Simply page down for our chronological blog postings, or click on the categories to read what we have to say:
Welcome to the Circle+Bloom blog
This is a guest post from our good friend Cindy Bailey from The Fertile Kitchen. After being given a 2% chance of naturally conceiving, Cindy completely changed her diet and was pregnant within four months. Motivated by this life-changing experience, she set out to write about her fertility diet research and, along with her husband, crafted this beautiful book that is both filled with interesting recipes and well-researched facts about what to put into our bodies to optimize our fertility.
Finally, after six IVF treatments Celine Dion is pregnant with twins at the age of 42. Hooray! Hooray for her persistence as much as her reward. It can be tough for women to get pregnant in their 40’s. Should they go for it anyway? (I think I know how Celine would answer.)
First of all, I want to congratulate Celine on sharing her very private fertility story publicly because by doing so she helps those that don’t have fertility issues better understand how incredibly grueling and sensitive it is to go through such an ordeal. I often refer to Dr. Alice Domar’s findings in a Harvard study: Women who want children and are told they can’t have them react with the same level of stress and depression as those who are told they have cancer or AIDS. Yes, it’s that devastating.
Second, here’s what I think about women attempting to conceive in their forties: go for it! Yes, the statistics and odds are against you, but I believe we are not statistics. We are people, individuals, and we do have the power to make a difference in our own health – reproductive and otherwise. We can use mind-body techniques, such as Circle+Bloom’s beautiful program, to reduce stress and create calm, we can use visualizations to empower us, and we can eat the right foods to optimize our health. We can do acupuncture, meditate, take herbs and supplements and do yoga. And we can do IVF too if we choose. There is a lot we can do to make a difference for ourselves and set us apart from the average statistic. As a group we even have the power to change the statistics to something more positive over time!
But know up front that trying to conceive in your 40’s might not be easy. If it’s not, you have to decide for yourself how much you can take, and when enough is truly enough. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula that guarantees pregnancy. I know of a woman who finally got pregnant with her 9th IVF, another with her 11th. They reached their dreams, but at what cost? How far do you feel you can go? I believe that decision is up to you and you alone.
When I was given a 2% chance of conceiving, I made a conscious decision not to listen to that number. It was unacceptable to me that I don’t get to have a child, so I set out to do everything in my power to fight the odds. I researched and went on a fertility diet, practiced yoga, meditated, did visualizations and took supplements. I simply flat-out believed I would have a child at some point, and four months later I conceived naturally at 40. I believed in myself and in my body to make a difference.
Looking back, I knew I wanted to be able to say I did everything I could, within my emotional and financial capacity. That way, when the time came, I could move forward without regret, knowing I had tried everything I could. Sometimes we don’t know our limits until they’re tested. In any case, I feel only you can decide when you’ve reached them.
So if Celine Dion wanted to keep doing IVFs until she reached her goal (and her husband agreed to it), more power to her. That was her choice. She understood the challenges she faced and chose to fight. It was a risk, but it was hers to take. Now she is blessed with enjoying the rewards.
© 2010 by Cindy Bailey of www.fertilekitchen.com
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We are just about to celebrate our first anniversary in business. What a year, and we have big, bold plans for the future.
We need your feedback though to make the most of our future, and we would like to learn a little more about you!
Will you please take 5 – 10 minutes to complete this survey? We will donate $1 to Resolve for every completed survey. Five minutes of your time to have great impact on Circle + Bloom and help a great organization, isn’t that worth it?
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“Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.” ~Astrid Alauda
What does stress mean to you? In this post we seek to uncover the mysteries of stress, its effects on our health and fertility and why it’s important to do something about it.
Stress is something I believe we all have in some way shape or form. I believe it is built into our psyches to effectively handle the demands of our existence. The flight or fight reaction is stress induced. Researched by Hans Seyle in the 1930s, stress is still something that remains somewhat elusive, probably because of the difficulty we have in actually measuring it. It is a psychological response, and therefore, different with everyone.
There are some great articles and surveys in various places that can help you better understand stress and its impact on our health:
* The American Psychological Association has a great interactive online tool that shows the parts of our body that is impacted by stress.
* The Mayo Clinic has an online stress assessment survey to rate your levels of stress.
* Trusty Wikipedia has a very in-depth article all about the history of stress.
When applied to the stress-infertility question, I don’t think it’s surprising to learn that women undergoing fertility difficulties have as much stress as people being threatened with life-threatening diseases like cancer or heart-disease. Infertility puts into question a couple’s life-plans and ability to raise a healthy and happy family. It questions our existence and future plans at its core. It’s invasive to our life and can create cyclical emotional roller coasters each and every month.
We have also seen studies that show that by reducing the stress in our lives, we can proactively help improve our fertility. At one end of the spectrum, when stress is at very high chronic levels, menstrual cycles may be suppressed completely. Emory University published a fascinating study about improving ovulation in women by undergoing cognitive therapy, which is essentially being more cognizant of your thought patterns – one very effective way to take control of your life and therefore reducing stress.
