The Power of Visualization for Infertility

Sorry about that. I forgot my headset. How is everyone doing today? We're talking about one of my favorite topics, uh, in regards to infertility, and that is visualization for help on your infertility journey. I'm Erica Hoke. I'm an infertility mentor and empowerment coach. And the reason that we are talking about this today is because it's very near and dear to my heart because it was very impactful on my infertility journey. So what is, what is visualization? So visualization is the mental imagery and positive rehearsal of an event or a desired outcome. So if this is what it is, how, how can that possibly help you with your fertility journey? Well, uh, when you positively rehearse something in your mind, your mind actually does not know the difference between the positive rehearsal of it and it actually happening. It's a way for you to trick your mind. So, um, athletes have been using this for years. Um, musicians have been using this for years, and there's actually quite a lot of study about, uh, positive visual visualization and using visual imagery as a way to achieve a desired outcome. So what that meant for me at the time that I was trying to get pregnant, I was an outside sales rep for— I was, I was doing outside sales and marketing, and I had happened to come— I had happened to come upon a magazine. It's a syndicated magazine across the country. It's a freebie. It's called Natural Awakenings. Well, somewhere in that magazine it was talking about visualization and the power of visualization. And I was actually telling my friend this story last night, and she encouraged me to get on here and talk to you guys about it. Because even though I didn't have words like I, I have now, I didn't have maybe the words to be able to describe it, I didn't have the understanding of the impact that it may or may not have on my infertility. I didn't have the community with which to bounce it off of and, and a group of like-minded people. I felt in my spirit, I felt my heart. Some people would say that it was something for me and that it was something that I needed to do to progress and remove obstacles and blocks in my infertility journey. And that's why we're here today, right? We're here to remove all obstacles on your infertility journey. So I read this article and I thought to myself, how can I apply this to, to my mental state, um, as I go through this infertility process? So the thing that I used to do was I used to go in our spare bedroom that was to be the nursery, and I would sit in the middle of the floor And in my mind, I would then decorate the nursery. We didn't have any furniture in there. The room wasn't even painted, but I would decorate it in my mind where the furniture was going to go, what I was going to pick out for the baby in an actual way, not in a, in the future, I'm going to do this. No, I am doing this right now. I'm decorating the nursery right now as we speak. So I would decorate the nursery, and I still, with my eyes closed, I would go through the 5 senses. And this is very key in doing positive visualization outcomes, is the detail of your senses. And so everybody has a favorite baby smell. I was a little bit, um, less aware of the toxins and things like that, so, um, I would, I would use, um, something to trigger the the memory of a baby smell. So some, some people would use maybe baby powder, or some people would use the Dreft fabric soap that reminded them of being around a baby, or that sort of thing. So whatever, whatever babies smell like to you in your mind, either actually, you know, have that in the room with you or create that environment, uh, is the word that I'm trying to say. Create that environment, or imagine, remember what that smells like. Um, smell is very, very deeply triggered to memory anyway. So go through your 5 senses, um, to the best of your ability, and kind of go through a mental checklist. Even to the point that I had a, uh, a doll. My mom was a doll collector, and I had a baby doll that was kind of heavy and weighted. And I would sit with that doll in my lap and I would imagine that I was holding my baby and the room would come alive in my mind around me. So again, the reason that we're talking about this is that we're removing all the obstacles in your path to getting pregnant. And one of the, one of the obstacles can be negative self-talk and negative outcome imagery. So we want to flip that script and we want to create positive imagery around, um, around the outcome that we desire, not the reality that we're living in, but the outcome that we desire. If we keep focusing on the negative outcome and we keep chasing the idea of getting pregnant and and having a baby, then that's where we're going to stay. We're going to stay in the chasing phase. So if you want to do a little bit more research, I will drop some links, um, here. But we talk about this kind of thing in my Infertility Success Community chat, um, all different ways that people use to have good positive mental health during the infertility process, and of course, um, ways to be successful on the infertility journey and get the outcome you desire of the baby of your dreams. So that's what I have today. Health and blessings to you, and I will see you here Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 12 noon Eastern Standard Time. Bye-bye.