"With my first child, I chose a natural birth without medication. The contractions were intensely painful. But the hardest part wasn't the pain itself-it was what happened between contractions. During those brief pain-free pauses, instead of resting, I panicked. I dreaded the next contraction. Psychologists call this anticipatory anxiety: fearing what's about to come. And in childbirth, that fear makes sense-each contraction tends to be more painful than the last. I anticipated the worst."
"Before giving birth to my second child, I learned self- hypnosis for natural childbirth. The contractions were just as painful, but something fundamental changed: my state of mind. Between each contraction, I was calm, not panicking. So calm that my husband slept through the night while I was laboring next to him (lucky duck!). Why was I calm? I no longer dreaded what was coming next. During contractions, I focused on their purpose-opening my pelvis and helping my baby descend-rather than on the pain."
The world is uncertain and entering a new year calls for cultivating a resilient state of mind that adapts rather than numbs. Resilience begins with how discomfort is met: pain itself does not break people; resisting pain does. Anticipatory anxiety amplifies suffering by generating dread between painful episodes. Training the mind to stop avoiding hard feelings and to focus on purpose during pain builds endurance, clarity, and authentic joy. Techniques such as self-hypnosis and mindful acceptance help transform response to pain and carry a person through difficulty into greater strength and resilience.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]