On the latest episode of The Egg Whisperer Show, I’m joined by the incredibly compassionate Naomi Woolfson, founder of Embrace Fertility and a trauma-trained hypnotherapist who specializes in helping women feel emotionally supported through fertility treatment.
Naomi shares her own four-year journey through IUI, IVF, miscarriage, and anxiety—and how it led her to create The Embrace Fertility Method, a mind-body approach that empowers women to feel calm, confident, and connected as they prepare for pregnancy.
We talk about how powerful the mind-body connection can be during IVF, how to gently shift from fear to hope, and how practices like visualization, EFT tapping, and guided hypnosis can help bring emotional healing and clarity. Naomi even leads us through a beautiful meditation designed to bring comfort and encouragement right now, wherever you are on your journey.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure, this episode is a reminder that you’re not alone—and that there are powerful, loving tools to help you move forward with greater peace and strength.
In this episode, we cover:
- Naomi’s personal story of infertility, IVF, and emotional healing
- The Embrace Fertility Method and how it supports the mind-body connection
- How to manage emotions and reduce anxiety during fertility treatment
- Daily practices like visualization, EFT, and mindset exercises
- A guided meditation to help bring calm and clarity on your path to pregnancy
Resources:
Find Dr. Aimee’s Fertility Essentials & Supplements
Full Transcript:
Dr. Aimee: The title of today’s show is Fertility Mindset Hacks: How Hypnosis and Visualization Support IVF. Joining us today is an expert in this, Naomi Woolfson. Welcome, Naomi.
Naomi Woolfson: Hello. Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Dr. Aimee: Naomi Woolfson is a trauma-trained hypnotherapist and the founder of Embrace Fertility, where she specializes in supporting women emotionally and energetically through their fertility journey. After experiencing nearly four years of infertility, IUI, IVF, anxiety, surgery, and miscarriage before conceiving both of her children naturally, Naomi turned her personal struggle into a mission to help others. She created the Embrace Fertility Method, a science-backed mind-body approach designed to help women feel calm and confident, while increasing their chances of pregnancy.
Naomi, thank you again for joining me today. Your personal journey with infertility has clearly shaped the work you do. Can you share more about how your own experiences with IUI, IVF, and miscarriage led you to create the Embrace Fertility Method? You all know how I love a method.
Naomi Woolfson: I was diagnosed with endometriosis as a teenager and told that I would probably need IVF to conceive or that I may not be able to have children. I was told that very bluntly at 19. Right from that point, I started doing my own research, finding out that women with endometriosis can conceive naturally, sometimes they might need support. I always had that in the back of my mind, but I was like that won’t be me, I’ll get pregnant naturally.
I got married, started trying, and nothing happened. Quite quickly, I was thinking maybe this is the endometriosis, maybe we’ll need support. But we didn’t go into doing treatment for about 18 months, and then we did, and I really struggled. I hated doing the injections. I hated the fact that, especially when we stimulated IUI, I felt like the nurse Karen was getting me pregnant rather than my partner. When we moved to IVF, that felt a little bit easier, but I was struggling with anxiety. I suppose I was so used to getting my own way, I was taught that if I wanted something and I worked hard and I learned how to succeed in that area of my life and put the work in, I would get the results. So, I was doing this for fertility, I was doing the supplements, the acupuncture, and the herbs that absolutely stunk out the house. I was trying to control everything, and just getting myself more and more anxious. It was after having a panic attack on the London Underground that I was like something has to change.
I started learning about the mind-body link, and that just changed everything for me. It was not the fact that I’m not getting pregnant that is causing this anxiety, it’s the thoughts I’m having about the fact that I’m not getting pregnant yet. I had somehow convinced myself that because it wasn’t happening yet, I may never get to be a mum, I may just die alone with a lot of cats, my whole future was horrific. But it was all in my head. Even though I had been told I did have endometriosis, there was still a very good chance that I could have babies.
But yes, I ended up conceiving both of our children naturally after four rounds of treatment and then a miscarriage. I actually started the Embrace Fertility Method before I got pregnant. The course is very much leading women back to themselves to find happiness, to feel calm, confident, and hopeful rather than being like this is a list of things I do to get pregnant. These are the things I did to get happy again, and then P.S., I got pregnant naturally. I created the method beforehand and have been sharing that now for nearly 12 years.
