Have you been deceived by the term " Self Care"? In today's episode I uncover the lie we tell ourselves around this buzzword and help you adopt a more realistic and impactful way of applying it to your day-to-day life. If you so badly want and need more patience, focus, compassion, gratitude, and energy for you life and your family, this is where it starts.
This episode is meant to prepare for what you will feel, learn, and grow in, as you listen to the podcast. I set the record straight on my definition of a "mom" and reveal the 5 Pillars of Inspiration. These five: Motherhood, Mindset, Storytelling, Inspiration, and Self-care will be the foundation for our show and are key in driving this Mama-led-movement.
Surely you've picked up that I am a mush mush and love to feel all the feelings. I shared bits of my life story so you could pick up what I am gonna be throwin down lol.
I have always loved, and craved to be moved whether by words, music, or atmosphere and when I look back on my life and my passions I realize I enjoy doing the same for others. I believe music is most powerful, singing and performing not only made ME feel, but it did the same for others. As a kid I would throw little surprise parties for my mom. She would wake up and family would be there and a plate of tortilla chips and ketchup ( I guess because we were out of salsa- still today one of my fav foods- chips and salsa). I wanted to make her feel special and I wanted to create happiness and joy. This has carried into my adulthood. Before Miles I threw some lavish parties and since he was born, have resorted to the occasional dinner I get to host.and what I love is cultivating a mood and emotion through entertaining through the food, décor, lighting, music … the details. I view my home the same way ( as I am sure you do). I have a specific emotion and feeling I want my family and those who come through the door to feel. I believe these details can spark a feeling, an emotion, and that emotion sparks inspiration, no matter how small… can leave a mark.
My goal as your host is to move you to inspiration, inspire you into action, and simply open up your mind and your heart. When it comes to making changes that impact our children, partner, our own physical and mental health and that of our collective, I believe has to come from a deeper rooted emotion, therefore, we are gonna be pulling at those heartstrings!
I now want to now run through our 5 pillars of inspiration: Motherhood, Self-care, Motivation, Mindset, Storytelling.
Motherhood: Motherhood for most of us has been something we've longed for since our baby dolls, we were built with a nurturing nature and a body that if operates as intended was designed to bare children. I do realize there are expectations here- you ladies who didn't actually plan to have kids but god had another Plan, or maybe this calling to become a mother came later in life… Regardless because it's in our very design, the struggles to and through motherhood are not only confusing, but often defeating. This "thing" we've been created to can be the hardest job of all.
So many of us while our experiences and life circumstances vary, can relate to the isolation, fear, overwhelm, over abundance of love and the mess that is motherhood.
We can't deny that there's so much beauty within it, but it's not easy and I want to be clear on something, because I will use the term "Mama" loosely-- I consider the woman who is currently fighting infertility, or struggling to grow their miracle is just as much a mother, as the woman chasing down a family of 5.
Motherhood has early beginnings and carries on with us through life. We will be speaking on all things motherhood in this podcast. Pregnancy preparation, Infertility, Breastfeeding, Miscarriage, Methods of birth, Mindful parenting, Postpartum depression, Navigating our health after baby, the transition from baby 1 to 2, food allergy signs, Donor milk…… I've only been "mothering" Miles for two years roughly now, so I don't have all the answers and I won't be able to speak to every topic, but that's why we will be bringing on the mamas who have gone through it and the experts to speak all the knowledge. I am so incredibly excited to learn and grow along with you all.
Self-Care - it's trendy right now and I believe it may have a bit of a skewed perception. I did a poll in the Private -Mama Inspired- The collective FB group recently on this and it seems that many of us look at self care as luxury activities .. Of course many of us have different definitions of " luxury" - it could be a massage or simply vegging out to your favorite show without interruption. And this might be why it feels like such an out of reach possibility for us.
Women seem to have been born with this ingrained idea that everything we do must be for others and that when it comes to checking in on the well being of those we care for, we only check in on ourselves if ABLE… and this "if able" imaginary pocket of time takes on a whole new imagery as life gets busier, more people are added to our umbrella of responsibility, and we learn to live without it. We even take on this guilt when the starts finally align and we DO get the opportunity to get that massage or geek out on that show.
Let me tell you something, for one- you deserve the luxury, you earn it every day, but you also deserve to be cared for mentally, physically, and emotionally every day. In fact it's a necessity.
This is how I look at self-care and how I would like you to begin to approach and see it yourself.
Self - care are the Decisions and routines you do or don’t do in your day-to-day that help support your overall wellbeing and happiness. And I place Self Care in these 4 buckets…
YOUR Consumption/ influence: it matters - it impacts- being mindful, being efficient, driving inspiration. I'm not saying we throw out all the just cause media we love, but being more mindful of where we are in our consumption.. Especially in times of stress or high anxiety.
