Dealing with 1st trimester anxiety during pregnancy

Oh anxiety you old friend.

And yep, this is how I have to manage mine to make sure she doesn’t take over.

If I forget to keep in touch with her (yoga, meditation and journaling) she likes to run riot and I end up snappy, frazzled and doing all the things to shut her up (doing too much, eating her away, numbing out on Netflix, etc)

Anxiety during pregnancy is a similar but also different beast. It’s laser focused on your own body and can feel inescapable.

You might justify it away as ‘I guess that’s just my experience because… I’ve lost a baby / it took so long to get here / I just want this baby so much / I am just an anxious person / insert a million other reasons here”

But after personally having two blissfully naive pregnancies, three extremely anxious pregnancies (with varying degrees of being aware of my anxiety and being able to deal with it) and my final pregnancy where I (mostly) embraced anxiety as that old friend – I can tell you which I prefer the most.

I wish I could tell you the answer to get rid of pregnancy anxiety for good.  But like most things, managing anxiety is we have to keep practicing daily. Some days we’ll sail through without a worry and other days anxiety can make life feel incredibly hard.

I’ve found almost every woman who experiences anxiety has to find her own individual way of dealing with it, though there do seem to be a few common factors.

Ideas for dealing with anxiety during pregnancy

• It seems to get worse when you let self-care slide
• Exhaustion makes it all feel worse
• Being really busy is often a way we try to escape anxiety, but often just sends us towards a crash and burn.
• Movement helps (yoga, dance, run, walk, etc)
• Talking about it helps – be honest about how you feel with those around you.

I’m sharing a pregnancy yoga class today with a focus on anxiety. In this class we will focus on moving the body to relieve anxiety and tapping into that place within us that can rest in trust.  Check her out below if she applies to you.

What has helped you deal with anxiety the most? Let me know in the comments.

Want to know how to practice yoga safely throughout all three trimesters? Download my free yoga guide for pregnancy and birth here.