. Pam kind of told her about it and I was like, Okay, we want to come in and everybody wants to get adjusted and checked in and everything and so she's been a super long time with us because she's my mentor and dear friend and she's amazing like that. And we did some nervous system scans. I use these scans in the office too. So it's from something called the Insight technology. And we do a temperature scan and we do a motor scan looking at like the how the nervous system is controlling those aspects of the body. And we do those at the beginning and then we assess them throughout care to see how was the nervous system functioning. It's a really cool way and a cool tool to look at. But I remember when we updated those scans after the accident, it was amazing. I was thinking it was just going to look like a hot mess and like we were all just going to be like totally disarrayed and completely subluxated all of that but the scans really weren't terrible. Like I just remember thinking and my first thought was like, I think we were able to handle this better because we had built up a bit of this reserves and dealing with a stressful situation. So yeah, I thought that I don't know. That's

Speaker 2  21:34  

incredible. Yeah, and you don't know that until you experience it. And that is that's incredible proof and it's a stressful situation and a lot of ways physically and and emotionally and so going right to your chiropractor and getting assessed in that way. So you kind of where you're at but then continuing that care. It's I remember Dr. Payments always tell my boys because we would go in there and get adjusted and then before we've left, one of them would have fallen or bumped heads or the other one and that like just messed up your adjustment and she's like no, like, there that's it's to help them stay good when they do fall. Right. It's like and of course you can follow them have problems but like it's building resiliency to build that resiliency,

Speaker 1  22:22  

building those reserves. So that's why that's my first one. My first one there so

Unknown Speaker  22:28  

that's a good story.

Speaker 1  22:30  

I'm here Yeah, I know. Oh my god about that. Just probably share that I know. And even in my head I was like, oh, I should have written like a research paper about that. But here we go. I'll just talk about Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  22:40  

oh, like your mark in that.

Speaker 1  22:44  

Um, okay. Next one is exercise and sunshine. I mean, we all feel better with sunshine. There's even studies to with like that early morning sun and hitting your eyes and just how that impacts the rest of your day. How that's going to impact your sleep. You know, vitamin D there's so many aspects to the sunshine aspect of things, but the Exercise and Movement we know that that's crucial important because your brain really feeds off of that as well. And that when I'm looking at things I want proper motion in the spine, I want the joints to move well, and there's so much information sent from all the joints in the spine of these proprioceptors and they send information and backup to the brain, about the movement in the body. And so we want that information to be correct of what's going up to the brain but then we want the brain to give a correct response based on that motion as well too. So when I'm looking at things, not just prenatally but looking at care, that motion and movement of the spine is so good and it just sends so much good information to the brain. So

Speaker 2  23:52  

yeah, I think something I would add here too is is movement that feels good to you. And movement that does push or challenge you in one way or another whether it be stretching or yoga or running or walking at a faster pace or walking a little bit further or up a bigger hill. Like finding your your sort of top in and then just go in a little bit further because that's kind of how you have that that stretch and growth in your in your muscles but obviously being respectful to yourself and your needs and where you're at but what I hear and run into in and out of my work and personally is like the misconception that movement has to be a certain way or a certain intensity in order to have benefit. And so like we have here in our notes, you know, heard the Environmental Science and Technology study. Five minutes of movement Outdoors has has benefit for a multitude of reasons. So like, if that's all you can do know that that is going to help you and then just go from there. Like if if you have nowhere to start, start with five minutes and if you can do it outdoors, even better, you know movement inside is great doing it outside has the benefit of fresh air, sunshine, you know, all of those things. So just want to always encourage people to do what they can with what they've got where they're at. And then in pregnancy. You know people run into my body feels different. I can't move in the way I did before I was pregnant, or I wasn't very active before and I'm pregnant. I want to begin activity because they understand the benefits of it. It's, it's, again, start with where you're at and if you were very active before you can you can do all of the same exercises and movements. You did before as so long as it feels good. And then if you're just starting out, go nice and easy and so on yourself and build up from there. You can still build strength and endurance during pregnancy and that has a lot of benefit on your overall health of yourself and your baby. And your birth and how you feel postpartum. And, um, but it's not to say if you don't do it that you should feel guilty or judged or shameful at all. I think that's that's this line that we walk, you know, as women as Americans, you know,

Speaker 1  26:18  

yeah, it doesn't have to look like what some of these people are doing on social media like don't let that

Speaker 2  26:24  

don't let that stop you. I have found a lot of joy and and peace in stretching and you know, like 45 minutes of stretching versus you know, beating myself up up if I didn't do a bit of cardio or big strength workout. And knowing that that has been a bit to my mind. And I'm respecting myself and saying what do I feel like today? And as women to like when we're going through our cycles, we feel differently at different times. So I really encourage you if you're not pregnant and you're having your period that learn about your cycle and the seasons of your cycle and know that like at different times different physical activity is going to feel better and have more benefit than other times of your cycles. That's super cool. Maybe that could be an episode probably

