Falling Pregnant

Trying to make ourselves pregnant is like trying to force sleep. It doesn’t work very well. We fall pregnant just like we fall asleep - effortlessly. Only those who have difficulty sleeping try various methods to get to sleep; most of them fail. Those that are effective are methods which allow their troubled minds to rest, so that the deeper state of restoration takes over. Chinese medicine has a concept of Xin, or heart-mind, which is different than the thought based, conceptual mind, which demands answers, as if it could control life. Xin holds the deeper wisdom of life itself, which is perfectly comfortable not knowing. It moves from the space where miracles occur. It understands that all of life is wondrous in its expression. When an individual resides in her heart-mind, she allows life to move through her effortlessly. She seems to create miracles around her.

What are some ways to move into the space of Xin? Stop letting the thought-based mind lead. Get out of the books, off the internet chat rooms, and touch into the space of your own heart. Literally bring your attention to your heart, as your mind quiets. Let it reveal its own quiet wisdom to you, as you loosen your attention on the demands of the world. Listen to your own intuition instead of giving your power to the medical professionals.

Our attention goes where we direct it. When we direct out attention into the repetitive thought obsessed mind, we are dominated by the brain’s beta-waves. In this state, our blood pressure is highest, our adrenal glands put out more stress hormones, our growth hormone output is minimum, and our blood flows away from the internal organs to feed the brain and eyes. We are not in a receptive state.

When we direct our attention to deeper aspects of our body-mind, especially the heart space, and away from thoughts, worries and concerns, we can access alpha, theta, and delta brain waves, where we drop into deeper states of relaxation. The body directs its inner attention away from the adrenal glands and sympathetic nervous system, and provides more blood flow to the internal organs. Stress hormones decrease. Growth hormones increase. The brain’s feel good chemicals increase.  Our digestive system functions more effectively. And most importantly, the receptivity of our reproductive system improves.

Sleep is a receptive process of allowing. It cannot be forced. So is conception. Feel the beauty in the idea of falling pregnant. Allow yourself to feel whatever resistance you have to the idea, too. It can feel quite threatening to require yourself to “allow” rather than struggle. Many of us are conditioned to feel like the struggle is necessary to achieve the desired outcome. If only this were true – you know you’d already be pregnant. It isn’t true. What’s true is that you already have that which it takes. I invite you to experience your own heart’s wisdom and move into the space where miracles occur.

Dr. Randine Lewis hosts Fall Retreat in Asheville, NC

Fall Retreats: $250 off with Registration with code: "THANKSGIVING" Join Randine Lewis for The Fertile Soul Retreat experience, this November and December, in the beautiful city of Asheville, NC. The holidays are a wonderful time to reconnect with your deepest energies and replenish. If you want to find out more about payment plans or scholarships please contact our registrations department. We hope you will be able to join us at either of our Asheville NC retreats this fall (November 3-6 or December 9-12) and share in the bounty that is there for the taking. Please use the code "thanksgiving" at checkout to take advantage of the $250 off fall retreats.

Secondary Infertility

Next week, one of our Continuing Excellence in Fertility Professionals (CEFP) members will be co-leading an educational call with me on secondary infertility. There arises a whole host of confusing body-mind issues when there is difficulty after one already has one or more children. Wikepedia defines secondary infertility as difficulty conceiving after already having conceived (and either carried the pregnancy to term or had a miscarriage). Secondary infertility is not present if there has been a change of partners (this follows tautologically from the convention of speaking of couples, rather than individuals, as being infertile; if there is a change of partners, then a new couple is created, with its own chances to be infertile.)

I can’t help but snicker at the last comment, “with its own chances to be infertile.” The conventional medical approach always focuses on what can possibly go wrong. Unfortunately, the more one focuses on what can go wrong, the more likely it will manifest. But I digress.

I suffered from “secondary” issues. I had no trouble conceiving my daughter. Once you have experienced the miracle of giving birth to a child, it brings up an added element of frustration – why can’t I do what came so easily before? Now you compound that with a hefty dose of guilt for wanting more of what you already have, and you become an energetic mess inside.