As with anything, I think the first step is admitting to yourself that stress is present in your life, and most likely exacerbated by the inability to conceive. Once you have admitted this to yourself through awareness of the signs and symptoms, you can congratulate yourself that you have taken a big step toward improving your life and well-being – and maybe even your fertility.
Then start to do something about it!
Our programs are one way to reduce stress. They works systematically – which you can do each and every day – to help you reduce the effects of stress in your body by using your brain to help your body relax. You don’t need deep massage, yoga or even a vacation to experience very deep relaxation throughout your entire body. Listen to one of our free sample downloads, all of which contain the very effective progressive body scanning techniques – that can work wonders throughout your entire body to begin today to reduce the effects of stress.
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A few weeks ago, we posted some daily intentions for fertility. Lately, I have taken to writing down my intentions for the day on a simple index card. Whether it relates to my work, my family, my spirituality, or my health, it enables me to distill my focus in one area that stays with me throughout the day. I put my intention on one side of the index card, and then on the other I put my “magic six” for the day – or essentially my to-do list that allows me to fulfill on my intention.
Dr. Rob Kiltz of CNY Fertility, also posts his intentions in a daily video blog, and it is so inspirational. We are proud to have a developing relationship with him and four of his offices in Upstate New York (more on that to come!)
So, we asked Melanie to create this downloadable PDF with the idea that you can clip them into little pieces and take them with you…little reminders and ways to center yourself again.
We hope you like it – and again, please let us know what other intentions that you would add here!
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“Infertility is where breast cancer was in the 1970s—completely in the closet.”- Lindsay Beck, Fertile Hope
Thank you Jennifer Wolff Perrine for this amazing article in the August issue of Self Magazine. It explores the fact that there are so many women having trouble conceiving, but nobody feels comfortable talking about it. As a company, we have really started to engage in this discussion with others in the field – those that think infertility should have a “pink” ribbon and that lack of awareness of the condition and the insensitivities from the media are truly debilitating to those suffering with the condition.
What can we do about this?!? What could be the catalyst that begins to move us all in the right direction? More women speaking publicly about it? More articles such as this? What are your thoughts? We would love to help this movement!
I took the liberty on summarizing a few key points from the article:
The majority of the 7.3 million women experiencing infertility will NOT talk to their friends and family:
One in eight American couples will experience infertility, and 1.1 million women will undergo treatment this year. That most won’t talk about it makes it that much more painful: A recent survey of infertility patients reveals that 61 percent hide the struggle to get pregnant from friends and family. More than half of the patients included in the survey, conducted by pharmaceutical giant Schering-Plough, reported that it was easier to tell people they didn’t intend to build a family rather than share their troubles.
Infertility is an extremely painful and emotional condition
Having difficulty getting pregnant can cause as much grief as losing a loved one, says Linda D. Applegarth, Ed.D., director of psychological services at the Perelman Cohen Center. “But it’s different. It is chronic and elusive,” she adds. “There’s a fear that life will be eternally empty. Some feel a sense of damage and brokenness; it goes to the heart of who they are.”
Feeling uncomfortable to talk about it keeps this epidemic silent
Women’s silence hurts more than themselves. It ensures that infertility remains an anonymous epidemic, with less funding and research than other common medical problems receive. Infertility activists, a beleaguered few, struggle to find allies…Because no one wants to discuss infertility, “nothing gets done about it,” says Lindsay Beck, founder of Fertile Hope, a program run by the Lance Armstrong Foundation in Austin, Texas, that supports cancer patients whose treatments threaten their fertility.
Stress reduction and working through your emotions does help
Domar shared with SELF preliminary results of new research she hopes will inspire more patients to seek help: In a small study of 97 Boston IVF patients younger than 40, women who had participated in 5 to 10 mind/body sessions were 160 percent more likely to get pregnant after a single IVF cycle. And more than two thirds of women with a clinical diagnosis of depression got pregnant after these sessions, whereas none of the depressed women in the control group conceived. The meetings teach relaxation techniques to ease anxiety and cognitive-behavioral strategies to fight depression. “These results can absolutely be replicated,” Domar says. “Isolating oneself during fertility treatment is not helpful to getting pregnant.”
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We are constantly on the hunt here at Circle+Bloom to ensure that our product descriptions and overall company messaging gets to the point and the maximum number of people understand what we are all about.
Among other things, we’ve been focusing lately on the “cliff-notes” or short-hand way of describing our programs.
Historically we have been using “Mind-Body Programs.” Given feedback and various discussions we have had we feel that this description might be causing more confusion and not helping people understand our programs:
Enter the brain.
