#071 — Meditation and Mindfulness

Anna Gannon was 7½ months pregnant when she lost a job she loved as a full-time yoga teacher. She had struggled with depression off and on for most of her life, and Anna was worried that her precarious emotional state would have an impact on her baby.

That’s when Anna got an email from a friend who was supporting a project called Expectful. He encouraged her to try the Beta version of the meditation app for expecting and new moms, and she agreed to give it a shot.

Anna committed to 30 days of using the guided meditations, and not only did the practice help her connect with her baby, it also taught her that worry didn’t have to run the show. Anna learned that she is NOT her thoughts. And her third trimester became the BEST trimester of her pregnancy.

Today, Anna joins me to explain how using the Expectful app changed her experience of pregnancy and how meditation helped her navigate 9 months of postpartum depression. She shares the fundamentals of the app, describing how the guided meditations work and the benefits of training the mind to be more present. I ask Anna how she came to join the team at Expectful, and she discusses what work looked like in the early days of concurrently being a new mom AND new employee. Listen in for Anna’s insight on how parenting disrupts the illusion of control and learn how to let go—and allow life to flourish!

FULL SHOW NOTES

Get the complete show notes with episode quotes, photos, and time stamps at http://www.startuppregnant.com/071.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT ANNA GANNON

Anna Gannon is the Co-founder and Community Lead at Expectful, a meditation app for women preparing to conceive, pregnant women and new moms. The Expectful team is passionate about making meditation as common as prenatal vitamins and creating health and wellbeing through the power of the mind-body-baby connection. Anna is also a Yoga Teacher and Meditation Guide, and her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Mindbodygreen and The Expectful Blog.

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