Speaker 1  27:10  

now we need to and I was even thinking that you know as well as conversation. I'm the same way and I've gotten better at it as I've gotten older and really honored my cycle and I love how Dr. Aviva Romm talks about it as far as like that six vital signs that we look at and so, you know I am a big runner and I love to run and I love that cardio but you know what, sometimes I like walk my dog and I still get that movement and it still feels good. So I kind of look at it as like, Okay, what movement can I get in today? It's it doesn't have to be the same thing every day. In fact, I think it's good if it's not necessarily to say yeah,

Speaker 2  27:44  

I agree. Yeah, I see we have our dog and I'm like he he he had a minimum needs two or three walks a day whether it be shorter when am I okay? That's a minimum of what I'm doing. And if that's all I do in a day because of life and work and how I'm feeling then okay, but I he has been such a gift because our other dog was was older and we didn't walk with him as much and he needs a lot more exercise. I feel like I'm having to take these breaks and go outside and play I work from home and I'm able to do it but like that has made I feel like a tremendous benefit. And that early morning sun concept like feeling the sunrise and being there as a sun dry rising. I'm like And then that takes us back to like, anytime you go to the beach. I'm back at the beach. I spend more time than ever and morning sun. Yeah, and I'm like, Oh, this is partly why we

Unknown Speaker  28:37  

feel so that's why we

Speaker 2  28:38  

feel so good right I mean once a million ocean or beach but anyways exercise and sunshine, lots of benefits. And you know, it's gonna increase your mood. It's gonna reduce overall aches and pains and build resiliency. So I want people to view physical activity, exercise movement as building the reserves, building that resiliency for as you grow as you change as you age, I mean bone strength, muscle strength, flexibility in your muscles, like that's resilient. So if you have an injury, all of the things are in place to help you recover and heal quickly and smoothly. Pregnancy she felt those reserves and now you're pregnant and you got to keep doing it. You know, adjusting accordingly. Your recovery is going to be I think a lot easier. It's not going to total

Unknown Speaker  0:16  

Hello hello

Speaker 1  0:22  

old resiliency. So I want people to view physical activity, exercise movement as building the reserves, building that resiliency, for as you grow as you change as you age I mean bone strength, muscle strength, flexibility in your muscles. Like, that's resiliency. So if and when you have an injury, all of the things are in place to help you recover and heal quickly and smoothly. And same thing with pregnancy. So if you've built those reserves, and now you're pregnant and you kind of keep doing it, you know, adjusting accordingly, your recovery is going to be I think, a lot easier. It's not going to totally wipe you out. And we do have an Episode Episode 17 where we talk specifically about movement and exercise during pregnancy. So yeah, so we go way more in depth with that. Yeah, more things to do more ideas, more techniques,

Speaker 2  1:17  

or ways to move. Yeah, I know and then we even have another movement one later on. So imagine that. Now another tool or thing to work on is and think about is breathing and how breathing can impact your nervous system. So I've we've done an episode on this too. So Episode 61, where I had like five breathing exercises for pregnancy. And postpartum because when we tap into something, I like to call like parasympathetic breathing. So if your exhale is longer than the inhale so you can count you know in for four out for six. I like that. That tune, you know that rhythm and that rhythm thank you for that one works. Really well doesn't feel too stressful or stressful, but that can actually kind of activate that parasympathetic part of the nervous system. We were talking about that calming as we think so this is something that you can do in a situation that does seem stressful at any time in your life. Whether you're parenting and you teach it to your kids to help them calm down, as well too. But you've often heard of breathing exercises with pregnancy and you know, breathing through the surges and the intensity and we did we'll mention her later, but we had a yoga instructor interview with Julie Hawkins and she talked a lot about as her yoga work. She did a lot of breath work and how she was really able to breathe through her labor and birth and that's just so cool. But again, that's not something like it takes it takes a little bit of time to work with it to to remember and to go back to those things because in what I see in the office a lot is that we all are very shallow breathers. We're all very up here in the clavicle, up in the upper lobes of the lungs. And when we can really get the diaphragm involved a lot more and those abdominal muscles and pull it all the way out and just squeeze everything, squeeze the air completely out of the lungs and we can fill up those bottom lobes of the lungs. That can really impact how your nervous system is functioning. And it's just a really simple tool. That you can use. And once you I think you practice with it, you know I try to have people practice with this I do this a lot in the office because I see how people are breathing and you know kind of going over okay, it's not something that like a one and done type of thing as well too. With this. It's like no we can return to our breath. We can return to this in super stressful situations. Yeah, we