What is the true difference between the mind and the brain? Our mind is our emotional-being, our existence beyond the physical make-up of our bodies – or better described as our souls. On the other hand, we have our brains. Where we think. Where we analyze and make decisions. Where we direct our bodies (BOTH consciously and unconsciously) to do things. The brain works in complete harmony and in tandem with our bodies on a constant basis. Our thoughts and images communicates with and instructs the body – and then the body communicates back with our brain. When we think of our brains, we think of a specific area of our body, where our intelligence resides.
What it boils down to is the perceived value or the words that best describe and convey our program descriptions. We are using our BRAINS to visualize and think and therefore enable our BODIES to improve our own reproductive ability. Hence we have been using such descriptions as the Brain-Fertility Connection, the Brain-Body, and Brain-Health. Our programs use our brains in a new way to make our bodies do what we want it to do.
What do you think of when you hear “Mind-Body” or the difference between the Brain and Mind? How would you go about describing our programs?
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This is an actual email we received from a customer earlier this week regarding our Energy Program. Thought we would share it, because she goes to great lengths to connect it back to her life and her meditation practice. Keep these emails coming, folks! It makes our day, our week, our month!
Just wanted to send you this email and tell you about my experience using your new Energy program. I truly love the program! I’ve listened to all sessions several times now and have felt a remarkable difference–especially in my quality of sleep!
Joanne has a wonderfully soothing and calming voice that makes settling down with the program a pleasure that I really look forward to. I find the visualizations vivid and effortless to practice. For me, listening to the sessions has been like taking a mini vacation from the frenzy of my normal day.
For the last few years I have been meditating on a daily basis. Recently, though, since my work schedule has gotten a bit out of my control, I have not been as routine in my meditation schedule as I had been previously.
As a result, my energy reserves along with my patience and state of mind has suffered. The most surprising benefit of the C & B program has been that my daily mediation routine was rejuvenated immediately, and the quality of my meditations has improved significantly.
My daily meditations have become so much deeper since I began using the program! It’s been remarkable.
I don’t understand why, but the effect was immediate and dramatic!
Thanks for putting this out there. I hope more women take advantage of this great program. It will certainly make for happier moms, and families too!
- Cheryl in Massachusetts, via email
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When creating our Energy for Empowerment Program, I did a lot of research on the effects of lack of sleep on our body. Turns out, lack of sleep can be the first domino in a chain of events that can wreak havoc on all aspects of your well-being. When you do not get enough sleep, your body does not operate the way it should, and the net result is increased stress levels and cortisol, which we all know is harmful to all facets of our well-being and fertility.
I have always been one that “needs” 7 – 8 hours of sleep per night, or else I never leave zombie-land throughout the day. Not only that, but even with 7 – 8 hours sleep per night, I still would rarely wake up feeling refreshed, energetic and feeling positive for the day. I used to need something like the “clocky” alarm clock that jumps off your nightstand when you don’t get up on time!
I am proud to say that I have changed that.
I now wake up without the alarm. I now wake up feeling positive and excited for the day. I start by planning my day while I still have my eyes closed and then spring out of bed. How did I accomplish this?
By reprogramming my subconscious to allow for deeper sleep, and re-thinking about how I awake.
One of the sessions in our energy program focuses on your sleep: Helping to fall asleep, and more importantly, programming your mind and body to sleep as deep as possible
It’s your subconscious mind in the wee-hours of the morning that dictate your behavior. If you have always woken up feeling lethargic and tired, I believe the only way to change that is to change your thinking. How can you change the thinking? By using your brain to guide your body and direct it to change how it feels and reacts to waking up.
It’s hard for me to listen to my own voice, so I have created programs that I know can help people, but I have been the last one to actually use them. My sister urged me to get over that and I am glad to say that and now I actually enjoy listening to myself (I sound pretty good, BTW!). Anyway, I have really started to integrate the sleep and other aspects of the Energy program into my routine and the difference is profound and life-changing.
I am so passionate about what you can do with our programs and thank you for following along!
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Working from home most of the time allows me to feel centered with a more well-rounded perspective with Circle+Bloom, my husband and kids. I’m truly fortunate to be able to do this, and LOVE what I am doing day in and day out. And this is speaking from a woman who only a short year ago switched from commuting over 2 hours each day in the city. Happy anniversary to my leaving my corporate existence to finding my true passion. If I can do it, so can you.
We had a family day while doing most of the recording in NYC for my “How to Use Circle+Bloom” video. And then my daughter Jacqueline made her directorial debut in the days that followed to help put the finishing touches on the video. We had so much fun that we made a bloopers video which I hope you enjoy watching as much as we had in making it.
Wishing you and your family a wonderful 4th of July!
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The competition is starting to heat up! And we added a new 5 point category for more ways to enter the contest. Share your experience using our programs or interacting with us with others on an online forum such as TYOCF.com, Mothering.com – or any other online forum that you may participate in.
Also, just to be clear, you can enter all of the categories for up to a possible of 23 points.
Here is a video that Heather from Australia recently sent to us. A great example of one of our customer videos! Thank you Heather!
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