More and more women know that holistic disciplines are particularly well suited to helping mothers-to-be in the run-up to their happy event, both during the search for a baby and throughout gestation, childbirth, and the postpartum period. But what exactly do we mean by «holistic»?
These are all those techniques or disciplines that care for a person as a whole, aimed at restoring and maintaining an individual's psychophysical balance. From the Greek, holos means «whole, entire»: holistic disciplines look at the person as a whole, leaving no aspect out, whether physical, psychological, emotional, or energetic, following the principle that we are, altogether, an interconnected aggregate of realities. By working on the physical body, for instance through massage or exercise, we can lift the mood; by focusing on energetic aspects, stimulating the chakras or the meridians, we positively influence the psyche, and so on, in a continuous, skillful exchange of information and energetic release aimed at restoring the wellbeing of the whole person.
Many holistic disciplines come from the East, where, culturally and philosophically, a person has always been considered a complex yet unified energetic being, in whom body and mind are so closely linked as to be inseparable. By contrast, for centuries Western thought has kept these two dimensions apart, creating specialists who dealt with one or the other separately, as if the wellbeing of the body could do without good mental or emotional hygiene, and as if one had no bearing on the other.
Fortunately, thanks also to a growing demand for gentle, non-invasive techniques that draw on ancient and traditional knowledge while paying attention to the overall wellbeing of the person, the holistic world is seeing, even here in Europe, a flourishing of accredited practitioners who offer their knowledge to mothers-to-be and new parents who are increasingly attentive to these «inclusive» aspects. From the now well-known prenatal Yoga to the beneficial effects of Reiki, from foot Reflexology to Shiatsu treatments, from Metamorphic Massage to Theta Healing, all the way to Family and Systemic Constellations, from Rebirthing to guided Meditations and visualizations, to name just a few, there are countless techniques capable of offering concrete, targeted help to mothers who want to approach the parenting journey mindfully, working on themselves at every level to prepare the body and release those energetic blocks, or even long-standing fears, that they feel stand in the way of the free, spontaneous flow of the energy that leads to life.
Many disciplines, such as Meditation or Reiki, are widely accepted and recognized for their effectiveness by the scientific community, and are seeing, even here in Italy, increasing integration with public and private healthcare. Often, it is doctors or healthcare staff themselves who recommend that mothers, alongside a traditional path of care and support, explore alternative holistic paths to improve certain physiological aspects typical of motherhood, or to manage the anxiety of childbirth, ease pain or insecurity, meet the need to relax and quickly recharge one's energy to face daily commitments «despite» the baby bump, to accept a changing body, a new condition and new challenges, alongside old, sometimes unresolved, emotional knots tied to being a «daughter». There are, then, many possibilities for the most ancient and extraordinary skill in the world, being a mother, but also being a woman, a daughter, a wife, a friend, and a professional, all in a harmonious, «holistic» mix.
To each their own, because, as always, knowledge is power.