Prenatal Yoga reminds me of how I always hope to practice yoga. Any goal of posture is completely out. We’re free to be in a space of yoga.
Prenatal yoga is not only a typically safe and healthy way to exercise and relax during pregnancy, but it is also a unique time in a woman’s life when it is nearly impossible to ignore the messages of her body. I’ve often in the past disregarded the messages of the body and let my own agendas about being fit, exercising, and doing advanced asanas plow through and against the current of what feels right. The mind conversation takes the lead over the body, and rather than merging, they’re arguing. I remember feeling blessed and so tuned-in when I began to surrender these beliefs and listen to body messages while being pregnant. The body is a piece of the universe – it is tuned-in to universal wisdom. It has the potential to tap us in. It can be a source of infinite now-ness and spark.
When the body is viewed in this way – as a source of wisdom and connection, it can be used to get us into an authentic space of Yoga – even if for glimpses. Now, my loose translations of Yoga may be somewhat creative and not exactly as a Sanskrit scholar would define, but I’m doing what most makes sense to me in this day and time based on my actual experiences of the practice of Hatha Yoga. And, by the way Sanskrit and Yoga Scholars, thank you for your work, without you my definition would be even further off! I’ve come to know and understand Hatha Yoga as an artful way of using the body as a tool or a guide to allow us to catch wider glimpses or be in the state of presence with the universe. Hatha Yoga is a conversation between the body and its source mother. This is why we often receive truths or ah-ha’s during or after a session of Hatha Yoga.
All bodies are hard-wired to help bring us into yoga, and pregnant bodies are housing double (or more!) of the instructions for how to be in that wise state. I notice in prenatal yoga classes (or more accurately prenatal Hatha Yoga – but yea, that would be annoying to actually call it that!) that the mamas are not attached to whether or not they choose to deepen the physical experience of a posture or take a rest in child’s pose. The blaring messages that they are receiving from their bodies (= the universe) is making it much easier for them to be in their bodies and mostly out of their minds, which is a definition of Hatha Yoga that works well for me – what does Hatha Yoga mean to you? I don’t know about you, but most of my experiences of attempting Hatha Yoga have involved me trying to tune-in to my body again and again and maybe occasionally catching an ah-ha. I’ve often realized years later that many of these “ah-ha’s” I was not actually living – I mistook them for me, rather than hearing them as great advice.
I love how a prenatal Yoga class can provide a space for a mom-to-be to to tune-in to her body and its infinite wisdom as she walks towards the abyss of motherhood and into yet another means of yoga.