Pregnancy is in itself a special time, something that doesn't happen every other day.. It leaves an impact on your life, the way you look at people, how you spend your time, how you prioritize.. It also leaves an impact on your practice, not only in a physical way, but let’s start here..
Physical impact of pregnancy on my practice
I was amazed after my first week of practice without a bump. It was like discovering my body all over again.. Some asanas were gone, and I mean gone gone, I had to start from the scratch. But then there were also few surprises..
Utthita Hasta Padangushtasana became like a walk in the park! No joke! I believe that trying not to use core in a pose when you need it the most made the trick. When I finally got to use my bandhas, it felt like having an invisible assistant next to me. Similar for Prasarita Padottanasana C, few weeks after coming back to the shala I was able to touch the floor with my hands, without even a big effort! Turns out, also here I learned to use my legs, rather than bandhas to go deeper into the pose. So when I could turn on uddiyana and mula bandha again, tadam!
But there was more..
It was not so much the physical shift that I experienced the most. It was rather what changed in my head, in my attitude to practice, daily tasks, and life in general.
I learned how to appreciate what I can do in my practice rather than being upset about not binding those legs in Supta Kurmasana.
I also tempered the ‘crazy’ in me, always wanting new poses, new challenges, pushing myself into the lotus pose, even though I knew it may cost me few weeks of knee recovery (again).
Things became so much simpler. I often caught myself thinking ‘if I was able to do drop backs till a day before delivery, I can surely do that’.
I started doing things I love, instead of talking about doing them one day. If I couldn’t find a reason not to go to a yoga training, fly to London to visit my best friend, or to Rome to practice with Lino, I would just do it. In a first year after Lily was born we took her everywhere with us. Three out of those trips were purely yoga related. During the same time I also finalized my 200 hour yoga teacher training focusing on Ashtanga yoga, and attended another one straight after to deepen my Ashtanga practice (100Hr). And while following this new path, I made a full circle.. I realized that what gives me the most energy is sharing my experience from the time I was pregnant. I found the HypnoBirthing training in London, flew my family with me and got certified. And afterwards I joined Birthlight training in Utrecht. Because I could not find a reason not to do it :)
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