If you’re browsing the web for prenatal yoga tips or videos, Congratulations! You are embarking on one of life’s most rewarding journeys. You are given the gift to nurture life from conception to birth as you become an indelible link in the chain of creation on Earth and in the Universe. You have become a portal for divine grace, a vessel of pure wisdom that the Sky channels into the Earth through your growing womb. You are granted the sacred role of an intermediary. And how you mediate through every stage of the pregnancy determines the physical, mental and spiritual health of your child. For some women pregnancy flows as a nurturing gift as they tune intuitively into the innate wisdom of their bodies, but for others it becomes a rollercoaster of “should’s and shouldn’t’s as they try to figure out what is the best recipe for nurturing and delivering a healthy baby. The truth is – there is no such one-size-fits-all plan for expecting moms. Whether you immerse in deep meditation, or chant all day long; whether you visualize white light enshrining your baby; or extract guidelines from prenatal books and follow them religiously it won ‘t make such a big difference. Of course, the benefits of prenatal yoga, moderate exercise and wholesome nutrition are unarguable, but the precursor to all the healthy tips around pregnancy is being mindful of the beautiful hormonal, physical and energetic changes that accompany the stages of bearing life.The foundation of a heart centered approach during pregnancy starts with self-awareness. Self-awareness of: thoughts, feelings, sensations, and intuition. All those amazing parts of the human’s capacity to reflect and move inward create a harmonious system of understanding the natural spiritual aspects of motherhood. Awareness can help make the experience of pregnancy more peaceful as the body grows, emotions change, priorities shift, intuition strengthens, and receiving each day as it arrives. Creating a pregnancy in awareness begins with inviting explored and unexplored experiences. It is having the ability to investigate beliefs, experience true feelings, dissect mental patterns, release old systems, and continue to move within the cycles of personal transformation. A spiritual pregnancy is not limited to blissful states of constant positive energy and elation, but encompasses feelings of uncertainty and fear. It is about accepting all experiences and knowing that each has purpose.

How does one stay connected to a spiritual pregnancy when cultures of society can easily impact how pregnancy looks and happens? Society can easily influence birthing and pregnancy with extensive books and experts all sharing information about the biological and emotional needs of a mother. Many of these “prego” gurus swear by their little evidenced theories and commoditize the sacredness of the experience by constantly selling new ground-breaking products, valuable tips, instilling fear and manipulating mothers to follow one path or another. This strips us all women of our intuition and ability to tap the latent informational fund of our being that already contains the answers to all our growing needs and questions.

Pregnancy is in fact the most natural process and all you need to do is succumb to the flow and let go into the unknown. The idea of letting go in pregnancy can feel scary. Actually, letting go in general can bring up feelings of personal loss and identity, but in the energy of birthing a new identity of mother is born. Letting go and letting birth is one way to welcome a new thought process. A spiritual pregnancy into sacred birth requires the woman to pay attention to the wisdom of the body, while tuning into the wise callings of the ancient energies of labor that birthed before.

As you enter the cycle of child-birth you become the living epitome of “Yoga” – of linking the personal with the universal to bear life. You become one with all the forces of creation and manifestation that sustain growth in all dimensions. This “yogic” initiation starts with the individual entering a state of self awareness, creating a system of mind clearing, prayer, meditation or mantras, making choices based on intuition, exploration of the psyche, embracing fears with acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go. It’s useful to remember that having a spiritual pregnancy is not about following ridged rules, orders, religious doctrines or archaic advice. It is about following the brilliantly divine information that comes from inside the energy of choices that lives within personal wisdom.

Yoga teaches “prego” moms to set aside their ego and honor their changing body as a shifting seasonal canvas. It teaches them to practice loving compassion for themselves and baby. When paired with a cardiovascular exercise such as walking, swimming, yoga can be an ideal way to stay in physical shape and spiritual communion during your pregnancy. This age-old practice keeps you limber, tones your muscles, and improves your balance and circulation, with little, if any, impact on your joints. Yoga is also beneficial because it helps you learn to breathe deeply and relax, which will come in handy as you face the physical demands of labor, birth, and motherhood. A regular yoga practice will help you fight the urge to tighten up when you feel pain, and show you how to relax instead.

In the first trimester you should focus on nurturing acceptance and forbearance through a soft and gentle practice that teaches you to go with the flow and follow nature’s course. It is important to avoid intense abdominal work, deep back and forward bends, unsafe inversions and exaggerated twists that will impede the blood flow to the baby’s sac. Instead, you can enjoy a varied practice abounding with gentle hip and groin opens that open up space in your lower abdomen.

In my practice as a trained prenatal yoga teacher I have attended numerous prenatal yoga classes, and have observed that the main prenatal yoga trend is to limit the practice to 10 key poses; to spend half of the time in propping; and to keep students reclining, sitting or standing for extended periods in order to build strength and stamina. You can actually reap the same benefits through a flow-based class that offers a wide palette of poses, variations and transitional options. I agree that it is important to create a physically challenging and emotionally supportive class that builds strength and suppleness. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be boring and limited to only selected poses. And you don’t have to prop yourself all the time with blankets, bolsters, blocks and rolled mats, as all these external adjustments ruin the internal tuning to your body. What if, in an hour-long class you didn’t have to use all these tools, but instead engaged in a safe and harmonious dialogue with your baby’s needs? What if you practiced various poses strung in a coherent and enjoyable flow that allowed you to ripple up and down, in and out and side to side without patterning your body to transition always in the same way, while forging new neural pathways in both yours and the baby’s brain. Such a creative flow will ensure the birth of a creative being that won’t be afraid to explore its boundless potential. I have dedicated my life to developing this unexplored niche in Yoga that translates the variety and diversity of nature and life into a nuanced and free yoga style. It will stir your brain, bring awareness into your breath and challenge you to think and function “out of the box” as you discover your individualized path towards motherhood safely and curiously. Like a finger print – it is singularly yours.