Speaker 1  3:56  

talk a lot about breath work in with our clients and in our classes because it's the one thing you you have. It's available to you right like all of these other things aren't always available or accessible. Your breath is in the next thing we drive home is practice, practice, practice, practice, practice outside of stressful situations. So we try and say like link it to something throughout your day. So like when you wake up before you get out of bed trying to do five of those breaths that like four in six out and like one doesn't do the trick. You need like five to 10 You're gonna feel the benefit. And I encourage you it gets uncomfortable like I try and share honestly like for me when I know I need to do it. Sometimes I have resistance around. Either I'm in a rush or I'm like, Oh, that's not gonna work for me today. And like breath one very tense very stressed. Like, am I this is annoying. Why am I doing this? Breath two, same way. Like breath three starting to get better starting to feel like that expansion I'm starting to feel more room and my diaphragm and my lungs, and then it's flowing a little bit easier. And then like five and beyond. I'm actually resetting I'm actually feeling less stress. I'm actually feeling more energized, more like it's a reset. And so it's a great way to start the day in the day or and then find somewhere in the middle like, try and link it to something you're already doing. Practice it and then bring it in. If you are in that in a situation like sometimes even like going to a doctor. Like if you're pregnant, you're going to see your doctor, your midwife and you're nervous about what might come up or live with children, especially for parenting, all kinds of things, arguments with your partner work stuff. If you just take a beat and do these breasts and you reset, it's it can be it's such a gift. And you know, it's just a great tool to access but you have to practice it. And so that's like great for reducing stress. I think it's great for resetting the nervous system and then you can build from there until like really helpful breathing techniques for labor. And that as we build off of that type of that parasympathetic, breathing or box breathing

Speaker 2  6:18  

the body as I say we go over Yeah, go over a bunch of different ones. And they all don't feel good to me. I mean, you remember that episode too. I was like, I'm gonna share this one with you. But I don't like it. Yeah, but you know, that's kind of just find what works for you and what kind of calms you and brings you a little bit of that peace and doesn't feel too stressful. But you know, if you were to push through it kind of like what you were saying like, Hey, I'm still feeling stressed. This is the first breath it's like, you know, play with a little bit and see. Yeah, see what works with you, but that's just a really I know, I think it's a really cool and pretty way to impact how your nervous system is functioning.

Speaker 1  6:56  

Yeah, we share also about the ice cube challenge or the hand and the ice water and you can practice it pregnant or not pregnant using that type of discomfort to practice your breath because maybe you've got it and it's pretty easy when you're normal. But bringing introducing some stress that's not too too bad. And practicing that breath and seeing how you can kind of self regulate.

Speaker 2  7:23  

When we say let's first see is going to be done. Yeah, tighten up stop biting ice baths after long runs. And I'm like, and it's like, that may not be the best thing, right? That's all appear it's shallow and we're holding it so

Speaker 1  7:38  

so you have to intentionally break through it during that moment of stress and then choose to focus on your breath and not the discomfort of the cold. And that's where you transcend that is like truly going somewhere else and that's where I mean ice bath is next level. So if you want to go there, go there. You can start with like holding an ice cube. Or and I know there's so many benefits to ice baths but just to kind of practice I hold an ice cube or fully submerge your hand and a bowl of ice water even a cold shower like I like I don't do we don't even have a bathtub in our bathroom which is sad. But I take a cold shower for like 30 seconds at the end of my shower and even that is very uncomfortable but the breathing right and so gives you a practice because during labor when you're feeling the intensity of the contractions, if you truly focus on your breath, and breathe through the contractions, so much we feel less pain. It helps the contraction but like it went by without like consuming you. So you're focusing on that and that serves a big benefit. So if you're really into that to to take it to the next level market like Hypno birthing or Hypno babies, that's like all about breath and, and breathe in entering through labor. Yeah,

Speaker 2  8:50  

exactly what you Yeah, what you were saying. Um, let's see Next up, I kind of put in a category of like meditation, prayer. Mindfulness is that aspect of things there. There's a research article I had in here, mindfulness meditation study, and it has says that research has shown that those who practice meditation regularly begin to experience changes in their response to stress that allow them to recover from stressful situations more easily, and experience less stress from the challenges they face in their everyday lives. You know, breathing you can, breathing can be an aspect of that as well. Repeating a mantra, I do that a lot of my runs by runs are stressful or whatever, like you know, and life sometimes repeat those mantras is something where you focus on clearing, you know, thoughts out of your head whenever I've done meditation. I used to do this a lot more than I do now. But I would start with focusing on the breath and I would start with I count so I do with that parasympathetic rhythm and breathing you're talking about so I do you know, in for four and out for six. I like to try to transition to like, in for five, six out for eight, something like that. I kind of try to transition to that. Then I normalize the breathing. And then it's like, I allow the thoughts to come into my mind. And I recognize and I see them and then I try to put them in like little balloons, like the balloons kind of like float away. And it's not a perfect thing. I remember I read it an article and I was like, Oh, let me try it and there's lots of different ways to help declutter your brain, I guess and to help. Kind of focus internally a little bit and maybe the goal Yes, is to clear your mind but maybe the goal is a little bit of to kind of what you're saying to like, transcend a bit to be out of this crazy experience. So to say, and focus on like those internal functions, the body and breathing can go hand in hand with this aspect of meditations and so sometimes even like repeating certain mantras, you know, we talked about this in when I ran that race, and we compare like the ultra marathons to birth and I had like, certain mantras that I was repeating, but it was also like little Bible verses that I kind of like made like, a little shorthand, you know, and like I just kept repeating that and that just kind of kept that focus for why am I doing this? What am I doing with this? The benefits of it, I want to do this, you know, it kind of, instead of saying like, I want to do this I want to do like it gives you something else to think about and focus on and kind of remind yourself of what you're doing and what you're going through. Why you're doing it, you know, that aspect of things.

