An excerpt from Feng Shui Mommy by Bailey Gaddis
Before she was a beloved pregnancy blogger, certified birthing doula, and childbirth preparation educator, author Bailey Gaddis met her own pregnancy by buying a bunch of books — which, for the most part, made her even more confused, insecure, and scared.
Her new book Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood (New World Library, May 14, 2017) is her way of giving pregnant women and new moms a better option. Adopting the principles and philosophy of feng shui, the Chinese system of a connected inner and outer harmony, this book guides women to their balanced center and supports them in tapping into the primal energies brought forth in the birthing experience. We hope you’ll enjoy this excerpt from the book.
If you tune in to your emotions when you enter a space, you’ll become aware of a shift in your energy. If the space has stagnant feng shui (a.k.a. “a stagnant flow of energy”), you’ll experience a negative shift in energy. If the space has flowing feng shui, you’ll experience a positive shift in energy.
You don’t have control over many of the spaces you inhabit throughout your day, but you can enliven the energy in the spaces in your home. Because your home will be the main haven you and your energy-sensitive baby will reside in, you’ll want it to be a positive-energy palace. Cultivating vibrant feng shui in your home will both soothe your baby and serve as your Cosmic Chill Pill. We concoct this chill pill by removing clutter and introducing air-purifying plants, fresh air, soothing lighting, and optimal colors into your home.
You don’t need to be a compass-slinging wizard to receive the benefits of feng shui. Unifying the following ideas with your home and committing to daily “resetting” practices will organically begin the process of awakening your Goddess-Mama-Chi.
Organic Roommates
Nature dances with consciousness, which is why plants are feng shui masters; they exude positive energy without even trying. If you’re starved for nature, or if you just like plants, incorporating houseplants (that you love) into your home will infuse it with grounding, cleansing, and nourishing energy. Plants also awaken the earth element, unifying you with whole-being nourishment, inner balance, and stability.
Because NASA is all about bringing people back to Earth, they conducted a study on the top air-purifying houseplants. Here are some plants you might find on the International Space Station, or in every room of my house.
Peace lily (my go-to gal because she’s pretty, and not too needy)
Spider plant
Bamboo palm
Red-edged dracaena
Florist’s chrysanthemum
English ivy
These plants remove toxic agents such as trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, benzene, and xylene from the air — toxins that create symptoms like dizziness; nausea; drowsiness and headache; an irritated mouth, nose, and throat; itchy eyes; elevated heart rate; heart issues; and liver and kidney damage. Yuck!
All these yummy chemicals are found in common household items like inks, varnishes, paper bags, wax paper, and more. And don’t some of those symptoms sound like they were pulled from a “How to Know When You’re Knocked Up” article? I wonder what pregnancy symptoms were like for women before the Industrial Revolution, when many people spent most of their days outdoors?
Because babies sometimes (always) enjoy putting everything in their mouths, ensure that the plants you’re inviting in are displayed out of the reach of tiny hands, and the paws and teeth of the domesticated animal that may be following them.
Breathe in Fresh Energy
Tune in to your mind’s nose and envision walking into a room filled with the lingering scent of stale cigarette smoke, mixed with a hint of dirty carpet and a whiff of forgotten garbage. How does that make you feel?
Now, clear your mind’s nose and imagine walking into a space filled with fresh air, emanating with the aroma of freshly cut grass, a hint of jasmine, and an undertone of clean energy (whatever clean energy might smell like). When you breathe in this air, it feels crisp and invigorating, as if it’s replenishing your body’s reserve of fuel. Does that feel better?
The air you breathe translates into the energy you breathe. This energetic oxygen is absorbed by your baby, affecting how his developmental building blocks are pieced together. Gift yourself and your babe with clean air by opening windows when the weather is nice (placing a window guard in the window when your baby becomes mobile and curious) or utilizing one or many of the air-purifying plants previously listed. Small fountains are also pros at humidifying and refreshing air.
Make a ritual of opening the windows or caring for your plants. As you open the window, close your eyes and inhale deeply, imagining the fresh air resetting your system and connecting you to the present moment. Then, imagine it flowing into your baby and your home, clearing out negative energy and blessing everything (and everyone) it touches. When you open your eyes everything will look brighter and crisper.
If you’re relying on vegetation to cleanse your air, say a blessing of gratitude to each plant as you feed it water or prune dead leaves. Plants have been found to positively respond to sound, so speak sweet somethings to them, or play them your favorite music while envisioning the good vibrations absorbing into their roots.
Bailey Gaddis is the author of Feng Shui Mommy. As a Childbirth Preparation Educator, Birth Doula, and Hypnotherapist who works with pregnant women and their gorgeous offspring everyday, Bailey is fairly certain that “new baby smell” is the most enticing aroma on Earth. Visit her online at www.baileygaddis.com.
Excerpted from the book Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood. Copyright ©2017 by Bailey Gaddis. Printed with permission from New World Library .
"Life happens. Life in the flow."
We learn over time that nobody can solve our problems, but someone can guide you how to solve the problem. You may receive guidance through a teacher, a guru or even strangers that you run into every day. As we practice yoga we learn that the more we know, the less we truly know. Every day I am reminded how much I truly do not know; a very humbling experience.
Yoga teaches me to be present. To just live for being and enjoying life as it is right NOW. Not ten minutes from now, no five days ago, but right now. We are taught to get out of our heads, to release worries and fears of the past or the future and to only live for this very moment. Presence.
"Lead me from untruth to truth, lead me from darkness to light." ~ Buddha
Through yoga we are reminded that we do have a dark side as well as a light side. We are not to repress the dark side, but embrace that side of our Self. We are the yin and the yang. We ultimately cleanse the dark stuff we hold inside. We shine the light on this. We must make friends with dark side. Both positive and negative balance out the whole. Daily practice refines and improves our inner vision to see our Self more clearly. We no longer need to run from fears. Face them and say I'm not running from you anymore. So much is in our heads, so much dark is only in our heads, self-doubt judgment betrayal. Yoga grounds the body so that the light and dark sides of ourselves become clear. So much is truly untrue. But as we diligently practice we are able to find the middle ground and walk our centered balanced line in life. We gain balance in centered lightheartedness. We can have harmony in both light and dark.
"Yoga tells us that the world is actually a projection of our own thoughts and we can modify our inner world to manifest into our outer world. When our inside realm is at peace and in harmony, our outer world shines this projection back at us." ~ David, Jiva Mukti Yoga co-founder
Yoga is observation.
We can observe our world and see what part that is in us is begin reflected back to us. We can then see what part of us needs modification or adjustment in order to have our outer reality reflect back to us the peace, happiness and love we so greatly desire and deserve.
Yoga is already inside of you. Happiness is there. Yoga helps you peel away the onion layers to get to the core. To freedom. The deepest Divine connection to the Ultimate Light Source.
Come out of wanting and back into acceptance and Joy. A yogi or yogini can turn any situation into bliss. That is a yogi. Yoga is being now. Ultimate yoga is meditation. Just BE.
Yoga is love.
"Love is the light that dissolves all walls between souls." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Through a dedicated practice of all forms of yoga we can participate in the world with a sense of freedom, unaffected from trauma, depression, anger, etc. The freedom is balance in both.
Maggie Anderson is a Yoga & Spiritual Teacher, Reiki Master Teacher, Integrated Energy Therapy® Master Instructor, Soul Coach®, Past Life Coach, Magnified Healing® Master Teacher and Angelights Messenger. She is the author of How I Found My True Inner Peace and Divine Embrace. You can contact Maggie at SpiritualCompassConnection.com.
"Follow Your Bliss. It's Your Spiritual Compass."