Meditation and Mindful Breathing

Let’s breathe together! I recorded a 5 minute guided meditation on Amy Silva's podcast, "Where Healing Happens", to ease your mind, and honour the mind-body connection (see below). 

Mindful breathing, also known as breathwork, is an incredibly versatile tool... 
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Breathing deeply, slowly, and rhythmically helps to calm the mind and tones down your fight-flight-freeze response (this may look like shallow breathing, a racing heartbeat, or just generally feeling agitated).

During labour, breathing mindfully helps you relax, and reduces tension in the body...and guess what? The less tension present, the lower your perception of pain and intensity! 

This simple technique makes it easier for our body to trigger comforting hormones, including oxytocin, and endorphins which are critical to labor progression and pain relief. Inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly even helps oxygenated blood get to the muscles that need it most, namely the uterus.

Breath work is beneficial beyond the scope of childbirth. It’s a tool that costs only a bit of time, and offers you so much. Our world is full of stimuli and triggers, I hope this meditation helps you feel more grounded.

Blessings,
Josh