Dr. Aimee: It’s not like you’re against fertility treatment. The patients that you’ve supported of mine have gone through IVF successfully with me. You’re not trying to tell patients they shouldn’t do treatment because you got pregnant naturally. I think that is a little different than sometimes other programs that patients sign up for. Everyone wants to learn about how to get pregnant without IVF, of course, that would be amazing, but a lot of patients do still need IVF. And you’re right, those herbs are stinky.
Naomi Woolfson: Yes. I think that’s the difference as well, that a lot of the time, the support I’m offering is to go through treatment. So many couples actually have stopped treatment or don’t commence treatment due to emotional distress rather than medical prognosis or financial constraints. That’s something that I want to change. When we went through our fourth round of treatment, I was feeling calmer, I was feeling hopeful, I was just in a completely different mind space to go through that treatment. Because I actually created the Embrace Fertility Method while I was going through IVF myself, for example, there are EFT tapping videos in there, overcoming fear of needles, there’s supportive tracks for welcoming your embryo home while you’re going through treatment. It’s very much about embracing your fertility in whatever way you are trying to conceive.
Dr. Aimee: I’ve had patients listen to those while I do their transfers, so thank you for creating them. Tell me more about the mind-body connection. Why is addressing subconscious beliefs so important for those going through IVF and fertility treatments or even trying naturally?
Naomi Woolfson: Our mind and body are completely intertwined. We have this idea that we’re a separate body and mind, but we are completely interconnected. Our subconscious mind is basically everything that’s going on under the surface. It’s running all our physical systems in our body and it’s also helping us make decisions in the moment. We learn something consciously and then we store those beliefs subconsciously because our mind couldn’t process all of the information all of the time.
What can happen when you’re going through treatment and you have underlying fear – that could be a fear of needles, a fear of doctors, a fear of being pregnant, going into labor, giving birth – each of these will be impacting then our decisions and our behavior around fertility. This can be then we’re having self-preservation beliefs. Some hypnotherapists call them baby blocks, as if it’s something that you’re actually creating this blockade and preventing your baby from coming. That kind of feels like we’re putting another layer of stress, pressure, and blame on the female partner in a fertility situation.
But actually, what our subconscious does is continually try to protect us. I had a massive fear of birth based on the experience my mum had with my brother. Obviously, I wasn’t there at the actual birth, but I heard the family folklore of my brother’s birth. That was something that I needed to work on because I really wanted to get pregnant, I really wanted to have a baby, but this bit of giving birth, if I could just skip that bit, that would be great. By bringing that fear to the surface, working through, learning about birth, re-educating myself, and then actually reprogramming my subconscious mind to say birth can be comfortable, it can be safe, and you can do it, you’re strong enough to do that, allowed me then to go into pregnancy with a full body yes rather than I’m pregnant but, oh my god, now I have to give birth.
Dr. Aimee: When you talk about visualization and hypnosis, these are powerful tools that you use to help fertility patients, but those things are really hard to do if you’re not trained to do them. I imagine when you’re talking to your clients, my patients, you’re teaching them how to visualize things and you take them through hypnosis. Is that correct?
Naomi Woolfson: Yes. I work in different ways. I have hypnosis tracks. You can just download my tracks which are set up fora natural cycle, or for an IVF cycle, or for an IUI cycle. No matter how you’re trying to conceive, you’ll have a different hypnosis track for different parts of your cycle. That will be guiding you through, taking you into deep relaxation, allowing you to drop the cortisol and adrenaline in your body, inviting your body and instructing it that what you want is to get pregnant. With the IVF ones, for example, it would be telling your body to respond perfectly to the hormones and the injections, to ovulate at just the right time, to produce the perfect number of eggs for you so that you can be visualizing your eggs growing at each stage. Then you have the welcoming embryo home, and it’s all about inviting your baby in and welcoming.
All of my clients, all of my patients get access to all of those tracks. Then in session what we’re doing is using hypnotherapy and visualization to help rewire the conscious and unconscious minds. With the trauma release techniques, I may be asking you to visualize something that has happened in the past for us to help reshape the meanings and beliefs that you put onto that.
