Key Elements to Emotional Health: Embrace Yourself, Exhale

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Seven Key Elements to Emotional Health

• Embrace yourself
• Exhale
• Exercise
• Eat right
• Express yourself
• Educate yourself
• Extra Emotional Support

Embrace yourself. Sleep, time with friends, date nights with daddy-to-be are not luxuries. They're necessities. They help you be your best self. Having fun and feeling fulfilled personally, socially, and emotionally make the physical and emotional issues of pregnancy easier.

So, spend time being you...doing the things you enjoy. One night a week should be dedicated to your romantic relationship. It doesn't need to be expensive. Just a walk on the beach or a leisurely couple of hours visiting tag sales together qualifies as quality time if you're enjoying one another's company. An afternoon out with your best girl friend (or even a long telephone call in a pinch) can relieve a lot of stress. So can lunch with your sisters-in law, your mother-in-law, your neighbor. Something as simple as a chicken salad sandwich on a park bench with good conversation and no distractions can be just the thing you need to feel like yourself again.

Then be sure to spend time being your own friend, doing things for yourself. Make a determined effort to pamper yourself a little.

Little indulgences like soaking in the tub are pick-me-ups. Hop into the tub (can you still hop?), tune in to some good music, and tune out the world. Fifteen minutes of bubbly relaxation is not as hard to come by as you think. Schedule it into your day, rather than waiting for the opportunity to arise.

Feeling badly about swollen feet? Look for a cute pair of inexpensive sandals at a discount retailer. So what if it's February! The shoes will be cheaper, and if you wear them now you'll be more comfortable. Your elevated body temperature will keep you from noticing that you're the only one wearing spring/summer shoes. Just don't wear them out in the snow. Even swollen feet need protection from the elements. Buying flashy or impractically colored sandals is not a splurge; it's a fun way to adapt to pregnancy. It'll improve your mood (and those claustrophobic feet).

It's easy to get caught up in the planning, preparing, and prenatal care, but it's essential that you remember mothering is not about giving up your old life, your old interests. Plan, prepare, take care of all the prenatal priorities, but keep yourself on that priority list, too.

Exhale, inhale, relax, reduce your stress. Mini-timeout for Moms-to-be. Sometimes, relaxing is as simple as taking a deep breath. Feeling like you're about to become overwhelmed? Practice the ten second time out. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and slowly exhale through your mouth taking ten complete seconds to release the air. If that centers you emotionally, wonderful. If it doesn't, excuse yourself for a moment. Step away from whatever person or situation is stressing you out and take a minute for yourself. A minute of this deep breathing exercise can work wonders - and all it takes is a minute. Who's going to argue with a pregnant woman who says, "Excuse me. I need a minute to myself..."?

After your mini-timeout (ten seconds which will not even be noticed as you stay put) or your minute long self-imposed exile, you'll be ready to jump right back into your morning meeting, the planning session for the event you're helping to organize, the check out line at the crowded grocery store or whatever it was that raised your blood pressure. And the best part is, the people you're dealing with will have no idea that you wanted to scream at them! Ignorance is bliss (for them).

Meditation/Prayer/Reflection
Whether you believe in the power of prayer, the value of a little quiet time, or the inner peace of meditation, spend some time each day quietly with your thoughts.

Think back to when you were a child. You may have said prayers before bed each night, or simply allowed your mind to wander as you drifted off to sleep. Once you're an adult, those winding down activities for the mind often do not occur. As the grown up you is falling asleep, you're listening to the late night news or you're mentally rehearsing a presentation for the next day. You need to time reflect, too. Maybe even more as an adult than you did as a child. And especially more as a pregnant adult. Allow yourself the time to unwind without distraction before you fall asleep at night. Forget the television. Work will still be there in the morning. Fifteen minutes with a spiritual book, ten minutes contemplating the mysteries of life, a little while rocking in a rocking chair letting your thoughts wander. Their effects will last much longer than the small block of time dedicated to them.

Some women find that the only way to spend five or ten minutes alone quietly is to reserve time first thing in the morning. Whether that means laying quietly in bed with your eyes closed before you even put your feet on the floor, or a few minutes out on the porch wrapped in your robe listening to the birds doesn't matter. What matters is taking the time, just a little bit, to listen to the workings of your heart and your mind.

Stretch Away Tension.
You can physically release tension by stretching your body. Even if you are not aware of physical stress, chances are that a good stretch will release tension you didn't even realize you were storing in your body. Maybe it's nervous energy that's putting you on edge. How do you release that energy when there's no time for a workout?

Stretch those arms. Stretch that neck. Lift and lower those shoulders. You don't even need to stand up if you don't want to interrupt your productivity. Straighten out your legs and flex and point your toes under your desk during a conference call.

Stretching is a simple and quick fix. Try it for yourself next time you're feeling a little antsy.