As a pregnant woman on the spiritual path, I desire to do everything I can to assist my child to be the fullness of all they can be. One of my favorite tools for this is what you look at. And what you don’t.

I choose to avoid popular news channels and worldly stuff, because, well, it’s worldly and that’s not me, at least, not the Me I desire to be. This is actually pretty easy for me because I choose to avoid it most of the time anyhow.

There is a spiritual teaching that what a Mother focuses on influences her child.

Renowned genius Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “The things desired by the mother are often found impressed on the child which the mother carries at the time of the desire.”[1]

Spiritual teacher Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov also speaks of the pregnant mother’s consciousness influencing her child:

“Now you see why it is so vitally important for a pregnant woman to harbor only luminous thoughts. Thanks to her thoughts the seed that is growing within her will absorb the pure, precious materials she gives it and, one day, she will bring into the world a great artist or a brilliant scientist, a saint, a messenger from God.”[2]

The Summit Lighthouse, which many of us have been in, also taught about this in depth. One of my many favorite pregnancy quotes is:

“During the period of gestation, there is the multiplication of the mother’s ability to take in and pass on to the forming child the light-energy-consciousness that is around her….The talent is given; the individual, by free will, must discriminate in its use.”[3]

And now from the Masters through our own Hearts Center! This quote by beloved Virtue basically echoes the same idea we just heard:

“And therefore, when in the virgin consciousness expectant mothers meditate upon the imagery of angels and beauty and perfection and grace, the naturalness of godly intent does flow from our realms through their consciousness. And through the very blood itself, merging betwixt mother and child in the womb, there is the conveying and the streaming forth of those godly virtues to the soul.”[4]

So, what do we do with this teaching? Let me briefly share a few things I have done. Probably my best two things have been to create a stack of ‘good images’ to look at as I pray at night. These include the holy family, pregnant Mary, holy children and saints as a child, modern family photos besides a matching holy family one and images of Michelangelo, especially his statue of David. If I added to them today I would probably add some images of fetal development so that I could imagine light and love surrounding my child more easily.

I have also covered my kitchen workspace where I spend a lot of time with images of beauty, perfection and spirituality.[5] Everything from a dew kissed rose to the golden ratio spiral to a painting of a knight and his guardian angel. And a lot more. Does this look a little weird with pictures everywhere? Yeah, I guess so. But, it is beautiful. Besides, you’re only pregnant for nine months!

Does any of this work? I don’t know. I will say, that following my first pregnancy when I had more time to focus on it, I have since been stopped by people, awestruck by my son’s beauty. It’s not me, but I did spend a lot of time gazing at Michelangelo’s statue of David. It’s worth a try. Of course, I put spiritual virtue and character much higher than beauty, but that’s sometimes harder to measure.

I encourage you to try it out. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Please share. Did you choose images to focus on when you were pregnant? What was your experience of your child picking up what you focused on?