I just finished reading Latham Thomas’s newly released book Mama Glow, A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy. Now you may wonder why I am reading a book on pregnancy. Especially since I am not pregnant and those who are close to me know that I don’t even want to have children. Well I thought the same thing when I pre-order this book off Amazon, but for some reason I was drawn to it. I had this little voice in my head (intuition calling) that kept nudging me to buy this book, and when that little voice speaks up I listen, so I order it. I thought that maybe this would be a helpful guide for me to share with my fertility patients. Or maybe it would come in handy when a girlfriend is pregnant. But as I read the first few pages I understood exactly why I bought this book. There was a message in it for me, and I believe that there is a message in it for you too.

Yes, single with no desire for children, I found myself hooked on a pregnancy guide. But let me make it clear that Latham’s book is no ordinary pregnancy guide. Latham breaks down the book into 5 main sections, from preparing for pregnancy, to the three trimesters, and after delivery. Within each section Latham addresses the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects of pregnancy. With everything from nutritional advice, tons of recipes, yoga exercises, journaling work, and spiritual work. In every chapter you are lead on a mind, body, spirit journey that helps you to not only connect with your physical self but to connect with your inner souls desires.

What I found when I was reading this was that the journey of pregnancy can be a metaphor to any other journey that you are going through in life. No matter what stage of  life you’re at we are all giving birth to something. Whether it be a new career, a new romance, a new friendship, or simply a new and improved you. So the question is, what are you giving birth to in your life? And how can you best nurture this process?

As I read the first section on preparing for pregnancy I could immediately relate this to my preparation for the launch of my career. I am graduating in a few months and getting ready to enter a whole new phase of my life. In essence I am giving birth to my career. Latham explains in the first chapter that when you are preparing for something new in your life it’s time to get rid of the old, or more specifically that which no longer serves you. This can literally be physical clutter in your space, or it could be taking a hard look at your relationships and seeing which ones you need to let go of. What’s draining you physically or energetically? What unnecessary things are taking up too much space in your life? If you are preparing to enter a new phase in your life take an honest look at whats holding you back. This may not be anything other then your own false beliefs about yourself. Are there self doubts lingering up in your head? This is the time to address them once and for all. Still hanging on to old resentments? Time to start letting go and forgiving. And Latham gives an amazing moving mediation exercise to help you cut away that energetic clutter. Remember that with any phase you are entering in life you need to make room and create space for that process to take place.

As you remove the negative junk from your life you want to make sure you are eliminating it from your body as well. Nutrition and cleansing are key factors discussed throughout  this book. Now of course nutrition is important when it comes to pregnancy, and Latham gives some amazing advice for all of you mommy’s to be out there. But the art of caring and nurturing your body goes beyond just pregnancy prep, this is a life long journey. No matter what you are manifesting in your life you want to make sure that your health is at its best. It doesn’t matter if you are making space for a new job, a new man, or even a new possession, if your body is sick you won’t be able to enjoy that manifestation when you receive it. Don’t neglect your body until you have “time” to deal with it, health should be your #1 priority always!

Along with nurturing our body comes nurturing our mind. Change no matter how good or exciting can be scary, and it’s important to continuously check in with ourselves and see how we are feeling. This is something I forget to do a lot which is why I loved Latham’s continuous reminders throughout the book. She gives exercises, journal work, affirmations, and meditations to help you turn inward and connect with your soul. Even though I meditate and journal every day I neglect to stop and check in with what or how I am feeling. I’ve started to do this more and have had some amazing revelations. With planning a career I’m really good at doing and acting, but not so good at listening and feeling. I find that my evaluation of how good my day is depends on whether I finished my to-do list or not. But when I started to check in with myself daily to see how I was feeling I was able to get much clearer on what I actually needed and what would make me feel good. As it turns out what I really needed was some radical self care (another message found throughout this book). What makes me feel good is not actually checking off my to-do list, but its taking a short nap and soaking in a bubble bath. As you move through your journey towards whatever goal you are after remember to check in with yourself and always make time for self care. You need to nurture yourself as much as you are nurturing your dream.

This is also a book about honoring your journey and honoring yourself. There are going to be ups and downs in everyones path, but if you are nurturing yourself all along you’ll be mentally and physically prepared to face any challenge. In this book Latham prepares a woman to go through a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and recovery. But whether you are pregnant or not you can take the principles from this book and apply them to your life. And the process Latham meticulously lays out here is really quite simple. Nurture your mind, body, and sprit throughout your journey. So ask yourself, what is your dream? What goal are you working on? What new phase of life are you stepping into, and how can you best prepare for and nurture this journey?