A positive desire followed by lifestyle changes help you to conceive naturally. After all, to begin with the journey what is most important is a healthy conception! And your first true desire to start a new family will serve as a special invitation to the new life.

Healthy & Balanced Diet

One of the most important things, is to have a healthy diet. You have to be conscious about the food you eat, because it is said that, what you eat decides the quality of your thoughts and your state of mind. A healthy diet supports a healthy reproductive system, prepares your body for pregnancy, and nurtures your body with necessary vitamins and minerals for the development of your future baby. In addition, an unhealthy lifestyle can hamper your chances of conception, make you vulnerable to prenatal complications and also increase your chances of gestational diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy.

So, it is recommended to eat few times a day and in small quantities to improve your metabolism. For a balanced diet include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals in your meals at least 2.5 to 3 liters of liquids in a day. Intake of nuts, extra proteins, folic acid rich foods, citrus fruits, omega-3 fatty acids rich diet is also important. As aerated drinks are not healthy you can replace them with coconut water, lime water and squashes. Remember that processed and junk foods are loaded with sugar, fat and extra calories which disturbs your insulin levels and puts you at a higher risk of obesity and chronic lifestyle diseases. Basically, your diet should be inclusive of everything to make it balanced and nutritious to keep up with your general health.

Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

Your lifestyle influences your possibilities to conceive and your overall health. You need to keep a check on your weight, so as to avoid any hormonal imbalances, maintain distance from smoking and alcohol as they are a major concern of miscarriages and low birth weight babies. You may be maintaining a healthy diet, but you might not be excising or might be consuming alcohol. So, you have to identify areas where you lack and make necessary lifestyle changes for your wellbeing.

For long term benefits, even if you haven't conceived and till you become a mother, make sure that you are not consuming alcohol (even a little quantity is harmful) or smoking (not even passive smoking, so it's a no for fathers as well). All these habits adversely affect the body in general, create ovulation problems (in women) and also low sperm counts ( in men). Being a creator of a new life you have to be very careful of your own being.

Nurturing Relationships

It is the time to rejuvenate your relationship with your partner, family and at workplace through strong and powerful emotions of joy, love, and abundance. Holding each other's hands is great way to reflect on your bonding every day. Spend time as a couple, decorate your surroundings with flowers, pleasant sounds and scenery, be around water and spend ten minutes in the morning or late evening to connect to yourself. Try positive affirmations to strengthen your relationship patterns. This you can practice together or on your own in free time-

• We are in a joyous, intimate relationship and truly love each other
• We laugh together more and more each day
• We are growing healthier and stronger each day
• We are both happy and at peace
• We are in loving relationships which elevate and support us
• All our relationships are loving and harmonious
• And every thought we think is creating our future
  
  

Practice appreciation for all that your partner gives you, and learn the art of forgiving each other to keep the transparency alive in the relationship. You will see divinity, trust, and compassion grow in your relationship from this practice.

How You Can Do It?

• The first promise that you should be making as a couple is to stay away from stressful thoughts and situation.
• What does it mean- it is actually releasing all the clutter of wasteful thoughts you create that is further making you sad, stressful and angry.
• You need to identify how you can change a particular situation into something positive.
  
  

Creating Beautiful Thoughts

• When you meet a friend, be expressive of your feelings as to how you appreciate their presence.
• At your workplace-greet people with smile and as they smile back to you, you are actually spreading positivity around you
• At home speak politely to everyone, cook for them with love, praise each other and eat together
• Pray before you eat, keep pure thoughts and do everything that can spread happiness
• Whenever you feel stressed, relax and take deep breaths to get rid of any uncomfortable thought at that moment and let go of all the anxiety and worry.
  
  

As you are following this in your routine, soon you will realize how restful you have become!

Embracing Yoga

To combat stress you can practice yoga, meditation and some breathing exercises as it helps to strengthen your mind and body. Yoga in preconception phase can also impact the general reproductive health of women trying to conceive. It balances hormones, opens the hip and pelvic areas, and improves the flow of energy through the body. It helps to induce the relaxation response, strengthen the muscles surrounding the reproductive organs, healthy immune system and body detoxification. It eases out backache, swollen feet, leg cramps, and breathlessness and energizes the whole body.