One client I worked with had an ectopic pregnancy, so she kept having flashbacks and visualizing, without meaning to, a past experience of having the ectopic, ending up in hospital. Whenever she then thought about getting pregnant again, she was having a panic attack because her mind was thinking about getting pregnant, going back to the past, seeing the ectopic, thinking she dearly died, so her whole body was panicking and going, “Do not do that again.” She had actually stopped trying to conceive naturally and was saving up to go into IVF again because that felt safer, but it also put it way into the future. The work there was to change the beliefs that she had taken on during the ectopic. So, if pregnancy means near death, pregnancy means pain, pregnancy means loss, reframing all of that and installing new beliefs that pregnancy can be safe for her and also to really trust her body.
It’s like we don’t want to completely remove anxiety. For that example, I would never take her anxiety around ectopic to zero because that isn’t what we want. Anxiety is there to serve us, but what we want to do, instead of it being like high alert, living in stress response every moment of her pregnancy, we can dial that down to about 10%. If you get a strange twinge, if you get some strange bleeding, if you don’t feel quite right, you call your consultant, you go and have a scan, you do not hang around. That anxiety is a good thing, but we can dial it right down and have it that your mind goes to this is probably be fine, it’s probably nothing, but I’m going to just check it out, rather than oh my god, it’s another ectopic, I’m going to end up back in hospital.
Dr. Aimee: Right. I imagine that she had a much easier journey having gone through the sessions with you.
Naomi Woolfson: Yes. After the trauma release session we did, the next day she felt safe to start trying again naturally. She was still saving up and thinking about going into treatment again, but she was like instead of it being we’re not going to have any chance for another six months until we’ve saved up, she was like we have five chances in between to be going for it.
Dr. Aimee: Going through treatment, as you’ve probably experienced yourself, brings up really intense emotions. You mentioned anxiety, but also it can bring up jealousy and grief. How can you transform envy into gratitude and excitement?
Naomi Woolfson: This is huge. This is something that I work with every single member of the Embrace Fertility Method and every single client. I have not yet worked with anyone who doesn’t feel jealous, doesn’t feel envious. That’s because when we desperately want something, when we’ve decided that we want to become a parent and it’s not happening, every single time we see a pregnant person, hear an announcement, see a family, our brain looks at that and goes, “Oh my god, that’s what I want.” The reason we then feel jealous is because there’s a load of other thoughts that happen next. We see that and go, “Oh my god, that’s what I want. What if I don’t have that? That’s not fair. They’ve got that and I haven’t. What if I never get that? What if I end up alone with a thousand cats?”
Our mind does this and sometimes we’re not even aware of it, but that’s why it hurts. It doesn’t hurt because we’re not pregnant yet. It hurts because of this whole train of thoughts that we have afterwards. If we can reframe that, instead of seeing what you want and turning away from it because it hurts so much and being like, I help my clients and members turn toward it and see it. Every time you see what you want, imagine the universe is literally saying to you, “Is this what you wanted? Pregnancy, is that what you wanted? This amazing family, is that what you wanted?” Instead of turning away and saying no, you turn toward and you say, “Yes, please. That is exactly what I want. I am so ready for this. Yes, please.”
It can be hard to start with, but so simple. I want everyone listening just to try this. Just turn toward, but first notice how it feels. Notice where the jealousy is coming from, notice where the hurt is coming from, and ask, “What thoughts am I thinking that are creating this emotion? Is it that I feel like I’ll never get that?” Really feel it. This is why it’s Embrace Fertility. Embrace all of the emotions. Embrace everything that comes with it. Feel it. Give yourself a moment. Give yourself grace. It’s totally okay to feel like this, and, “Yes, please, that is what I want.” The more you do it, it shifts your energy and it starts opening you up and allows your energy to really expand.
