That feeling of not wanting to get your hopes up

How do you balance hope and fear once you're pregnant after a long and painful fertility journey? ​​​​​​​​​It's so hard to stay in the present when your mind wants to drag you back to the past trauma, hurts and disappointments.

That feeling of not wanting to get your hopes up and not celebrating the milestones along the way for fear that you'll sabotage this pregnancy and it will be taken away from you again.

Why do you have these thoughts? It's uncomfortable. It's incongruent with what's going on in reality.

The thing is, your subconscious brain is just trying to keep you safe. When you feel stressed or anxious the brain perceives physical danger and automatically goes into the flight response.

However there is no physical danger and the subconscious brain can't determine the nuances of our modern-day stress.

It just flips into caveman mode and thinks a tiger is giving chase.
So the best way to combat anxious thinking during pregnancy is to ground yourself in the present moment with mindfulness practices such as meditation and soothing your subconscious brain.