Preconception yoga asanas that you can try are-

Balasna (Child's Pose):
It strengthens the muscles around hip, thighs, pelvis and ankle areas. You can combat stress, fatigue and calm your brain with this yoga pose.

Kapalbhati Pranayama:
With rhythmic rapid breathing you can stimulate your reproductive cells, cleanse your mind and body, cure diseases and maintain hormonal balance.

Baddha Konasana (Butterfly Pose):
It provides flexibility in your reproductive area, thighs and knees. Also, improves blood supply to your abdomen, pelvis and back area. Supports proper functioning of ovaries, regular menstruation and also increases the sperm count in men.

Viparita Karani
In this pose you keep your legs up the wall as it helps in relaxing your legs, feet, back and improves blood flow in your pelvic area.

Meditation
Whereas meditation can be practiced at any time when one is free yet the early morning and the evening time around sunset, the surrounding atmosphere itself facilitates the meditation practice. Sit cross legged, keep your hands in your lap stretch your back to a maximum straight position and then slightly let go, automatically your back will take up the natural curves. You can comfortably sit in this position for 10 minutes. Before you sit for meditation your mind is travelling on a specific road where destiny is worldly goals and objectives. As you practice meditation even for ten minutes, your thoughts will start moving towards spirituality. During meditation your body radiates positive vibrations into the surroundings which will pass on to your future baby.

During this process, you will realize that your natural state is to be calm and you have the power to control your mind and thoughts; you start taking charge of what is going on inside. By practicing meditation you become the master of your mind, you start creating only positive thoughts and eventually get rid of your habit of creating negative perceptions and responding negatively. So, meditation brings a positive transformation in your personality and behavior.

E.g. You just had a major argument with your spouse and have lost your temper. At that time, not only your mind but your physical body also feels uncomfortable - it is in a state of complete stress. You feel your blood pressure has suddenly shot up, your heart is beating fast, you feel uncomfortable in the stomach, your hands are shaking, your face and eyes are red. On top of that, you also feel sad. You have behaved like this many times before and you know the results of responding in this way. The relationship has been sour and you have worsened a situation. This could have been avoided. There is sorrow, guilt, low self-esteem and hopelessness over your loss of control.

Even while you are still caught up in the turmoil of the negative situation, using your intellect, you consciously emerge inside yourself, your true awareness of being a sparkling point of peaceful light situated just above the eyes, at the center of the forehead. You not only become aware but you also use the intellect to visualize your true, peaceful, pure and star-like form clearly. In that moment, you are able to tap into the depth of peace that is present deep inside your being. You calm your mind by holding on to this awareness for a few minutes. You feel - you know - that you are at peace. As this experience grows, it has a soothing effect on your whole physical system. Gradually, stability and peace are restored to your body as well as your mind and this then becomes your nature- peace and happiness becomes your nature.

Beginning your day with daily affirmation and prayer will strengthen your resolve to cleanse yourself from within. Create positive thoughts, emotions and beliefs to change your body according to your beliefs and improve your reproductive health naturally. Together husband and wife can assure each other that

Every day we will-

• Read out some positive notes, book and sayings to induce purity and peace in our mind and environment.
• Include fruits and vegetables of at least 3 different colors and 4-5 salad servings in our diet.
• We will exercise daily to keep up with the physical health and do breathing exercises to nurture ourselves emotionally.
• We will do yoga and meditation to strengthen our muscles and heal our body.
• Harmonize the environment at home with love and respect for each other.
• Take out time daily to do a positive and affirming self-talk or inner dialogues to know your inner self. Use powerful words - For example, if you are trying to be peaceful, don't say, "I will try to be at peace", using the future tense. Say, "I am a peaceful soul and I am loving and enjoying this feeling". When you repeat your thoughts, they get sink in your subconscious mind, your start visualizing and believing them and ultimately, they become a self-fulfilling's prophecy. You can say a lot of things like - Our body is healthy and strong, we are feeling happy and the most perfect egg is preparing to be released by my ovary and the most perfect sperm is preparing to fertilize it. Similarly, you can repeat a lot of positive statements in your preconception phase to turn your thoughts into reality.
  
  

We desire so many things in our life, but what can be better than bringing a new life into this world. If the desire is so special then how about doing something extra special to be the best host for a new guest and prepare a home (sacred womb) with love & care, where he/she can reside well for nine months. And doing all this just to bring this new life happily into this new world created by us.