(Pregnancy) yoga for anxiety, I'm not convinced

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I've tried yoga a few times in my life and never particularly enjoyed it. I'm so very unsupple that it all felt unpleasant and difficult. you know, wobbling, falling over, unable to do anything like what everyone else was doing. Not nice at all.

the last time I tried a class (about 7 years ago), in the lying down relaxation bit I burst into uncontrollable tears and left mortified.

So anyway, I'm now 21 weeks pregnant and the MW said I should go to pregnancy yoga for my anxiety.

My questions are:

1. Does it really help with anxiety? (how can it?)

1. Is it really a good idea to start a new physical activity mid-pregnancy? Don't you have to be supple to start with? And surely the bump would just get in the way?

Hi

I had never really done yoga for me was a bit wishy washy as far as I was concerned but I started doing it at 32 weeks pregnant and really found it useful. It wasn't particularly physical in our class apart from some stretch poses it was mainly about breathing and bringing calmness throughout body and mind which was great as was prepared to wig out in labour.

My pregnancy yoga was not in the slightest bit physically strenuous. lots of pelvic floor exercises and stretching. Bear in mind many women will be 30+ weeks big - there'll be no balancing!

I loved it and it was very relaxing and helped hugely with the birthing experience (2nd pregnancy) it was very empowering.

thank you figgy.

yes, wishy washy kind of sums it up for me too...

so, what was it that helped specifically?

I'm due a ELCS so I won't need to breathe through contractions or anything.

and same to pink, how was it empowering for you?

I was expecting twins and fell for the usual 'trying to keep up with the person next top you' thing that you get with yoga, but I just didn't have the ability that they had, couldn't keep up & I overdid things.

I would say that the experience of the teacher would be paramount in this situation - you would need someone to really understand what pregnancy is like which my teacher didn't. You could give it a go, see whether it suits you, but bear in mind not to be competitive!

• next to you

Yoga can help with anxiety as it teaches you to focus on the breath and your body - something which can sound wishy-washy but actually requires discipline and practice and is an exceedingly valuable skill to learn. The more you learn to be in the present moment (through focussing on your breath and your body in yoga), the less you will be allowing your mind to wander from the past into the future worrying as you go - which is a key feature of anxiety.

Spending some time at yoga worrying about what your neighbour is doing, is entirely natural and to be expected. It is also a perfect example of how much more work we need to do on bringing some focus to our distracted, wandering and (at times) unhelpful minds.

I don't have a competitive bone in my body and I'm more likely to give up than try to be better than my yoga neighbour!

Zebra, so is it a kind of 'switching off' that you learn to do and then transfer that to other situations?