Can Fertility Meditation help you through IVF treatment?

This is part 10 in the “what I changed for successful IVF treatment” series. Stress and overthinking infertility are two completely normal reactions during the most complicated time of your life. One of the biggest changes that I made to my life during infertility was to learn mindfulness and meditation. This is, without a doubt, one of the positives that came from those dark times. I am by no means an expert, nor do I claim to be, but the benefits that I have gained from meditation will stick with me for the rest of my life. Writing openly about meditation will leave me in a position of vulnerability and the potential for ridicule is high but I don’t care.

An interesting Huff Post on fertility meditation: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/27/meditation-fertility_n_5256027.html

When dealing with infertility both my wife and I were sad, depressed and coping with the daily struggle was at times overbearing. Thankfully, we both discovered meditation and it was an amazing way to get our minds in the right place and focus on the task at hand. I initially discovered guided meditation shortly after our wedding on a road trip to Austria for new years eve. I used the eight-hour journey to listen to guided meditations and learn about mindfulness. Shortly after our first IVF treatment, I upgraded my meditation experience to headspace. A guided meditation app that I still use to this day. I have no affiliation with headspace(yet), but here is some great information on a wonderful app:

Andy Puddicombe’s Ted Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/andy_puddicombe_all_it_takes_is_10_mindful_minutes (Headspace Co-Founder) (9:24)
Introduces the concept of mindfulness and the voice/founder of Headspace.

Headspace Overview Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEpOF7vUymc (1:46)
Introduces the app and provides a preview of the style of our content.

Headspace: Effort https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xAeJKgupPI (1:37)
Helps frame how our minds think.

Fast Company – Headspace Article http://www.fastcompany.com/3041402/body-week/the-monk-and-the-mad-man-making-mindfulness-for-the-masses

Headspace offers many different types of guided meditation that can help you during different situations. I would recommend starting with the foundation pack to get used to meditation. You can choose 10,15 or 20-minute sessions. 10 minutes is my normal session as time is precious, but there is a lot to be said for the benefits of longer sessions. After you have completed the foundation level you can pick the area that you need to focus on. These include sports performance, acceptance, relationships and much more.

For me, the benefits of meditation lay in relieving stress and clearing my mind. Stress is a huge factor in infertility and successful IVF treatment. If you can reduce the amount of stress you have in your life you can increase your chances of having successful IVF treatment. Meditation was one of the changes that we made during IVF treatment and now we have twins. I cannot pinpoint if this was the reason that IVF worked for us but having a clear mind can definitely not have harmed our chances.

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