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Our ExpertsThe Aware Parent—July 2008by Wendy Mann, BS | Email me if you questions or comments | Back to List of Articles Getting Started With the Aware Parent: Pre-Birth JournalingWelcome back to “The Aware Parent”. I have been asked by many potential parents to explore the pre-birth journaling process. Some potential parents have asked, “Why is it important, how do I begin, and what goes into a pre-birth journal?” So, let’s dive deeper into this creative expression of fostering self discovery and readiness for parenthood. A pre-birth journal is a powerful and sacred tool that can help aid in the unearthing of your deepest thoughts, feelings, motivations, fears, and all expressions of your evolving parental consciousness. This journal will help you go beyond the five-sensory parts of your personality and open the door to your soul’s intuition. This is the depth where your inner awakenings will guide you to authentic knowledge about your readiness to become a parent, how to become a parent, and how to be a parent. I suggest that a pre-birth journal is a place where profound wisdom will help inform you about who you are as an individual, partner, and potential parent and how to transform your life in a deeply healthy way to welcome a child. Your pre-birth journal will be your confidant. This is a place to document your radically honest desires and concerns. Give yourself permission to surf the waves of all emotions that come up for you with no restraint. This will enable you to support a richer discovery of your authentic self which will also deepen your sense of self awareness and how you will relate to the transformation of becoming a parent. Release any attachments to spelling, grammar and perfection as that will only stifle your discoveries of your inner landscape. This is the one place to completely and fully express yourself freely! GO FOR IT! Allow your journal to begin to open space for you to communicate with your child’s soul. It is ok to share your desires and fears with potential souls that may chose you as a parent. They are listening anyway so go ahead and acknowledge this stream of communication. Choosing a journal should be a process as special as the work that will be unfolding within its covers. Choose a journal that resonates with your heart’s aesthetics so you will not get bored with it after just a few entries. Your journal needs to speak to you. I would also encourage you to think about making your own pre-birth journal. I have seen some of the most beautiful handmade journals with amazing artwork on the covers. The website http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf22957557.tip.html has detailed instructions on how to make your own journal. Express yourselves! I encourage you to fill you pre-birth journal with a wide array of musings. Liberate yourself from feeling like this is a space for your writing alone. Incorporate poetry and quotes you come across during your days. Take crayons and colored pens/pencils/paints to draw your feelings around entering parenthood. The soul paintings and soul cards of Debra Koof-Chapin can be a great resource for inspiration. Her website http://www.touchdrawing.com/ will help instruct you on this specific way of painting to draw out your soul’s creativity. It’s definitely worth exploring. Pick flowers, leaves, and four-leaf clovers on walks and dry them, press them and place them in your pre-birth journal. Write down scents that speak to you during this time…even spray or drop the perfume or oils on the pages with an explanation of what the smell evoked in your psyche. Write down symbols that are speaking to you; for instance, pay attention to animals that reveal themselves to you during this time of contemplating parenthood. You can look up the spiritual significance of animal totems speaking to you in Ted Andrews’ book Animal Speak. This is a great book to incorporate into your library. Pay attention and journal what comes to you in your dreams as this is a very powerful avenue of insight. I would also encourage listing foods that taste particularity yummy to you during this time and perhaps their recipes. You can reflect back to your journal to see if this is a food or dish that your child is particularly fond of... or not. Journal about the weather and the phase of the moon and how they connect to your experience of transitioning into becoming a parent. Seek out an astrologer, such as Philip Young of InnerChange, to see how astrology will help inform you of how parenthood will affect your life at a specific moment in time and journal how you feel about the information. A great way to begin your pre-birth journal is by writing about your excitement about becoming a parent. Write down specific words that come to mind when you think of parenthood and your child. Also, begin to examine what fears come up for you and write them down as well. What are the benefits for you doing pre-birth work to help your readiness for parenthood? What can you do to open communication to your future child’s soul? What are the benefits to being a centered and psychologically healthy parent? What are you willing to do to ensure that you are ready for such a transition? In what ways will being a parent create positive changes in your life? What concerns do you have about your life as a parent; for instance: financial, physical, relationship, work life? Where do you feel resistance in your life when you think about the demands of having a child? Do you have a preference for a girl or a boy and why? How do you feel about welcoming a child with special needs into your life? Examine your habits and how they might shape your child positively or negatively. These are just some thoughts to ponder as you begin using your pre-birth journal as a therapeutic tool. As you embark in this exploration it will be important to not censor yourself at any level. This should be a safe place to surrender to the flow of all information speaking to you. Remember, this is your sacred space. Rejoice in what your pre-birth journal will offer you. “The greatest gift you can give your child is yourself. This means that a part of your work as a parent is to keep growing in self-knowledge and awareness.” - Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn Many Blessings, by Wendy Mann, BS | Email me if you questions or comments | Back to List of Articles Disclaimer: The information in my column is not intended to be a substitute for parents’ own, best judgment or a substitute for medical opinion and treatment.
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