Dealing with 'Stuff'

I admire the people who go through life, and aren't bothered by things. You know, stuff rolls off their shoulders like water off the duck's back. They don't hang on to stuff, or think about things for days, weeks, years after they've happened. They just let go and move on. I would very much like to be one of those people. 

Part of my pregnancy experience has involved dealing with 'stuff' - stuff from my past, stuff from my family, things that happened 5 years ago, things that happened 25 years ago. Charles and I have been working pretty hard to release any 'stuff' that I may be storing in my body. Essentially, this is to aid a smooth and obstruction free childbirth. But even more than that, is the feeling I have of wanting to have  sorted out any old, unresolved issues that I have hanging about, before I become a mother. I want to go into motherhood being able to focus entirely on the job of caring for my baby and creating a loving home and family environment with Charles. I don't want any negative influences on me inadvertently appearing for my own child. They're mine, I own them and they're all in the past. Dealt with.

We have been reading some particularly useful information about this subject, mostly here [and we bought the book called 'What Dads Can Do', written like a car manual, seriously, and it's brilliant]. But essentially, I have been doing reiki on myself, which is so beneficial in releasing any stuck energies, and on top of that, Charles has been giving me a moxa treatment on lots of evenings before bed. If you have had much to do with Chinese medicine, you'll probably know what a moxa is. It's this stick that you light and hold over certain areas of the body, so the heat goes into the body and works it's magic on whatever point you're working on. And apparently we, as women [hi to any guys reading this blog!] tend to store a lot of 'stuff' in our bodies, around our backside area. Yep, I've been getting the heat treatment on my backside. I love my man so much.

But seriously, my 'stuff' has been coming up! To be dealt with, and released, and not stored in my body any more. It's not always nice to experience it either. I have at times, during the moxa session itself, had to call a halt to it because it's making me nauseous; I have, on mornings following a moxa session, literally purged my body; and I have woken up with tears and anger in my body from incidents that happened when I was 10 years old. Dear, patient Charles has put up with a lot during this process. But we both think it is worth it. And will be worth it, if it helps us to create better conditions for a natural childbirth. And it's definitely worth it, if I can be a better mother because of it. And the other side of it is making sure I'm not still storing new 'stuff' now. Being able to communicate better, to relate to others better, to express my views and concerns, rather than squashing them away and pretending that everything is fine, when it isn't. This is so very important.

Anyway, dealing with 'stuff'. There's a couple of things that I've found really beneficial in helping to release and deal with stuff. In no particular order:

- Rescue remedy. You can get it from most health food shops. A few drops in a glass of water, and I find it just calms, soothes, levels out my emotions. It's almost cheating, it's that good.

- Lavender essential oil. Just having an oil burner going with some lavender scents filling the room leaves me feeling calm, and like everything is ok in my world [and lavender is ok when you're pregnant].

- Meditation. This one is a bit of a no-brainer, but I still don't do it as consistently as I would like to. But any time spent going within, sitting in quiet, letting the body just be, is amazingly beneficial.

- Affirmations. I know these don't work for everybody, but they do work for me. Just a simple one liner, that I can repeat over and over in my head when my body is screaming at me that things aren't ok.  

- Someone to talk to. Thankfully Charles doesn't seem to mind when I start talking, and delving into me, and why and how things are as they are. But just talking it out makes all the difference for me.

So now we're entering the home stretch of this pregnancy, and we're going to be ramping up the sessions to remove any stored 'stuff' from my body. I think we're both a little apprehensive about this, as I seem to have released a lot of 'stuff' already - seriously, how much more can there be?? I guess we're going to find out. Still, I'd rather find out in the next few weeks, than during the hours when I'm in labour, when I'm sure there will be plenty of other things going on for me to deal with. And I must become more disciplined with my meditation and my reiki. Any tips for improving self discipline?