Speaker 1  11:48  

Yeah, I think if you're really open to the idea of kind of rewiring your brain and how you think about things and how you perceive things, because again, I think this comes up a lot during pregnancy and then beyond into parenthood, motherhood, all the things that come so I think everything we learned during pregnancy is like the the foundation for tools to navigate parenthood, but um, that you have to practice right the you have to be willing to you know, I think with both affirmations it's like if I just say it or read this statement, you know, that my body is perfectly made and I will feel great birthing my baby, whatever I can come up with, like, we just read it once. It's, it's just gonna kind of go in and out. So kind of meditating on the mantras I like where you are connecting it with your breath. You're sitting in some quiet space, if it's a closet after bathroom, if it's your bedroom before you go to sleep, wherever you put in your car when no one else is in the car with you, which is always great. Like what are you know, get a handful of mantras or affirmations that are shorter, and have them with you stick them around your house and then inhale and exhale while you're saying them and clear. Like do it like 510 times I certainly would that breath work like you have to repeat it over and over and over and that's that kind of meditation state where you're like, focusing on it and doing it repetitively and then connecting it with like breath. Or so like, I think when the positive birth information did you say like, inhale, exhale fear. That's life in general, but inhale peace in healthier exhale, peace, no. Peace. You're letting inhale, exhale, fear. You know, over and over because that's like, that's a reminder. Okay? I'm gonna walk. I'm gonna let the fear go and you're kind of watching it go away as an as it's, as you're exhaling there's, you know, put your hands on your belly and say, I'm connected to my my baby over and over again, because sometimes you will feel like they're so busy and kind of just connected and running around with life and stuff that they don't feel is connected to their baby. Okay, put your hands on your belly and inhale, exhale. I'm connected with my baby

Speaker 2  14:04  

and like, what if you instead of being causing stress, like, oh my gosh, I don't have the time to get in this really quiet space and have people say it doesn't have to be a whole thing. Sometimes people stress about that as well, too. So know like what you're saying, sit in your car, you just parked at Target. You got to run in and do a few things. What could it mean for you to just sit like you said, your belly, touch your belly. Think those mantras through the end for just a few minutes before you go in? Like it doesn't have to be a this. It doesn't have

Speaker 1  14:36  

to be less likely to happen. If you make it more of a To Do It doesn't have to be like that in the bathtub is great in the shower is great wherever. I mean, wherever you couldn't do it. I mean, you can always build and grow from there. Like I mean, I think a lot of people say of course a longer meditation practice has its own set of benefits. But we're talking of we know I mean, I deal with most a lot of people even myself where it's like you find that the cortical time to do this amongst all the other things. So it's hard but trying to build it in and understanding doing it in small increments over the course of a day has tremendous benefit. And it's a wash and repeat. I think this is addressing the that kind of underlying constant stress that you have in mind when you find someone who doesn't have any stress in their life. We're all faced with it. So this sort of practice does matter. Being open to like meditation with mantras or prayer, find some verses that resonate with you that mindfulness to be connected to your body, to your baby to the moment that when everything else feels like it's out of control, I'm here I'm now I'm safe. I'm healthy, I'm strong, I can do hard things like whatever you know. And it's a wash and repeat so doing it over and over again. And I like also Christian Hypno birthing is a great app. We share with a lot of our clients. Wherever you fall on the faith or religion spectrum, I still think it's a really great app. It's beautiful, and it's these long tracks of a woman talking and like kind of walking you through all the phases of pregnancy, there's flavor and then there's postpartum tracks too. So it's like, wherever you're at in your pregnancy, it's sort of like giving you those, those visualizations and those affirmations and in a beautiful way and if you can kind of close your eyes for a minute and kind of tune into that I like to say do it at night or if you're taking a bath, like introduce it there. But yeah, it takes practice and it's easier said than done. To calm our minds in today's world I feel like is a feat. But doing it now, doing it during pregnancy, taking action wherever you can, it's going to benefit you for the long run. This is like a long run benefit situation.