I’ve had clients be to the point they’ve actually shut themselves off from their entire friendship group because it’s too painful because everyone was having babies at the same time and it was so painful. She actually got to the stage using this technique and the other methods in the Embrace Fertility Method of planning and hosting a baby shower for one of her friends that was pregnant. On the day before, we were talking a lot about being very boundaried, setting herself up and having breaks throughout the day to protect herself. This wasn’t toxic positivity of just smile through it and have a breakdown afterward. It was very boundaried. She was able to do this and really love the event. It was still hard and she still felt like, “I really wish this was me as well,” but she was able to turn toward that. Now she’s 20 weeks pregnant, and she’s like, “They’re planning one back for me now.” The whole situation has shifted. If she hadn’t done that and hadn’t gone, she’d feel like she missed out on that amazing and wonderful experience because it hurt too much. But we can work with that and change that.
Dr. Aimee: That’s so great. What are some other simple daily mindset exercises or rituals that fertility patients can incorporate to feel more calm and confident throughout their journey?
Naomi Woolfson: I think the most important thing is embracing how you feel because there is no wrong way. There isn’t negative thinking. We label thinking as negative if it’s creating a negative feeling in our body. If we’re having a thought and we’re feeling anxious, we’re feeling upset, we’re feeling jealous, however we’re triggered, we label that as a negative feeling and we want to turn away. Whereas, if we fully embrace it, fully feel it, we feel it, release it, pop out the other side. We’re not used to doing this. We’re not really taught how to do this. We’re taught to stop crying, have a sweet, or suck it up and you’ll be fine.
We’re also in the world of personal development, where there is so much toxic positivity and there is that “just stay positive, just relax, hold it all together” that you end up bottling it all up. Really embracing all of it. Journaling is fantastic, as is Emotional Freedom Technique tapping where you are literally saying while tapping on different acupressure points with your fingertips, “Even though I feel jealous as hell right now, I accept myself anyway.” This literally is magic. When I learned this technique, I read it in a book, and I was like I’m doing the herbs, I’m doing acupressure, I’m doing all this stuff. You want me to now tap on my face and body? I was like, fine, fair enough, whatever, and I did it.
For me, I had been practicing mindfulness meditation. What I wanted that to be for me was like an off switch for my thoughts. I wanted to be able to sit down, close my eyes, and literally just press mute on my mind and have complete silence. Unfortunately, that’s not how meditation works. It’s more about embracing all the thoughts. Whereas, with EFT, I got that impact. I had a repetitive negative thought that was bothering me, and then I tapped on it and changed my relationship to that thought so it no longer created a negative reaction in my body, it was then a neutral thought. I was like, this is actually so much better than just muting my thoughts because I now get to work with those thoughts, change those thoughts, and therefore change how I feel about fertility. So, Emotional Freedom Technique, and I have a little tutorial that we can pop in the show notes for everyone that talks about the science behind this and how to do it.
Then I also have a little three-minute MP3 called The Reset MP3. This is a combination of mindfulness, hypnosis, NLP, CBT, and acupressure. The reason why it’s three minutes is it can take a split second for us to go into stress response, just like that, and that’s to keep us safe, but it takes three minutes at least for our body to calm down, to come out of stress response, and into rest, digest, heal, and reproduce. Every day for at least three minutes, you are telling your body, “I am safe. I can rest. I can just take a moment,” having that little MP3 that you just listen to and reset when you need to.
There are so many little techniques in there, like one where you hold your fists together and then open them, and that simple somatic technique literally instructs your brain that you’re safe and you can switch yourself out of danger. The MP3 is packed full of them. You can then cherry-pick little bits out of them if you’re just about to go into a scan, or you’re going into an appointment, or you need to make an important phone call. You can just do that, reset yourself so that you are your most confident and calm self for making those decisions around your fertility rather than coming from a place of fear and panic and high levels or cortisol.
Dr. Aimee: As you can imagine, I have a lot of really difficult conversations with patients, and I have to center myself before I have these conversations because I know they’re in fear and they’re anxious. I hope that the way I approach my conversations decreases their stress. You mentioned that whole “just relax and it will happen” attitude, which feels dismissive and it doesn’t always help. What do patients need to know about science-backed positive psychology? We talked already about negatives as it relates to fertility treatments.
