Infertility Yoga | Naturally Transforming Infertility To Fertility

Infertility can be easily cured if you are conscious towards your body and life. When the word infertility hits you don’t feel helpless and start running in whichever direction any hope points to, completely clueless. Understand your body, mind and environment around properly.  Thereafter, decide your path and be patient to achieve desired results. Remember, infertility journey is not easy and miracles are rare to happen. You have to walk your way through it and reach fertility with a sense of purpose, consistency and conscious thinking. Infertility yoga will show you the path to holistic well-being thereby naturally facilitating the transformation from infertility to fertility.

Read: Fertility Yoga | A Solution to Reduce Weight and Move Towards Fertility

Previously, we discussed about the physical part of yoga – the asanas, shatkarmas and the co-relation between weight and infertility. In this section, we look at other factors that contribute to increased weight and how those need to be controlled. As mentioned earlier, Yoga nurtures the endocrine system, but it must be combined with a balanced diet and healthy eating habits for results to show.

Let’s take a look at other contributing factors that benefit health as you prepare yourself for conception. These are:

Psychological Factors That Promote Over-Eating

Overweight generally results from overeating rather than other causes such as heredity, hormone deficiencies and so on.  Increased weight  is often a reaction to insecurity, sexual frustrations, anxiety and anger. Many people with deep feelings of insecurity experience themselves as the ‘real me’ locked inside a hollow body. They try to assuage their fears and insecurity by stuffing up this hollow space with food. This makes them feel more solid; the fat gives them a sense of identity, of existing in their own right. On the other hand, an obese woman may feel that her fat is a buffer between herself and a threatening world. Anger and aggression, when not directly expressed,  create a restlessness inside that keeps us prowling for food. For others, loneliness, loss and pain are blotted out for a moment while eating; food provides an escape, a comfort, a momentary oblivion.

Chronically obese people use food as a narcotic drug, but like any other addict, the food junky feels tremendously guilty and overreacts by dieting or fasting. The compulsive eater feels a split between the ‘good’ person who starves, and the ‘bad’ person who stuffs. In reality, though she eats to the point of pain, the food addict is so guilty that she does not really taste a single mouthful and is never really satisfied.

Say No To Fad Diets 

Diets do not work simply because they cannot resolve these deep emotional conflicts. The only way to provide the inner nourishment we are searching for in food is to practice yoga.  It is useful not just for weight reduction, but for self-discovery too.

A compulsive eater is normally out of touch with real hunger. She eats from nervousness, anticipation of later hunger, and from ‘mouth hunger’ (“I don’t feel hungry in my stomach, but I must have something in my mouth”). Diets further complicate this. You lose touch with the experience of hunger and the ability to satisfy it because you eat according to some artificial standard (e.g. calories) and not according to the body’s prompting. As a result, you tend to give up dieting midway  to eat everything in sight because you cannot withstand the deprivation.

The constant see-saw of body weight due to alternate dieting and indulgence can also upset the body’s energy balance on both physical and pranic levels. This disturbs the nerves, glands and enzymes, and may result in malfunctioning of the brain centre (satiety centre) that tells us to stop eating when we have had enough. 

Go For Balanced Diet

You did not get fat overnight, and you will not become thin overnight either. Whichever diet you choose must be one that you can consistently practice for several months, and one that re-educates your tastes. Fad diets are deficient in certain elements, and in its efforts to supply these missing necessities, the  normal metabolism of the body becomes imbalanced. ‘One-food’ diets and extremely low calorie diets are only a temporary measure and do not establish permanents, healthy food habits.

A balanced diet of whole foods, as much unprocessed as possible, ensures that the body has all the vital nutrients for health. Unrefined foods (whole grains, vegetables, fruits) are rich in fibre and satisfy the appetite more readily than refined ones. Foods high in fibre maintain a healthy digestion, and in contrast to refined foods, supply fewer or no calories. More importantly, a normal, balanced diet takes the emphasis off ‘dieting’ – we do not feel deprived – and it establishes a healthy eating pattern to maintain a healthy body weight.

Learn to like simple, unprocessed foods. Eat a little of everything – even the so called ‘forbidden fruits’ like chocolate, sweets and cake. The key is to eat these a little and not often. Fix one day a week when you will allow yourself to indulge to take away the feeling of always being on a diet. (After a short while, these ‘extra treats’ will be less fascinating as you come to appreciate simpler, more wholesome food). It is not the occasional feast that is the real culprit, but the day to day overindulgence. With a balanced diet you tend to eat less and enjoy it more.