Speaker 2  16:51  

And there'll be days where it comes easier to you than others. You know, that's why we continue to put in the work just like some days are you know, harder than others and we have episode 85 that we did visualization techniques for birth and life so that's where we talked a lot about doing like a vision board and those type of things. There's we'll go a little bit more in depth with some of those things that you can do. Even visualization techniques that can help with labor birth, but building those reserves a bit too to kind of remind yourself again, like what's going on. Stay in your head but also out of your head. That's the thing you want to stay in the moment in the present but also to transcend that a little bit. We next up we have yoga. Yoga is one of my favorite things. I didn't start doing yoga until I was pregnant. And so I remember doing that and that's how I met one of my dear friends because she came we didn't know each other. We were both pregnant. I think it was three months ahead of her. Yeah, like it's January versus April. And she was like, Ah, you came up to me. She asked me about yoga and working on exercise and pregnancy and I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. So let's just let's just do this together. I don't know. And so now we're still like dear friends so i know but i That's when I started doing yoga. And I definitely continued it. I think it's a beautiful practice. And there's so many places you can go with it. There's so much more that you'll never master it which which is kind of cool, but there's always something else to learn and get to and get through with it. But one aspect that I like to look at is that it can be a way to process stress, processed traumas to release some of that because our body does have a tendency and the ability and capacity to store traumas Yes, physically as in you know there is spinal damage or you know whatnot physical damage to the body from specific traumas, but psychosomatic aspects of things, the brain, the power of the brain and how it impacts the body and how it functions and how our body stores that is a very real, very real thing. Because a lot of times I sit in the office recently it was really funny. I was like, is your low back emotional like it was we had some low back pain, but it wasn't just a mechanical structural aspect to it. There was there there were some deeper level things there and so not to get too deep on people, but the body can store those traumas. And so if we don't process it, if we don't get it out, then it can have a tendency to stay in it can be an aspect and a part of chronic stress. So again, to not to go too deep with Webster technique and looking at prenatal chiropractic care. One muscle that we work on is the psoas muscle. It's my favorite muscle. And I say that like truthfully but also lightly because it can store so much trauma in the mind then the body it connects the low back to the legs. So it comes from the kind of anterior aspect of the body and it connects from the vertebral discs and inserts in on the hip. And so it's the main hip flexor but also to you gotta think if you're in that flexion that's that sympathetic that drives you forward that puts you into fetal position that pushes the body to run like it's all of those things. But I think the reason why we work on that and Webster technique is it takes a beating during pregnancy. Yes, it's getting moved and shoved around. But if we're holding chronic stress and we're holding some traumas, then we can kind it can really, really contract. And so that's why part of that Webster technique is working on the psoas muscle. I guess too with with pregnancy and one thing I want to mention here it's an emotional time and it can also some things can resurface during pregnancy that you weren't necessarily thinking that maybe you were you were going to deal with mentally we should have a whole other episode on that. So maybe this is a little too deep for that but I do think that that movement and yoga and breath work so this is yoga is that doing poses and doing these asanas, these positions with the breath. I just It's beautiful way to process it. And to find ways to relax the body and de stress the body again to this is a practice so you do it some days you feel really good about it and other days you're like that was stiff as a board. But It's that continual use of it and that can that ability to go back to it. That's really nice and something that again to not just during pregnancy, but this is also something safe. I think that you can start if you haven't been doing or you haven't been active before and it's it's not like you're trying to go out and run a half marathon you have run before pregnant now like this is something that's gentle that you can start as well too. So I know you love

Speaker 1  22:30  

Yeah, I think yoga is a great one to start as I do that if you weren't doing anything before or if you didn't have yoga as part of your practice before or part of your Exercise and Movement. It's a great thing to bring in during pregnancy for a number of reasons. Lengthen strengthens flexibility. So many things that benefit the body physically, but then the emotional side and the mental side that I think yoga can bring the benefits that it brings for people during pregnancy is tremendous. And what I like about yoga is you kind of do it anywhere these days. You can have your own practice, you can use an app, you can go to a studio, you can do short or long. You can make it what you want. And I think that's the biggest thing is that some people might perceive yoga as being a has to be a certain type of way or a certain intensity, and it doesn't I take a very light hearted approach to yoga. And I use it in many different ways. But I do like the conversation around the emotional release that comes from yoga, that you know if you can be open to it, and just sort of be like, you know, what am I feeling today when I'm in this position? I think that's pretty cool. The hips usually bring it for me and the so as the twist. You can do it do what you do post aren't recommended for pregnancy. Obviously, you know, seek pregnancy safe instruction for modifications and stuff. But yoga can be definitely a great outlet for a number of reasons. And then it's another beautiful way to to connect the breath where you're practicing our movement and breath and using the breath as your focal point instead of making the intensity of the stretch or the intensity of the of the position and you're just staying connected to your right that's a big thing you hear all the time when you're in class, just stay connected to your breath. And you're like, Oh, this is so hard.

