During your pregnancy it’s common to experience a range of emotions from anxiety, irritability, to pure joy.  The yoga breath is calming, centering, relaxing, and highly beneficial for keeping your emotions in balance.  Try this simple breathing exercise below.

Balancing Breath
Seated comfortably (you may place pillows underneath you or sit in a chair), close your eyes and sit with your spine tall.  Inhale a deep “complete breath” in through your nose and exhale the breath completely out of your lungs with your mouth closed.  As you inhale imagine the breath rising to the top of your head, and as you exhale imagine the breath sinking to your tail bone.  Repeat the breath a minimum of 8 times or as long as needed.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re tired you crave high sugar foods and coffee?  It’s because your body is needing sleep, but you’re forcing it to stay awake.  In turn you’ll crave coffee and sugary foods to keep your body “up”.  The problem is coffee is a diriuretic so it’s easy to mistake hunger for thirst, and craving sugary foods are high in empty calories that result in packing on the pounds.  The solution?  Get more zzzz’s!  Most of us need about 8 hours to function at our best.  If you can’t get all 8 hours during the night, fit in a cat nap instead of doing an unnecessary task.  Now that you know that lack of sleep can lead to unwanted pounds, there’s more motivation to get your sleep!

I had both of my children completely natural (no pain meds), and I attribute my successful births to the yoga breath.  I teach my clients to allow their bodies to do what it naturally does.  Most of us will try to “fight” the process, but if you let into it and use your breath it happens much easier.  The yoga breath keeps you centered, which can be challenging when you feel that you have no control when you go into labor.  Focus on the deep inhale and exhale.  Imagine riding a wave.  As you go up the wave the contractions get more intense, but soon you’ll be riding the wave back down.  Focus inward and hear your breath.  Imagine the breath releasing the tension in your body, allowing your baby to come easily into the world.

Have you ever noticed that swimmers have great backs, runners have great legs, and yogi’s have long lean muscles?  We are literally shaped by the exercises that we do.  If you’re looking to lose the baby weight, yoga is a great way to do it!  Certain types of yoga such as ashtanga (power yoga) and vinyasa (flow yoga) get the heart rate up to burn calories and body fat, and the yoga postures and breath lengthen and tone the muscles.  Another added benefit with yoga is you’ll experience a reduction in stress and a great night’s sleep…a plus for new moms!

I know you want to lose your baby weight, now think about what you’re telling yourself.  Are you saying negative self statements such as, “I’m fat”,  ”I’ve got so much flab!”, or ”Yuck!”?  If you are then you’re making it harder to lose weight.  On the reverse if you focus on the positive changes you ARE doing, you’ll lose weight quicker.  For example, if you’ve increased your exercise, state, “I’m working towards a fit lifestyle” or “I’m making positive changes”.  When you focus on what you are doing that is working, you’re creating a positive mindset.  A positive mindset translates to improved mood, better self image, and an increase in motivation which equals greater results!