Simple Habits To Inculcate Infertility Yoga In Your Lifestyle

1. Drink plenty of water in between meals.
2. Start your meals with a salad or soup. In South India rasam is taken at the end of a meal, but while you are dieting, drink some as a soup before you start.
3. Eat plenty of vegetables; they are rich in nutrients and low in calories.
4. Avoid extra ghee on idli, rice and chapatis. Reduce fried food and do not eat sweets daily . Learn to drink juices, tea and coffee with less sugar.
5. Do not eat between meals – take only water, tea, coffee or buttermilk at the allotted time without tiffin or snacks.
6. Eat slowly. From the moment you take your first mouthful to the moment the brain’s satiation centre signals ‘enough’ should be at least twenty minutes.While eating quickly, you might eat more in twenty minutes than you need. Eating slowly enables you to savor your food and gives the body time to assess its real needs.
7. Sit in vajrasana before and after meals. Vajrasana after meals aids digestion. Before meals, it gives you time to slow down and become more aware of the act of eating. It gives you time to remember your sankalpa (resolve).

 

Eat Right At the Right Time

Yogic eating puts more emphasis on the timing of food rather than the meal itself. Fix your meal time and stick to it everyday. This regularity stabilizes the metabolism. Your body comes to know how much food to expect; body temperature and activity level automatically adjust to burn up  the food consumed. You will be less inclined to eat between meals, because body rhythm and hunger eventually coincide with meal times. Any gnawing sensation between meals are then more easily recognized as anxiety rather than hunger, soothed by relaxation or Yoga Nidra rather than a raid on the refrigerator.

Eat early at night. In some countries dinner time extends upto 10 p.m.. Our last meal should be taken three to four hours before sleeping so that digestion is almost complete. We do not need much energy while sleeping, and foods if we eat just before going to bed, it gets converted to fat.

Eating later at night also has other detrimental effects on the body. During sleep the digestive process continues, although at a slower pace. The energy that would otherwise be used for repairing and restoring the body is diverted towards digestion. Our sleep is therefore less efficacious and less satisfactory. We often wake up in the morning feeling dull and sluggish. On the other hand, although digestion does not stop, it is slowed down and becomes less efficient. When a fire burns well, there is little or no smoke. When we slow it by putting damp wood or blocking the air, more smoke is produced. So too with the ire of digestion. When digestion is efficient, there are few unwanted by-products. When we slow down digestion during sleep, there is more smoke in the form of unwanted acidity, gas, phlegm and fat. Eating early ensures an efficient digestion and more satisfying sleep. It is easier to get up in the morning and we also wake up feeling fresh and bright.

In ashrams, the swamis eat at 10.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. with something hot to drink at 6.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. This enables them to satisfy  food requirements with only two meals a day, without allowing time to get too hungry in between. These timings also coincide with the body rhythms which make maximum use of the food taken at these times. Energy is available when  needed – during working hours and  at night. If you can adopt these timings, you will find many advantages and you will  also notice that your weight spontaneously balances over time, without heartache. During the changeover period, you might feel like something to eat at your old meal time, especially at night. A hot drink  is all you need to satisfy this craving. Gradually you will notice that these cravings disappear within a fortnight.

Let Go Off The Guilt

The most important aspect of yogic living is to stop judging what you eat and stop dieting. Instead, observe the way you eat and become more aware of what you need. Through awareness and observation, find the amount of food that satisfies you physically and emotionally, and make sure you eat it all – not less. Even if it seems like a lot when it is all put together, eat what you need at the allotted time. If you overeat at one meal, avoid the guilt temptation to skip the next; this will only throw you further out of balance.

Yoga enables us to experience positive body awareness, fostering self-acceptance and teaches you to rely on your own inner voice. You begin to see yourself as a normal person and therefore start eating like one – without guilt. Yoga does not aim to reduce fat, but to reduce spiritual ignorance and all kinds of suffering. The goal of yoga is not to make the body light, but to enlighten the mind. If you keep this in mind always, your body will cease to be a burden and will become a blessing.

Try infertility yoga with faith and resolve  for a positive outcome. People vouch by yoga to have solved complicated and mysterious health issues. Comparatively, overweight is a simple problem to tackle. Though you may struggle with the new routine for the first couple of days, but if you put in 30 minutes/day for 5 days in a week, you will be amazed at the benefits that can be accrued. Fertility yoga helps reduce stress and supports reproductive health as you prepare for pregnancy. Start at a slower pace and increase the pace over time. Consult a good instructor to make sure you get your asanas right. Over time, you will notice that your flexibility and balance have dramatically improved. Above all, remember to stay positive and hopeful on your journey towards fertility—that makes a lot of difference. Good luck!

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