Speaker 2  24:23  

Now to take yoga classes and it's a lot of times too and they'll say things like oh, I don't want to do that, you know, like focus on on the breath of it, but that's if it's like a little bit more intense class. It doesn't always have to be intense. Is it the I think it's yen, the yen yoga where you're really unopposed for like a super long amount of time and you really you do kind of have to tap in to the breath now obviously. do prenatal modifications and we have an interview with Julie Hawkins for prenatal and postpartum yoga. So she's a yoga instructor and she goes through she beautifully describes it and how yoga really impacted her labor and birth. And it's really really cool, especially with both of hers being a little bit different. Her pregnancies are different, her kids, her kids are different. And how she describes it is really cool. So that's episode 96.

Speaker 1  25:12  

Yeah, I think yoga is a great way to build those reserves to have that that in your life and build those reserves to combat stress throughout. Because it's something that can help you release stress when you're feeling it. And then I think it also just builds that that overall was resiliency with the mental and emotional and physical strength that comes from yoga whereas I don't think all exercises bring all of those components necessarily so nicely together. And there is a big history with yoga about its origination and where it came from and so I definitely encourage like learning about that and practicing respectfully and intentionally. And, and using it where you can I think all of these things are kind of like use use it where you can

Speaker 2  25:58  

use it where you can Yeah, and then, but what can happen is that you can develop a flow that feels good to you, that almost becomes like second nature, like I have certain flows that I like to do and like I'm just gonna do this stretching routine and it's it's certain things that I do in movements that I do that I like, you know, so then it's kind of okay, this brings me peace and calm and I didn't have to focus so much on it right. I just kind of was able to get into the movement. Again, that comes from you know, a little bit of repeated practice. Yes. Exactly. Um, essential oils is our next one. I love this because and we did an episode on this too, so more in depth with episode 35. That's where we're talking about essential oils for pregnancy, labor and birth. But I'm looking at this mainly from the aromatic standpoint of oils and the fact that our sense of smell is so intense, right? Because that can bring you back to certain memories to certain times in certain places. It's almost like you know what, if you hear music, it can kind of, you know, transcend back to that time so that it stimulates the limbic this the sense of smell stimulates the limbic part of the brain and this is what deals with emotion, memory feelings. So if you can use these, these oils, these scents in an aromatic way that's in a healthy way that's not going to impact respiratory function, which is you know, one reason an aspect of why like it's essential oils that can also something that you don't necessarily have to think about, but you could smell it and be like, Oh my gosh, like I feel calm or already just based on the smell. I mean, I still remember my grandmother's like perfume smell, you know, like and that just totally just brings like a smile to my face. So there was I had found a while ago, there was a study out of Iran, that found women who were experiencing anxiety during labor had a reduced level of anxiety, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate when exposed to the essential oil of the orange peel, which I thought was so cool. So again, that's not going to be the you know, set for everybody. But play around with it and find those sets the things that you know, lavender is a very easy one. We go through a lots of different oils in there, but this is just something very easy that it's not like you really literally have to focus on it's just finding that scent and then connecting that scent with maybe using your breath work or connecting that scent with prenatal yoga flow or some sort of mantra as well too. That's like triple layers of ways to impact the nervous system and to help you in those stressful times.

Speaker 1  28:48  

So that's exactly one of the things we teach our clients is if they're interested in using essential oils, and we encourage it at least like labs, some simple ones, right? Lavender or whatever your whatever you Whatever helps you feel relaxed. Set up like this, your little mini birth cave at home, whether it be your bathroom or your bedroom or both and set the vibes you're looking at your sight, your scent and your sounds and those are the main senses that can be impacted. And disrupt labor or promote labor flow. And so sent were like get at home, use your diffuser or put it on a rag and just washed it in front of your face. You can just use the lid of the essential oil and wave it in front of your nose. Kind of practice. Inhaling and exhaling with that in the air with the oil that helps you feel the most relaxed most calm most at peace. set the tone like get the lights dim have a candle or twinkly lights going and then your sound so sound machine or guided visualizations or music that you love and

Speaker 1  0:19  

Is and practice your breathing. Right? So you're connecting all those things as the layers and so that when you are in the first base, and we're like okay, if you're working at home, we can just keep all that the same and do that. Keep that going. If you're going to the hospital bring these elements with you think about setting up your, your hospital room. Similarly, as long as you can, and you have control over those things. You can dim the lights and have a diffuser literally like to have your own music or establishing and it's gonna be easier to get into the state do you need to be in that calm, relaxed, safe, comfortable state, we've practiced it in that with all of his own it's going it's like those layers are so humble, but if you just went into the hospital and set it up, is it nice? Yes, it's gonna have as much benefit I don't think so. If you ever kind of practice it a little bit. And orange, orange essential oil is my favorite to use during labor and always gets the best response from the birthing person and the staff. And all I do is I put it in cold water with ice I fill up a tub horrible with cold water and ice and then put a few drops in and I put a couple bags in that. ice cold water, wring out the rag and wave it in front of your face around them. It's almost like going cool air laced with orange essential oil. And they're always like,

Speaker 2  1:25  

oh, that's like it's always like the towel at the end of yoga. Sometimes they'll come put it on lavender, and they're always gonna like put your hand on your belly if you don't want to talk

Unknown Speaker  1:32  

about the towel. Doesn't want the towel.

