Making space for a new family member can be a challenging experience. I wasn't prepared for being pregnant with my first child. Pregnancy felt like a crash course in surrendering to the Mystery of Life. In Western culture, we try to "control" fertility, birth, and parenthood in so many ways. Sometimes these efforts work and sometimes they don't. Most of the time I feel like life happens and I must flow with the moment, creating intentions, yet also surrendering my attachment to these intentions. Aparigraha. One helpful affirmation that helped me during my most recent pregnancy is this: "In this moment I am pregnant. In this moment, my baby and I are well."

So many fears of the unknown can come up during pregnancy and new parenthood. Anxiety, the fear of "what ifs", really closed in on me during my last pregnancy and continued into postpartum quite viciously. In these moments, what has helped me is to make space for my breath, for my body to expand, soften, and do it's work. Sometimes I've made literal space by nesting, cleaning out drawers, closets, even entire rooms. The practice of mindfulness has helped infuse my experience with courage and joy versus living in fear of an outcome that may never even manifest. No amount of preparation can save us from grief, loss, or tragedy. Yet, living in anticipation of loss steals from my joy in THIS moment. Asteya. I may not be able to control my fertility, pregnancy, birth, parenthood journey, but I can exist in this space and make more if it to hold all of life. It isn't either/or. Life isn't binary like that.

In this moment, I invite you to sit with me. Slow your breath. Lengthen your exhales. Simply receive this moment. Connect to it and let it flow. Trust your body. Trust your baby. Lean in to the Mystery. We can then begin to build the capacity to face each moment anew, both the blessings and the challenges. We each have the power, not to control the moment, but to make space for it. It is my wish that together, in this space of presence, we can strengthen our resilience, courage, and capacity to show up for ourselves and each other with deeper compassion.