When you are in the midst of trying to conceive, especially when it’s not a smooth road, it can be scary, nerve-wracking, and deeply emotional. It’s often fraught with insecurities, high stress levels, and a sense of being out of control. Add in the sadness of loss, the weight of waiting, and the daunting question of “Will it ever happen for me?” and it becomes clear why this season can feel so overwhelming.
In my experience, both personally and professionally, this is exactly where meditation and fertility intersect in a meaningful way. One of the most accessible and impactful forms of meditation during the fertility journey is a gratitude practice, not as a way to bypass hard emotions, but as a way to help the nervous system feel safe enough to regulate.
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Fear and gratitude can’t co-exist in the same moment
If you’ve bumped up against challenges while trying to conceive, it is scary. The mind naturally goes down Google rabbit holes that can quickly induce a physiological stress response. A gratitude practice, something as simple as writing down three things you are grateful for, can instantly lift you out of fear and create a different response in the body.
This practice helps settle the nervous system and regulate thoughts so that the brain sends the body the message “I have a lot to be grateful for” instead of “I have a lot to fear.” These are two very different thoughts, and they create two very different hormonal and nervous system responses.
From a fertility perspective, this matters. Chronic fear keeps the body in survival mode, while gratitude gently shifts it toward a more receptive, regulated state.
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Gratitude helps shift beliefs (and beliefs matter more than we think)
Fertility affirmations can be helpful, but if you keep saying “My baby is on the way to me, I trust in my baby’s timing” without truly believing it, you’re not accessing the full potency of the affirmation. As epigenetics and neuroscience researcher Joe Dispenza explains:
“We never accept, believe, or surrender to thoughts that are not equal to our emotional state.”
Gratitude acts like a vitamin for your emotional state and your beliefs. By practicing gratitude regularly, you infuse your existing beliefs with positive reinforcement and proof. You begin to program your brain to more fully believe that good things are possible, because they already have been. When you can see evidence of goodness in your life, it becomes easier to expect more.
Beliefs influence hormones and cellular responses
Alia Crum, director of the Stanford Mind & Body Lab, has spent her career studying how beliefs affect physiology. Her research on placebo effects shows that simply believing a food is decadent or diet can change hunger hormone (ghrelin) release by up to three times, even when the food is exactly the same.
Simply put, our bodies are listening and reacting to our thoughts. Thoughts influence how our cells respond.
This is easy to see in the classic “fight-or-flight” response. When the brain perceives a threat, it signals the release of adrenaline and later cortisol. Heart rate increases, muscles tense, breathing becomes shallow, and energy is diverted away from growth and healing.
It doesn’t have to be a bear chasing you. A negative pregnancy test, a fertility appointment, or a well-meaning but painful question from family can trigger the same stress response. When this state becomes chronic, the pituitary and adrenal glands work overtime, immune function lowers, and the body has fewer resources available for repair and reproduction.
Gratitude is an antidote. Practiced consistently, it helps retrain the brain and calm the body, creating a more peaceful, healing internal environment.
As Dr. Crum concludes, “Our mindsets recruit healing properties in the body.”
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Gratitude releases “feel-good” neurochemicals that support healing
Research from Glenn Fox, head of program design at the USC Performance Science Institute, shows that gratitude triggers the release of dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins which are chemicals associated with happiness, connection, and stress reduction.
In an interview with Runner’s World, Fox explains that this response closely resembles a runner’s high. Oxytocin helps reduce stress, dopamine supports feelings of motivation and joy, and endorphins enhance emotional resilience.
Consistent gratitude practices have been linked to improved sleep, reduced blood pressure, lower inflammation, and faster healing, all of which are supportive during high-stress seasons like the fertility journey.
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What you focus on expands, especially in the body
Being grateful for what you already have is one of the surest ways to keep growing the good in your life. When trying to conceive, it’s easy to focus on what’s missing. But even with perfect nutrition, supplements, and lifestyle habits, a chronically stressed nervous system can make it harder for the body to receive.
Gratitude helps shift the body into a more relaxed, receptive state. It’s simple, often overlooked, and incredibly powerful.
The WeNatal Journal makes it easy to commit to this daily practice, but gratitude can be done anywhere, on your phone, during a walk, before bed, or while brushing your teeth. However you choose to practice it, gratitude is a form of meditation that supports fertility, emotional wellbeing, and nervous system health. It’s a habit that doesn’t just serve you now, it supports your future baby and your family for a lifetime.
A note from WeNatal on gratitude meditation and fertility
Gratitude meditation isn’t about forcing calm, staying positive, or bypassing fear, grief, or uncertainty. It’s about helping the body feel safe enough to soften out of survival and into support. When you’re navigating fertility, especially when it’s shaped by loss, waiting, or things not going as planned, this kind of nervous system regulation matters more than most people realize.
Every moment of calm you create supports your hormones, your immune system, and your body’s innate ability to heal and restore balance. You are not behind, and you don’t need to make anything happen. Practices like gratitude simply create the conditions that allow your body to do what it already knows how to do.
If you’re looking for deeper, more consistent support, our WeNatal Meditation Series led by Lillian Cohanzad, offers daily meditations designed to support stress physiology, emotional resilience, and a felt sense of safety in the body during preconception, pregnancy, and beyond. Each practice is rooted in both science and compassion, meeting you exactly where you are in your fertility journey.
Because fertility support shouldn’t feel overwhelming or isolating. It should feel steady and empowering, just like this journey deserves to be.
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References
Aventin Á, Robinson M, White J, Galeotti M. Recurrent pregnancy loss, psychological distress and wellbeing support for women: a mixed-methods analysis. BMC Womens Health. 2025;25(1):535. Published 2025 Nov 3. doi:10.1186/s12905-025-04079-2
Crum AJ, Corbin WR, Brownell KD, Salovey P. Mind over milkshakes: mindsets, not just nutrients, determine ghrelin response. Health Psychol. 2011;30(4):424-431. doi:10.1037/a0023467
Crum AJ, Langer EJ. Mind-set matters: exercise and the placebo effect. Psychol Sci. 2007;18(2):165-171. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01867.x
Dispenza J. You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter. Hay House; 2014.
Domar AD, Rooney KL, Wiegand B, et al. Impact of a group mind/body intervention on pregnancy rates in IVF patients. Fertil Steril. 2011;95(7):2269-2273. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2011.03.046
Emmons RA, McCullough ME. Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003;84(2):377-389. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.84.2.377
Fox GR, Kaplan J, Damasio H, Damasio A. Neural correlates of gratitude. Front Psychol. 2015;6:1491. Published 2015 Sep 30. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01491