Unknown Speaker  1:37  

Towels, are they? Yes. Oh, that's

Speaker 1  1:40  

perfect. And then you can shift the energy for those coming into the room to walk into their hospital room or working space. And that's not like essential oil, like orange, which is peppermint, orange, or lavender. I mean, these are like pepper. It's really good to be feeling nauseous. But again, that just changes the whole energy of the room and

Speaker 2  1:56  

contagious so it'll change who's coming in to them presents everything when someone's

Speaker 1  2:01  

like, oh my gosh, it's also going in here. Just make everyone feel better. Was like me terms of their size, we go over some of the most common ones and talk about pros cons and obviously use with discretion and yes, most essential oils are during pregnancy it's recommended to do them aromatically yes for the vast majority. So but just do research use wisely. Exactly.

Speaker 2  2:25  

So yes, that's another that's a good one. Okay, last dish up on my list is the act of writing, journaling, whatever you want to call it, you know, little like Makiki diary, whatever, whatever works. For you, but writing can be very therapeutic. Some of the things that we've talked about today is a lot of I like to look at as like processing stuck energy. I look at chiropractic care as that as one way to process some of this stuff energy. And I think writing is a beautiful way to do that too. I recently have had my 13 year old you know lots of big emotions. And I've told him to just just write it down, write it out, and it gets it out of you. I mean, maybe not 100% And obviously it's not going to replace any sort of, you know, counseling or therapy that told me but it is it is a tool and there's I mean, there's lots of different ways to do it. I like I do have a routine I have done this. I don't know I remember I just asked I remember as a kid, like a third of fifth grade right about, you know, who likes me, I like to present you know, just silly stuff like that. But I never even as a kid writing that stuff down. And so this has been through with me through lots of trials and tribulations in life. And it's always a little bit so it's very important to me. So I do schedule time and I do find a way to fit in and so what works for me doesn't necessarily work for everybody. But I do get up an hour and this changes here's the fun part with this is these routines and things will change with the seasons of butter. So don't think that you know I have a 10 out of 13 or I don't have a newborn so don't compare that to get up you know, an hour before I have to start getting ready and that's like the me time where I get to process things and so it looks it can look different every night. Sometimes it's called random. So just literally word vomit on the page. There's no rhyme or reason to it, you know, no one's going to be reading, go back and reread it so you can kind of clear that space out and have some devotionals that I will use as well kind of journal prompts or things that maybe you do want to think about, especially if we're trying this and relating it a little bit to pregnancy keeping like a pregnancy journal. If you do want to go back and look at those thoughts and potentially process you know, some of those things are what is this trimester bring up for you What is this day you know, bring it up for you and there's no right or wrong of what you write about. You didn't write about what made you nauseous you know, you write about the cravings and the foods that you have or the hopes dreams and fears that are coming with with your birth is a beautiful way to process that I another one I like to do because sometimes you could do this brain dump. You get everything out and it can be kind of negative, you just be negative crap in your headspace and so I tend to maybe get that stuff out and then try at the end of that writing period to focus a little bit with some things that I'm thankful for just maybe five things reading something and it can be super simple and it can be really, really big, whatever it is, but that can help kind of close out and shift that energy and shift that focus a little bit there, especially your ending and moving into your day. So yeah, I don't know mentally. I've always gravitated to journaling. Yeah,