Naomi Woolfson: There’s a huge difference between “just believe and it will happen,” and trust me, I tried this. I was very into the law of attraction before trying to get pregnant, and I was very good at manifesting things. Like I said, I was very used to getting my own way. I had pretty much decided I wanted to win a particular furniture award – I was a furniture interior designer – and I was like, “I’m going to win this award and I’m going to win the work placement,” and I did. And I kept getting the jobs I wanted. I actually met Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs fame, for those in the UK listening, one of my highlights. Every time I set an intention and then I was like this is what I want, it might not happen immediately, but within a few months, it would happen.
When it came to having a baby, I did the same. I was visualizing my baby. Instead of getting pregnant, I got anxiety and IBS. I was like oh, that’s not quite what I was expecting. I ended up trying harder, pushing harder, trying to force myself. Then I was like, “It’s my fault that I’m not pregnant because I don’t really believe. Now it’s been months and months. My endometriosis is getting worse, and the doctor is telling me I need to go into another round of treatment.”
When I then started studying hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma release techniques, I was like, oh, what they’re talking about there is this tiny sliver of pop culture, it’s just top layer. You really get into it and you get into how the mind works. If you have an innate fear of giving birth, no matter how positive you are and how much you are like this is going to happen…That’s not saying it’s going to block you from getting pregnant, but the decisions you’re making around your fertility may be influenced by that belief.
I’ve had clients who have had their last embryo on ice, ready to go, and their doctor is saying, “You’re good to go. You’ve got the green light,” everything is lined up, and they cannot make that phone call to start that cycle. When we really get into that, it’s because if they do the cycle and it’s unsuccessful, that’s their life, they don’t get to be a mother. That obviously is petrifying, so they do everything in their power to not do that cycle, but they’re not consciously thinking that. It will just be like, “Oh no, we’ve accidentally booked a holiday abroad just at the time that I was supposed to start. We’d better put it off another month.” When you really get to the root of it underneath, it’s because there is something there, a self-protection that is stopping them. I say to my clients you don’t need to really believe, because your conscious mind is only 3.5% of the time, your conscious mind could be running around like a headless chicken going, “Oh my F’ing word, what if this doesn’t work?” That is fine and normal.
What I’m interested in is your subconscious mind being completely onboard and completely “this is what I want, it’s safe for me to have this, it’s safe for me to have this now, my body is responding well to the hormones, I am taking my supplements, I’m doing all the things.” I’ve had people go into their last cycle and stop taking all of their supplements and just do these really strange things that they’re like, “But if I really believe it might work, what if it doesn’t? It’s going to hurt even more.” It’s going to hurt if it doesn’t work, it’s going to really bloody hurt. It’s not going to hurt more if you’ve allowed yourself to believe. You think it will because it’s that self-protection, but it really won’t.
Allowing yourself to believe makes it easier to do your shots, easier to get up early to go have those blood draws done, it makes you able to take all these steps and keep going because the payoff, the potential of what could happen is worth it. This is why you’re putting yourself through it, so you keep on going. Yet you don’t need to have this, “I really believe.” That would be amazing. When I first trained as a hypnotherapist, that’s what I was aiming for. I was like, I will somehow come up with the perfect thing to do, thing to say, technique that everyone will then drop anxiety and be in this space of complete Zen. But that’s not reality, because we’re humans and we’re designed to protect ourselves.
Things hurt. It is bloody scary. You’re having your last transfer and that could be it, and you don’t know what the next step is going to be, it is really scary. But there is so much you can do to make it easier and to make it more comfortable.
Dr. Aimee: Those are all such great points. My patients tell me all the time that they don’t want to even enjoy and celebrate their positive pregnancy test because they can’t believe that it’s happening, so they want to put off being happy about their pregnancy test until much later in the pregnancy. That’s hard.
Naomi Woolfson: That’s such a shame, especially if you’ve spent five, six, seven years trying to get pregnant. Then you get pregnant, and you don’t enjoy it.
That’s a huge intention of mine when I’m working with people. Yes, feeling worried about the next steps is normal, but there are techniques we do to see you through. We get you to the point that you can be excited and you can share this news.
