Enhance your fertility with these yoga techniques
Fertility encompasses more than your ability to conceive children
Trigger Warning: This post discusses fertility, miscarriage, and pregnancy.
Today in the comments I’d love to hear from you: How have you navigated your own relationship with your fertility? I look forward to hearing from you!
Dear yogini,
Yoga for infertility involves practices that can help women conceive a child. Yet fertility encompasses more than your ability to bear children.
When I first tried to get pregnant, it took my husband and I just over a year to conceive. I’d been warned by society since I was 12 that if you have sex you will get pregnant (#abstinence) so I naively thought I would have no issues. My first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Six months later I was pregnant with my son. When my husband and I decided we would try for a second child we assumed it would take time. I was raised to always expect the worst; when I heard about friends or colleagues struggling to get pregnant, I figured that would be my experience too. Instead, we conceived immediately.
Deep, creative, transformative work takes root in fertile ground. This work can include building a human being inside of you, but can also encompass writing projects, businesses, art, music, and so much more. During my son’s pregnancy I wrote a manuscript on the Yoga Sutra. During my daughter’s pregnancy I created and led an entire 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training program. In fertile spaces seeds of possibility grow. Sometimes, our role in the process is to create the space in preparation for the journey.
Feeling fertile beyond your fertile years
Society loves fertile women. Studies have found that strippers earn more tips when they’re ovulating versus when they’re menstruating, despite the fact this information is never shared with the audience1. Female actors notoriously lose opportunities for leading roles after they turn 40.2
Yet, many women find their own creativity, freedom, and zest for life blossoms after menopause. In the Practice You with Elena Brower podcast, episode 159, in her interview with Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer,
says about her experience entering menopause (17:25 mark):“I’m making things. I’m making new things I’ve never even considered making before, thinking in ways I’ve never thought before. I want our listener who is 50, 60, 70 to start to see this part of life as one of the most fertile grounds of being.”
To which her guest Alexandra Pope responds:
“I’ve never been more alive, creative and productive than I am now, it’s extraordinary.”
Fertility deserves to be celebrated beyond human reproduction. The potential for childbearing may be lost post-menopause or may be unattainable for some but there are still many ideas, relationships, and creative projects to be birthed. Being fertile represents so much more than an egg waiting to receive sperm. Instead, fertility encompasses all the ideas, knowledge, and creative projects women are ready to bring forth into the world. Whether you’re post-menopause and excited to embark on a new path or you’re a young woman interested in harnessing the energy of ovulation for creative, safe self-expression, embracing fertility as a natural, embodied state provides freedom and empowerment, whether you want to have children or not.
Yoga practices for fertility
Many women do struggle to get pregnant. Yoga practices can help a woman conceive by reducing the negative effects of chronic stress, which can affect the reproductive system. The practices provided below can be used when you are trying to conceive, but these can also be used when you’re looking to embrace a fertile mindset in your golden years or when you’re interested in tapping into a deep well of authentic energy and expression.
Rather than focusing on your struggles (infertility), focus on what you can control. When the fertile feelings come, or if you’re searching for them, turn to these practices to help you self-soothe, integrate, and create.
Cycle tracking
Cycle tracking is always number one on any list here at Yoga for Women’s Wellbeing. Knowing yourself is a form of self-study (svadhyaya) and there is no more important self-knowledge than knowing your own personal cycle. If you’re no longer menstruating, aligning with the lunar cycle can be a starting point for discovering your own rhythms. Moon salutations (will share this practice soon) can bring you into awareness with the phases of the moon and your own energy cycle.
Deep rest
Yoga Nidra and restorative yoga postures provide deep rest and relaxation to soothe your nervous system. The fertile window of my cycle brings intense energy surges that feel distracting and overwhelming. Queen’s Chair is my favorite for opening the pelvis in a supportive, restful way.
Yoni mudra
Acknowledging the power of your womb energy with Yoni Mudra is essential for reclaiming fertility as a state of being. Honoring the womb space, regardless of whether or not you have a uterus, connects you to your intuitive, creative potential.
Brahmari breath
Using sound to realign energy is one of the oldest healing practices in the world. Humming provides a visceral, full-body experience that reverberates through the cells. Humming also extends your exhalation, switching your nervous system into rest-and-digest mode. Check out this video for a breakdown on how to practice this soothing breath technique.
Goddess
From an energetic perspective, any posture that opens the hips stimulates second chakra energy—the home of creativity, intuitive knowing, and reproduction. Embodying goddess energy helps you feel powerful, strong, and confident. This self-love practice features Goddess pose.
In future posts, I’ll continue to share specific practices to help you embody your own inner fertile state, including video demonstrations of some of the practices shared above. Be sure to subscribe to receive each week’s post as we explore together how yoga can help you navigate life’s natural transitions.
Let’s chat
How have you navigated your own relationship with your fertility? Let me know in the comments below. I love to hear from you.
Dinsmore-Tuli, Uma. Yoni Shakti, page 259.
Another great post Ashley. I have been very lucky with fertility and conceived almost immediately. Now I watch my teenage daughters (13 and 15) in amazement. I can’t believe these beautiful human beings came out of my body. I have many moments of gratitude. And now as a 48 year old yoga practitioner I am learning so much about menopause! Shocked to learn that so much of women’s well being is focused on fertility, but so little studies on menopause. (We have no use after child bearing years?) But luckily this is changing!! I keep my body and mind healthy by daily yoga, exercise, meditation and healthy food. But also, putting boundaries! I just don’t do the shit that I don’t want to do and don’t hang out with people who deplete my energies. So, yes, as one door closes (on youth, fertility, beauty etc) I’m looking forward to this new door that opens: into focus on my creativity. It’s actually exciting! And I feel stronger than ever… 🤞that this continues