How To Remain Calm During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is one of the most life changing events in a woman’s life.

I’ve had the biggest transformation internally throughout the entire process, as I grow this little babe inside me.

It’s a joyous time for sure, and yet, it comes with all sorts of new changes—everything from body changes to home changes to doctor changes and more.

Pregnancy can also lead to stress and be quite a rollercoaster of emotions (the first part of my pregnancy was horrible, while the second was really amazing).

It’s normal to feel an entire spectrum of emotions, such as feeling happy, excited, anxious, worried, and overwhelmed.

For this reason, it’s particularly important for a pregnant woman to take good care of her mental, emotional, and physical health.

How To Remain Calm During Pregnancy

I’m sharing different ways to cope with the different changes and emotions brought on by pregnancy so that you can ultimately remain calm and reduce stress throughout the entire 40 week journey.

Tip 1: Acknowledge your feelings

Acknowledging your feelings means you notice how you feel in your body. Are you feeling stressed or overwhelmed all the time?

This means getting out of your head and resisting the temptation to focus on external things that you think may be causing your frustration or discomfort.

When you go inward—into your body—you lessen the tension and tightness. So, in this sense, there’s more calm. Close your eyes and take deep breaths and bring awareness to your feelings.

This is the first step—awareness of what’s going on in your body.

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Tip 2: Stop resisting negative emotion

When you’re trying to avoid negative emotions it makes the negative emotion worse.

For example, instead of feeling frustrated, you’re mad that you’re frustrated. Or instead of feeling tired, you’re irritated that you’re tired.

When you allow the primary emotion instead of resisting it, you’ll decrease the discomfort instead of compounding it.

In this way, it’s important to stop resisting negative emotion so you don’t make the primary negative emotion worse. It’s easy to feel even more stressed when you try to resist hard emotions.

Simply allow negative emotion to be there and you’ll feel calmer.

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Tip 3: Listen to your body

Listening to your body when you’re pregnant enables you to step into the changes happening with so much more ease than if you ignore your body.

For example, when I was in my first trimester I was so tired and extremely nauseous for most of the day. Instead of holding myself to my old standard of getting up at 6am and working full days (always “on the go”), I noticed the change in my body and honored it. I worked fewer hours, took daytime naps, and started getting up at 7:30am.

Listening to your body means you’re thinking about what your body needs from you instead of trying to force your body to be something it’s not.

When you surrender to your body, your pregnancy is much more enjoyable.

Try things like scheduling more time to relax or exercise during pregnancy and see how your body reacts. Even if you just meet up with a friend or family member and go on a daily walk for 30 minutes.

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Tip 4: Eat well and get more rest

A well balanced diet combined with optimal sleep is a recipe for unparalleled success during pregnancy.

It can’t be overestimated how important it is to eat nutritious foods as you grow a little human in your body. The benefits extend to you personally and also to that growing baby of yours.

Sleep helps you manage your hormones and all the changes so much more effectively. You may ever experience more anxiety or feel depressed during pregnancy if you don’t really focus on these two things. Your mind and body need rest and good nutrition during pregnancy.

Have you noticed how much harder it is to manage your mind when you’re tired? I know this is personally true for me and so many of my clients.

Bottom line—get more sleep and eat healthy foods. This is simple and doable yet leads to big results.

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Tip 5: Start a new self care routine

Having a self care routine when you’re pregnant is one of the best ways to incorporate more calm into your life.

Whether it’s breath work, meditation, journaling, exercising or something else—a self care routine helps you prioritize yourself from the inside out.

If you have little ones at home already, this can be a challenge, but even as little as 10 minutes every day done consistently is enough. You’ll have a small amount of time to reset and check in with yourself. So many women feel like they don’t have time for this. That is not true, my friend. You have to make the time.

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Tip 6: Coach yourself and get coached

Coaching yourself and getting coached by a Certified Life Coach will help you stop struggling with almost every internal aspect of your life. If you’re looking for social support, I cannot recommond the life coaching community enough. It’s truly life changing.

Important note: Life coaching is best for high functioning mamas who have the normal feelings of worry, anxiety, overwhelm, frustration, etc. from day-to-day life challenges. If you’re experiencing greater anxiety, seek a health care professional such as a psychologist or psychiatrist who can help.

Personally, I’ve experienced the transformation of mindset work in my life that has led to me going from overworked and overwhelmed to well-balanced and calm. And I can say the same for so many of my clients.

If you’re interested, click here to learn more about Grow You, my virtual life coaching program for moms.

A Final Note!

Feeling calm isn’t something that just happens to you. It’s something that you create.

If you’re struggling with this now, know that you’re not alone. Keep working on it. You can use these tips and the tools in this community to change how you feel and how you live during this pregnancy and beyond.