We live in a world in which doing more often means we will achieve more and go further.
The message changes its phrasing but it is basically the same through the years. Study more and you will go to a better school. Engage more to jumpstart your career. Work more to advance faster. Train more to look better. Even party more, travel more. Grab every opportunity, don’t miss out. Carpe diem.
And then it comes to fertility and you do all you can, you push and try and do everything you can but it’s still not happening.
Slowing down at this point can feel counterintuitive. Why would I do less if I want this so much? t can feel like giving up, or like admitting defeat. Like you’re not trying hard enough if you stop trying so hard.
Still, the reproductive system won’t work better if you push yourself harder. Quite the opposite. It responds to safety, to steadiness, to enough. A nervous system that’s constantly being asked to do more rarely gets the message that it’s safe to rest, to soften, to let something new take root.
So in fertility yoga we do less. Less effort, more attention. Less doing, more connection.
It’s all about recognising that for this particular goal, the body’s wisdom often points in the opposite direction to where our habits do.
Photo by K8 on Unsplash