Speaker 1  5:00  

I am a brain dump type of juggler. I don't even have to sit journal but wouldn't be on the Notes app on my phone. I really do like writing it out. It's the most beneficial like paper type deal. But even just putting into the Notes app on my phone, if I need to get out of my head. I think that's the greatest tip we share about like using journaling or writing to kind of get what's happening up in here. If you're just kind of focused on one particular thought or whatever. Again, I can't seem to organize your thoughts or feel like you're overwhelmed by your thoughts during the brain dump where it's just gonna write without critique of yourself. This is what I always struggle with this with journaling. And I feel like I had to be written a certain way or look a certain way or be about a certain thing, which is not helpful to the brain dump or it doesn't matter. And I may not come back to that and maybe I do and then I organize it from there. But I'm in a better headspace and I'm sort of spiraling I can sort of get out of a funk or out of a negative moment. Bring up a simple piece of paper or use your notes app. Just get it all out in the field. And I think also with writing even right now, sometimes you need to go for like five minutes at minimum, and maybe like set a timer by 10 minutes, because it sounds like you don't really get to the meat of it. It's already been writing for a minute and it doesn't you're writing like a perfect story, but you're just sort of like dumping it out. But also you might get to the meat of the meat of it. Okay, and then you kind of again, but on the way this is what was triggering that, that cycle of negative thoughts. And sometimes I'm experiencing a lot of stress. I'll hyper focus on all the things I need to do. Because I was like there's nothing I can control. There's also stuff happening around me so now, the other night I made a list of I think 20 things around my house that need to be done like it was a to do list with just like I was I was hyper focusing on all the things that weren't done in the house. And I've been on paper and I got through it but it was not really those things not stressing me it was probably just life in general. And then I do really like I don't think Gratitude is the answer for all stress, but I do think it's a very helpful tool to practice gratitude, and I really don't like forcing people to have silver linings like you're going through a hard thing but at least this but at least at least you've got your legs at least you've got a roof over your head. You know when someone's going through a really hard thing. I think it's really important when we're talking about addressing stress pregnancy not pregnant is you got to feel the feels. I feel like I can do a practice and you said it's kind of intimate started on that and you let it flow. You're not doubting yourself. You're just gonna feel it, let it out and then I am going to finish with gratitude because it's just like reframing what we're going through just trying to find the good is and that focus on that we just worked on the bad but we just might we might spiral but I'm gonna allow space for the negative for the for the disappointment for the whatever they don't tell yourself about and then work towards finding what is going well here what what am I thankful for? I think it's a good balance to the writing that I think

Speaker 2  7:11  

is is helpful. Yeah, and I like when it's definitely not when I flipped to that gratitude spot. It's like not it's never like, well, at least you know, like you said, like I really tried to do things at one time. Yeah, I really tried to look at it like, you know what, I do really love this. I do really love getting up and having my coffee. Like it's like what I'm actually like, it's just really the simple thing sometimes and yeah, sometimes it gets really good. Like I really am so thankful for the help the most. Like it's not, it's not like I'm trying so hard to like find the things but it's like actually it really does bring me joy and make me feel good. So, but I think it's like that you said that that like I think it's important to really

Speaker 1  7:43  

missing these and I get a little bit perturbed by people who there's a lot of people who read your gratitude practices and I just think a lot of them it's missing the validity, like the validation part. I like what you're actually going through and the heart that you're feeling. And so I'm like, You know what, dude, you got to do to make space for that and then bring in the gravity. I think there's lots of good benefits from from gratitude. For sure. And journaling is great. A lot of practice pregnancy or not and beyond. I think it's really helped Yeah, it's something you can always come back to it maybe

Speaker 2  8:08  

doesn't where you come up with those mantras or something you know, or you're right on. Remember back to what kind of refer back to what you said so many you know during labor birth you can think about you know, that gratitude list and gratitude reserves. That's what I did write a blog a long time ago about having an attitude of gratitude, but like building those gratitude, a bit to something to fall back on when like it's crazy. I had so at the end my blog, I had a few extra things and mainly sometimes, I don't know it's a lot of stress that we have can come from that feeling of like lack of control over any sort situations of work is definitely a situation where you do have to surrender and give up that sense of control. But there are some areas where we've talked about really to that breath where you can tap into I can I have a good response to this. And so I always like to talk about your water intake. Like you can control how much water during water is so important. I can flush out the toxins. That's when I go to somebody that comes in with headaches, like just very simple thing of, you know, are you drinking of water? What is the next step that you could do the right thing for you, you know, and just staying in the present here and now instead of for thinking certain things, especially if it's like, oh, I'm worried about this and worried about that. Okay, well, what is what's going on in here? Now, you know, we're saying kind of President Trump's situation, but at least you can get over that mind is going with things and then always another one is, what are you absorbing or mentally digesting? What did that mean? What are you looking at? What are you thinking? What are you reading? Who are you listening to what words are being said? Because you can kind of control that a bit to turn off certain things.

Speaker 1  9:37  

You're having a lot of control what you consume on the media and news of our friends. So I love those bonus tips for sure. You can't go wrong with those things. setting boundaries, I mean for reducing overall stress, I think is a tremendous way to come to control over over you're stressing and trying to reduce any unnecessary stress due to people not respecting your boundaries. And so that's not easy to do. It takes practice and it takes a lot of good communication and open conversations with your people, your family or friends. But it's all about protecting your peace protecting your stress levels. And so if there's someone in that circle who's me around them It's an increase in scores or something. Yeah, it's fear or negativity or expecting your decisions to as hard as it is you have to sort of draw that line in the sand and say for now, for this moment, it's not forever but we're not talking about the same or, you know, there's ways to do it. so exploring that being open about the the boundaries with social media too is huge.

Speaker 2  10:31  

Yeah. So those are our building resiliency.