Everyone said something different. 

Absolutely do this. Definitely don’t do that. This is what it should feel like. That’s when it will all start to happen. 

Except that’s the thing. It is different for everyone. Each of our experiences is different, because we are innately different. No two of us are alike. 

Whether you’re in the middle of your fertility journey, pregnancy journey or you’re a mama, you can probably find a way to relate to what I mean. 

Some of the things that I was willing to do while I was trying to get pregnant might seem way to far fetched for you. Some of the things that you’ve done might just be too much for me. We all have our limits. It’s only now that I’m realizing how very important it is to listen to those limits, to those boundaries.

I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that there is only one way to do something. One way to cook something when you’re trying to get pregnant, one way to sleep with a big round belly, one way to feed a baby.  It just can’t work that way in my mind. We’re all built differently so the way we handle scenarios should be suited to us, to our bodies and to our emotions – as individuals. 

This past week has been wild in every way possible. It’s had an abundance of ups and downs, it’s rocked me to my core, and forced me to slow down way more than I ever have. But most of all it’s allowed me to really l i s t e n.

What do I want to do for myself?

What do I need to do for myself? For my family? For my baby?

These are the things that matter. 

There are always going to be professionals, friends, family members that think they know what’s best. But they aren’t you. They aren’t in your body, or your mind. They don’t know the ins and outs of your emotions, the heights you will go to or the lows you’ve been to that might cause you to proceed with caution where they might blow forward. It’s a delicate balance and figuring out what exactly to listen to is a lesson well worth learning. 

Someone special once said something that resonated with me that I’ll never forget on the topic of food. “It’s just food – it doesn’t really matter how it’s cooked or what it comes with – at the end of the day it’s who you’re eating with and how it makes you feel that matters.” 

Find the bigger picture. Do what you need to do in that moment. Take control of the situations that make you feel scared, weak and unsure and turn them into powerful moments where you give yourself the confidence to know that when you listen to yourself, you can’t really go wrong because you’re doing the best you can.