If I heard one more person tell me to “just relax” when I was trying to get pregnant with my second child, I was about to pull a pin and throw a grenade at their feet.  Sounds harsh?  You bet it is. What is it about that statement that just drives every woman seeking to have a baby to positively seethe behind a polite smile when you answer…”oh, yeah, you’re right, I just need to relax. I wish I had thought of that sooner.”<br>
Turn the clock forward about four years.  I’ve come a long way since then. I now believe that there is truth behind those well-meaning words. Very simply, our bodies are not a disconnected vessel cut off from the outside world. Our minds are constantly reacting to the environment that we are engaging in, and our bodies react accordingly. Deepak Chopra says that our bodies are constantly eavesdropping on our thoughts and being changed by them – for the better and the worse.

Not only that, but it is known that depression and stress levels in woman trying to conceive are as high as those experiencing life threatening diseases such as heart disease or cancer.   Why does trying cause so much anxiety?  What can we then do about it?  What can we do to reverse the effects of “trying?”  With my first pregnancy, we were “trying but not trying” and I was pregnant within six months.  With the second one, however, TTC became my daily mantra, and every month was like a judge and jury finding out whether or not the defendant was guilty or not. The pressure.

So how do our thoughts translate into the physical realm?  How do these fleeting bits of non-matter affect on our bodies? This question taunted me for almost two and half years. I dove headfirst into dozens of books on subjects ranging from fertility, mind/body, psychology and hypnotherapy.  There is still a lot to learn, and it is a bit like connecting the dots.

We know the following:
•    Stress has a real and measurable impact on the body;
•    Infertility, or trying to come pregnant, creates lots of stress;
•    Fertility is reduced by stress;
•    Constant worry, depression or anxiety creates chronic stress; and
•    Stress causes numerous other health-related ailments.

Please come back from future installments as we will cover numerous ideas along these lines, including:
•    The negative effects of “trying” on our bodies
•    The mind/body connection and how it relates back to fertility
•    Law of reversed effort
•    Stress reduction techniques (yoga, visualization, deep-breathing, etc.)
•    The hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary connection
•    Chronic stress and the effect on our hormone circulation
•    Research being completed by fertility specialists currently