I worked with one lady who wasn’t planning to share her pregnancy news until she was 20 weeks. She was really skinny, she was like a size 6. Obviously, at 20 weeks, people could tell, her boobs were humongous, she had a giant baby belly, but she just wore baggier and baggier jumpers and everyone was like, “Your fashion sense has really changed.” But that was what felt safe. Then when we got down to it, it’s because she couldn’t really believe it herself. She couldn’t tell people because she wasn’t allowing herself to connect with the baby or connect with that pregnancy. We worked on that and we changed it, and we got her to the point that she was like even if I connect with this baby and love this baby and the worst happens, I’ve still had this pregnancy, I’ve still had this baby and this experience with this baby. Then she was fine. She went on to then have her baby, all absolutely fine. But if she hadn’t done the clearing work, she might have got all the way to birth not really believing she was having a baby. Actually connecting with pregnancy after loss, after infertility, is a really important step of preparing for motherhood and stepping into motherhood so that you are there, ready to experience all of it, rather than playing catch-up with the shock that you’re no longer going through infertility.
When you’re going through it, you think it’s forever. I say to my clients, if you’ve been going through infertility for maybe five years, once you’re pregnant, you’re not pregnant for very long. That goes really quick. They’re like no, I can’t imagine it going quick. Then they get to a week before and they’re like, that went really quick. Compared to going through fertility treatments, it goes like that.
Dr. Aimee: I talk to patients about how to prepare for IVF, taking your supplements, exercising, avoiding environmental toxins, for example, but your work is just as important, if not more. That is how to emotionally and energetically prepare for IVF. What advice do you have for patients who are about to start their IVF journey, how can they best prepare emotionally and energetically?
Naomi Woolfson: The most important thing is truly looking at what you need emotionally. I actually have a podcast series on how to emotionally and energetically prepare for IVF, so we can pop that in the show notes as well. We’re so used to trying to manage IVF, put all the dates in our diary, order the meds, and have everything lined up, we end up becoming like a sort of PA to ourselves to manage IVF. Especially if we’re working full-time, because then we’ve pretty much got another full-time job of managing IVF. Sometimes we forget that what we’re trying to do is create new life and welcome this new little soul in.
Doing things like writing a letter to your future baby, literally letting them know we’re ready for you, we love you already, we haven’t even conceived you yet, but we have so much love to give you. This is the biggest sign to the universe ever that we are so ready for a baby. Then there are things like EFT, like I mentioned, and hypnosis tracks. Sometimes that can just be saying for 20 minutes a day, tools down, phone down, all of my organization skills and trying to control all of this to the nth degree, because we do that to give ourselves a sense of control in a completely out-of-control situation, we try to micromanage everything. Twenty minutes a day, lie down, close your eyes, listen to a track, and just allow those words to guide you into relaxation, instruct your subconscious mind of what you want. Again, your conscious mind could be going a million miles an hour, but just allow it to slow down a little bit.
You’ll find that the vast majority of people do those tracks and then they actually get comments from their partner or their work colleagues on, “You seem a little more chilled out. What’s going on?” People are sleeping better. People are feeling happier. People are getting on with their partners. One lady said to me, “I’m loving your tracks. I haven’t wanted to punch my partner in the face for a full three weeks.” I’m like, I did not realize that was a side effect, but that is fantastic and I’m so glad.
Dr. Aimee: That’s really fun. Where can people find you to work with you?
Naomi Woolfson I’m at EmbraceFertility.co.uk, I’m based in England, and I’m Embrace Fertility on Facebook, Instagram, and Embrace Fertile on Pinterest because you couldn’t have all of the letters that you needed, and just Naomi Woolfson on LinkedIn. You can listen to the Embrace Fertility Podcast on all podcast platforms.
Dr. Aimee: That’s awesome. I would love for you to lead us through a meditation. Before we start that, though, I just want to see if there’s anything else that you’d like to add?
Naomi Woolfson: Yes. If people are interested in what I’m talking about, I run free masterclasses every month or have the replays available. All of my work is science and study backed. In there, I talk about the things that you can do and why it’s so beneficial if you’re trying naturally, if you’re trying with treatment, if you’re trying with donor, and the different things you do. You can get that and instant access to that three-minute MP3 that I mentioned at my website. On the front page, there’s a free class button that people can grab.
Dr. Aimee: That’s great. I’m ready for your meditation.
