Yesterday, I got together with a group of very committed yoginis in Essential Yoga Therapy teacher training. Our aim was to explore how yoga can help women during pregnancy and birthing. I’d been preparing for weeks, wanting to bring the best of my experience in teaching perinatal yoga classes to the group. Right before class, I read a post from my doula friend, Sarah. It was a reflection about her 15 Years of Mamahood. This week, Sarah became the mother of a fifteen year old son. This marks the anniversary of the many years in which Sarah has either been pregnant and birthing or helping others do it too. She organized her thoughts into encouraging messages. I think her encouragement applies to every stage of life that presents us with an opportunity to transform and grow: to birth ourselves anew, again and again. This is what my yoga teaching friends are doing now.
Sarah: Growing a baby inside oneself is humbling
We began our day exploring the incredible changes our bodies go through as we grow a baby. In yoga-speak, we used the holistic Koshic Model to explore what happens in the different “bodies” or dimensions of being we are: physical, psycho-emotional, intuitive and spiritual. Every change offers challenges and choices. Some of the first challenges we encounter is a heightened awareness of our bodies because they don’t feel the same. (We have to share them!) We often experience fatigue, nausea, sense-sensitivity and a myriad number of “growing pains” as the journey continues. Long time doula, instructor, writer and national treasure, Penny Simkin, reminds us that this is pain with a purpose. Something miraculous is happening inside us – our very being is an expression of life.