After you give birth to a child, your entire physiology can change. Energetically you might become deficient in blood or essence. Your spirit energies might be scattered. Your qi may become depleted. Your body may become more reactive, and reject another pregnancy. Your relationship with your partner may have changed. You may feel more strain in your life with less support. The demands of motherhood change you at every level. If you “try” from a deficient energetic starting point, it will be more difficult. When you add the guilt and frustration to the equation, the pattern of imbalance can consist of deficient blood, and stagnated qi, not allowing access to the already deficient reproductive essence.

When we view the individual presentation through the lens of TCM, we address the pattern, deal with the stagnated qi brought about by the conflicted emotions, and open up to life again.

Every pregnancy is different. You are a different person with every pregnancy. In fact, you change with every menstrual cycle. Certain patterns repeat themselves, especially the more you have habituated yourself in these imbalanced patterns of expression.

The good news is, when these patterns are identified and corrected, fertility can open up again. I’d like to make a new definition of secondary infertility that includes a deeper ability to pay attention to how life is affecting an individual, right now, that may be different than in the past. It actually provides us with an opportunity to become more fertile than ever before.

Lack of Inspiration

I haven’t felt very inspired lately. Yet, I looked up the word, and the dictionary said inspiration has its origins in theology: a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.

Now, that I have been experiencing, but it sure hasn’t shown up in the way I am used to feeling inspired. My inspiration used to come from this unbounded, almost infectious joy, which I felt could be conveyed to another. I have had such a passion for what the human spirit is capable of; the ability to overcome almost any odds one encounters. No matter the dilemma or apparent obstacle life seems to throw ones way, I am amazed how, given the right context, anybody can come through it shining.

Over the past year, I have been challenged to the core. And I haven’t felt very inspired. I’ve felt heavy, sluggish, and at times bogged down by grief. Yet, in practicing what I preach, I haven’t avoided it. I’ve been with it. And at its core, I have found this divine influence exerting itself on my soul. Tempering me. And in the depths of the lack of inspiration, there is inspiration. There is this enormous desire to live from a new perspective, not held down by the structures in my life that I have had to let go. I am amazed that whatever life brings my way – whether it is a welcome gift or an unfathomable sorrow – if I don’t resist it, it opens me up to the miraculous wonder which cannot be contained. My heart has broken. My life has fallen apart. Yet, out of the ashes there rises a new me, with a greater capacity for love. I feel inspired again.

Today I was given the gift of meeting with a Fertile Soul retreat participant who has gone through her own dark night; whose life has taken an unexpected turn. We connected as two souls, sharing this journey, where there are no promises of secure happy endings. When we can accept that fully, we can live in the wonder and delight of the ever-unfolding unknown. She stepped out of the Cinderella story and into a breath taking, adventurous, razor’s edge life. She’s living a lion-hearted courageous existence where life is living her, fully, finally! We shared again in this infectious inspiration. No need for a comfortable, happy ending; there is no ending.

Webinar "Wu Wei - when to act and when not to act"

Date:Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - 16:00 - 17:00 Presenter: Randine Lewis, Ph.D., L.Ac.,FABORM info: http://medigogy.com/tv/wu-wei-when-act-and-when-not-act

Being at one with the Tao, or the source of life itself, allows the expression of a state called Wu Wei ??, or spontaneous right action.

This effortless expression is one in which the paradoxes of doing and non-doing coexist. The spirit of existence moves through you in ways that are harmonious, and true to life.

Wu Wei can only be expressed through the experience of unity, or life as a whole, giving rise to spontaneous, natural, and effortless flow, in alignment with the whole of existence, now. One expression of this way of being is called, "Free and Easy Wandering", also the name of a Chinese herbal formula that helps resolve internal resistance to life, and interestingly enough, hormonal imbalances.

Dr. Lewis' revolutionary retreat work has helped countless individuals arrive at the fertile place of letting go to what is, allowing the source of life to express itself in the most fertile and harmonious way. She has helped couples overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to fertility by helping them arrive at the joyous state of opening to life itself.

Join Randine Lewis in an interactive webinar moderated with Lorne Brown on Wu Wei March 22nd, at 4 p.m. PST; 7 p.m. EST

past archived webinars by Randine Lewis - http://www.medigogy.com/info/randine-lewis