-Social
-Tv
-Books
- Podcasts etc
- Your circle
YOUR BODY
-Movement - our bodies were meant to move
-Nutrition
-Sleep
YOUR CUP:-- think of it like that warm cup of coffee….
-what lights you up, makes you happy, fills your cup!
-Creative therapy : writing , painting, journaling, crafting, makeup, sewing ?
-This is specific time Quiet, calm, stillness - bath, morning coffee before kids wake up, meditating, reading the bible, yoga… praying
Organizing?? - You type A's...
YOUR LOVE : It's everything right… it's what we live for.. It's who we live for and we need to make sure this bucket overflows .
Quality time with loved ones
Being present
Connection
Making memories
Growing a relationship
Community
Mindset - While mindset most definitely fits within the buckets of self-care, it's an area we are going to focus on heavily.
More specifically we will work to :
Opening our hearts and minds to a new perspective
Getting comfortable in the uncomfortable and adapting to change
Learn to Speak kindly to yourself - we are our very best friend and in the end the only being we 100% soley in control of and responsible for
Introducing and Practicing self-awareness so you may really get to know yourself through the hard conversations
Manage our anxiety- acknowledge our fears and how the part they play
Inspiration -- You knew this was coming right ? It's in the title! LOL You guys… the most miraculous thing that comes from struggle is the inspiration.. The miracles in the mess right? Remember in the last episode when I told you my story, about the moments Mama Inspired was born. I don't know about you, but I consider that a miracle. I just came out of the toughest, saddest, most defeating years of my life and in the end it brought me to you. It gave me a purpose, a mission, a drive to lead this mama led movement, to make change. I promise you I wouldn’t be here talking to you if none of that would have happened.
We don't know happiness unless we know sadness. We don’t recognize a miracle if we've not been through a struggle. That is how life works guys. Whether you realize it or not though, it's totally up to you to see those beautiful moments and to let them grow into gratitude or something bigger.
It's not always the inspiration to start a podcast though right. The inspiration through the stories we'll hear from our mamas will be wide. Maybe she deciding to switch careers, where she make less, but are home more. She's happier than ever now and so thankful that your struggle led you here. Maybe she has a new sense of respect and love for your partner and though it was messy, you two are stronger than ever and ready to take on whatever comes next. Maybe your hard brought you to adoption and your'e not holding a child you know was destined for you and you couldn't imagined life without.
Do you see? It's all about the perspective. Sometimes the miracles are big and sometimes they are simply profound.
Aside from our stories you'll get momspiration and the tough love. It'll be sprinkled in all over the place, but I envision it coming in form of bonus rant episodes as well. These will be the moments I speak to you on my own revelations, perspectives after great conversations with friends, or maybe a real kick in the hiny inspired by the struggle I am hearing from the collective. It's the high energy stuff you may or may not really want to here ! Your'e welcome!
Storytelling: This is what is going to drive our mission. In the last episode I really laid out for you the power of sharing our stories, our truths, and the beauty within in it. We all have something we can learn from one another. We're here to create a more enlightened, compassionate, and empowered mama collective. You'll hear a story just about every week covering all areas of "mamahood" the journey to and through… This is where the feelings get real. I've already had the pleasure of recording a few for you and it's what I'm most excited for. I feel so lucky that I'll be living these intimate conversations and so proud that they'll be released to the world. What I really hope is that they give you the courage to start sharing your own stories, maybe not to the world, but at least to your loved ones, friends, and the strangers you meet who need to hear it most. Here's the truth, you don't always know who needs to hear it and in the end it might be YOU.
If you are here I suspect that you love storytelling and that you are ready to connect with women on intimate levels through similar struggles, but I also suspect that you have a desire to grow. These 5 pillars of inspiration will come through Momspiration chats with me where I will provide tangible and tactical guidance or simply speak a bit of fire under your tushy, guest interviews with topic gurus, and through stories from mamas in all stages of motherhood. You can expect two episodes a week, with a bonus thrown in from time to time.
So, now you know my story, the moments in which mama inspired was born, and what you are going to get out of this podcast. I feel you are prepared young grasshopper. Let's hear from someone else shall we? LOL. Head to EP 4 and listen to my conversation with Ali Blackburn on living through postpartum, on an island, in the middle of a pandemic. Spoiler… 5 month old Quinn joined us as well.
Thank you so much guys! I hope this all came in loud and clear and that you are excited for whats to come. I am so grateful we get to walk this journey together. Sending all my love, chat soon!