Naomi Woolfson: If you’re driving, walking, or operating machinery, save this for later. If it’s safe for you to do so, just listen and close your eyes, make yourself comfortable so that we can go into relaxation together for a few minutes.
Just start taking some really deep breaths. If it feels comfortable to do, just gently close your eyes. If you would prefer to keep them open, just focus your gaze softly on something about a meter away from you.
Then just bringing yourself to the present moment. The rise and fall of your chest. Just bring your full focus to the very top of your head. Down your forehead, just allowing any creases just to release and smooth out. Just bring your focus to the muscles around your eyes. Having nothing to do right now, they can just loosen, relax, let go. Going down your cheeks, your jaw, perhaps even allowing your jaw just to hang loose slightly. Release, let go of any tension that you’re holding in that area.
Taking your focus down the back of your neck, into your shoulders. Then just raise your shoulders up to your ears for a second, take a deep breath, feel how contracted that feels. Take another deep breath, and then release, dropping your shoulders down, exhaling, Take your focus down through your chest, your stomach, your abdomen. Down you thighs, shins, down to the soles of your feet. Then just coming back up to the center of your chest.
I want to take you on a little journey into your future. I want you to imagine that it’s the day that you get pregnant. If you’re currently in your two-week wait, you can do this retrospectively. Just imagine that you’re going back in time to do this exercise. Just imagine that it’s the day that you’re going to get pregnant.
I want you to imagine in your mind’s eye that you’re in a protective bubble. If you find it difficult to visualize, I want you just to get a sense or a feeling of what it would be like to be in that protective bubble. If you find it easier to visualize, just imagine what that bubble looks like around you. Maybe one of those giant Zorb balls that you run around in. Maybe it’s a fine mist around you. Maybe it’s like a forcefield.
This protective bubble is keeping you safe and includes all of the beliefs, whether true or false, that you’ve built up around yourself in regard to your fertility, your body, what it means to get pregnant, be pregnant, go into labor, give birth, become a mum, all of these beliefs. I want you to get a sense or a feeling of which ones of those are causing any resistance on your fertility journey, any that are there keeping you safe but also keeping you small. I want you to imagine that you could just pick up those ones that are holding you back, as if they’re bricks or blocks. As you touch each one, they simply dissolve, they just melt away.
If that feels a little too scary or a little too much, just know that this protective bubble around yourself creates a new block in its place, but one that is more supportive and will allow you to move forward and step into pregnancy. Now, just get a sense or a feeling of all of those blocks that you need to just run your hand over, allowing them to dissolve, to dissipate, to diminish. In their place are these beautiful supportive blocks.
Now, just imagine you’re about to take a really big step forward into pregnancy. You’re still inside your bubble, you’re still protected, you’re still safe. Take a big breath. Imagine taking that big step forward into pregnancy, be that natural conception, an embryo transfer, donor transfer, whatever that looks like for you, whatever way you become pregnant. Just see that tiny embryo, get a sense or a feeling of that embryo coming into your womb and finding the perfect spot to implant, nestling in, making itself at home and comfy for the next nine months. Just placing one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart, just saying, “Yes, please. This is what I want, my tiny baby nestled in my womb. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
Now, imagining yourself walking through the two-week wait with a sense of hope and a sense of calm relief. Pregnant with potential, pregnant with possibility. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Then moving both hands to your heart and taking three really deep breaths, anchoring in these feelings. Then, whenever you’re ready, just gently wiggling your fingers and toes, stretching your body, opening your eyes, and coming back into the room.
Dr. Aimee: That was beautiful. Thank you, Naomi. That was so lovely. I don’t think that fertility doctors talk to their patients enough about making sure a patient’s emotional wellbeing is cared for. It’s hard because we’re not trained and taught these things in school. We’re trained, just like you said, if you believe it, you will achieve it, and you just have to believe it. But sometimes those negative beliefs make it really hard and create lots of blocks for patients. Thank you for all of the work that you do. I feel so much more relaxed right now, I just want to go home and take a nap, but I have more work to do. I appreciate your time and how much passion you have for helping fertility patients. Thank you so much again.
Naomi Woolfson: Thank you so much for having me on your show.
