A Fertile Path shows you how the gifts of mindfulness can help you to navigate the emotional and physical challenges of fertility so you can realize your dream of parenthood.
 When confronted by the often-overwhelming stress that comes from infertility and its treatment, learning to stay present and maintain equanimity is not just important, it's essential. Mindfulness can help you navigate the complex network of emotional and physical trials that infertility presents.
A Fertile Path is a step-by-step guide that offers strategies for the challenges on the road ahead and support to develop the resilience you need to stay the course of your fertility journey.
MINDFULNESS & FERTILITYÂ
In its essence, mindfulness is learning to accept reality for what it is with a sense of peace and stability so that we can better deal with life's challenges. And one of the biggest challenges that life can throw at us is infertility.
Though infertility is a medical condition, it's experienced as a redefinition of self, challenging your core identity of what it means to be a man or woman. And, because infertility challenges the inherent assumption that we can have children whenever we choose--that procreation is a birthright--the inability to father a child or become pregnant becomes a personal catastrophe. Unlike many other challenges we face in life, making more effort doesn't necessarily lead to success with infertility, and our attempts to gain control over a situation that is inherently beyond our control, only heighten our sense of insecurity and inadequacy. In the process, the very qualities most needed to meet the demands dwindle.Â
A Fertile Path offers a way through this paradox because it helps you to open to the present moment just like it is, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, without clinging to it or pushing it away. Through meditation and other exercises, Dr. Marotta shows you how to relinquish control not by trying to change, get rid of, or judge the situation--in this case infertility--but rather by changing your relationship to what's happening. As you do this, you cultivate the cornerstone quality of acceptance: a state of open receptivity, a willingness to turn toward that which you resist. Paradoxically, when you accept things as they are, you are better able to assess the situation, find your strength, make wise choices, and take wholesome actions.Â
A PRACTICAL GUIDE
A Fertile Path is a guide for anyone attempting to conceive naturally and/or participating in fertility treatment. Drawing from the lessons of her own journey through infertility, and those of the women and men with whom she has worked, Dr. Marotta brings the teaching and practice of mindfulness to the challenges of fertility.
With the guidance of this mindfulness-based approach, you will discover how to:
- Turn on the relaxation response and self-soothe
- Anchor attention to the present moment through mindfulness of the breath and body
- Rejuvenate physical health holistically
- Work with thoughts skillfully and emotions compassionately
- Approach challenging interpersonal situations with equanimity
- Find support in your intimate relationship
- Open to family-building options
- Identify obstacles as challenge and crisis as opportunity
A Fertile Path includes meditations, exercises, journaling, and practice logs. Guided meditations that complement the formal practices covered in each chapter can be accessed on the author's website: janettimarotta.com/meditations.Â
This book was developed for anyone depleted by infertility, trapped in self-judgment, overwhelmed by interpersonal stressors, confused by treatment decisions, and motivated to seek health and healing. Applying these teachings, practices, and exercises will help you develop the resilience you need to stay the course of your fertility journey and realize your dream of parenthood.
