3 Fertility Boosts for the Mind

Fertile is happy; not tired and isolated

I’ve mentioned this before; but it’s important to remember that the mind and the body are deeply connected, the one very much influences the other (and vice versa). So when you are focusing on your fertility it’s not just about eating well and exercising, your mind needs some attention too so you can keep feeling happy on this journey.

So here are my top 3 tips:

Make sure you are getting plenty of rest, downtime and sleep to boost your mind

This allows for positive thinking as well as a more optimistic perspective on whatever is going on for you. When we feel rested we generally feel like anything is possible. Life these days is not set up for us to have plenty of time for sleep and rest so it is down to us to make it a priority in our lives. When we are tired we can more easily fall into negative thinking and because there’s an awful lot of negative messaging out there in the world about fertility, this can make it so much worse for your perspective and your personal fertility status. 

We are all prone to becoming entrenched and bogged down in our habitual ways of viewing life but when we have some space in our lives to think, we can more easily get a new perspective. When we are too caught up in the business of life, it’s easier to fall for the illusion that something outside of us has to change first before we can feel differently on the inside. But if we understand that we always have the capacity for insight, and we have the willingness to open ourselves to that possibility, we discover that we are never as stuck as we think we are.  

Many women I speak to have this fixed notion around the thought that they are too old to get pregnant because they are over 40 or they’re never gonna get pregnant because their AMH test result is less than one and they just can’t get past the fact that anything else is possible for them. This perspective then blocks them from getting pregnant because the mind so strongly influences the body. So if the mind doesn’t think it’s possible then the body follows suit.

When you have more time out in your life, you have more opportunity to ask yourself questions like ‘How else could I think about my fertility’? And then, rather than trying to think and feel differently, which rarely works, you can let the question go and trust that another possibility will occur to you when you’re ready to receive it. Openness and receptivity are the keys to a better mindset.

Do something you love that gives you satisfaction

Making time for the things that bring you joy is so key to a happier perspective on life. This could be your favourite sport or a creative hobby. Making something for someone, getting positive feedback or It could be simply baking a cake for a friend or getting praise from a colleague at work. You get a dopamine hit, this is what social media relies on. Ask yourself, do you want to start a new hobby or go back to an old class that you loved? The mind tells you, you can’t or you don’t have time but you just need to turn the volume down on that critical voice in your mind (I like to call it the shitty committee).  

When you are feeling stuck and in a low mood this can lead to low confidence so shake things up, step out of your comfort zone and watch your happiness come right back up.  

Make time to socialise

We human beings are sociable creatures and we thrive off connection with others. The amount we need varies from person to person. We all need to socialise to some degree or another. Our bodies produce feel-good hormones when we spend time with others. The quality of connection does vary from person to person though, so be discerning.  

Human connection shifts the chemicals inside the body and brings out our happy hormones. When I run scans for women ‘Lifestyle stress – social phobia’ commonly comes up. I wrote a whole blog post on this subject which you can read about here. I see women on a fertility journey often withdrawing from their friendship groups and social networks because they may not want to talk about their fertility situation, or they feel difficult emotions like shame or simply feeling the odd one out. I challenge you to find different connections/ networks if your current ones aren’t working for you but don’t cut yourself off and hide away from human connection.

We tend to be resistant to things that are good for us so notice if that’s happening for you and do something about it. I do hope you’ve found this blog post helpful. If you’d like to discuss your fertility situation with me you can book a free call with me by clicking here.