Self-Care for Moms

If you're a mom, the idea of self care may be elusive - like that dreamy vacation you fantasize about or that long-lost memory of sleeping in on the weekends.  Before starting a family we never thought about self care because it was how we usually lived.  We rested when we needed, treated ourselves to social gatherings, days off, long naps - whatever felt necessary.  But along came the littles filled with wonder, joy, and lots of needs, and suddenly we got lost.  


Finding time for self care isn't always easy and sometimes the little breaks we give ourselves are disappointing.  Solitude can be a great break, but often what we really need is connection - adult connection - and support.  Knowing that our daily struggles are shared by others - our desires not to miss every little moment but simultaneously wishing for a break, for wanting to do more and less all the time - learning that these are normal feelings for moms and dads and that what we do, who we are, is already good enough is transformative.  Reviving your spirit happens through connection and through in-real-life community.  The deepest and most profound kind of self care can come from a shared moment, an authentic conversation, or a silent knowingness.

Mother's Day may have passed, but there is still time to give yourself this most powerful gift - the gift of community.  Become a member of Holistic Moms and find others who make your spirit sing.  Give yourself connection, friendship, awareness, and support.  Your membership of just $35 for one year (through May 31st) will be a gift to yourself and to so many others through our 501(c)(3) non-profit community.  Bring self care back into your life.  It will do you good!

The Danger of Doing Nothing

As a holistic-minded parent, there is much to be concerned about.  There are pesticides and GMOs in our food supply, legislators are making it more and more difficult for parents to have freedom in their healthcare and lifestyle choices, and chemicals are lurking in our homes, via our furniture, paints, and flooring, without our knowledge.  You might read about the issues on Facebook and Twitter, like a few pages, share a few posts.  But a click here and a click there is essentially inactivity.  Doing something takes a commitment.  Maybe it's just a $10 donation to an organization that supports your lifestyle.  Or maybe it's taking a day to march, write a letter, call a legislator.  Or maybe you do even more.

But more often than not, we read, we click, and we assume someone else will do something.  Here's the problem - there is no someone else.  We are all you.  Are you waiting for someone else to speak up?  Do you expect others to donate to causes you believe in?  Because it's not happening.  The resistance to natural living is growing.  But thousands of the voices that should be heard are silent.  Organizations who are working hard to represent those voices are closing their doors because of a lack of funding and support.  Everyone is waiting for someone else.

There is no more time to wait.  Whatever your issue, whatever your concern, don't let the danger of doing nothing kick in.  You will blink and you will see your communities and networks gone, your voice silenced, your causes overrun.  The sidelines are not a safe place, in fact they hold the gravest danger of all.  If you're not doing something, you risk losing it all.  

Give, do, help.  Whether to the Holistic Moms Network during our #MayDriveforMoms or to another cause of your passion.  Just do it.  Because someone else isn't.

The Sacred Space of Motherhood

With Mother's Day just around the corner, everyone is clamoring to celebrate and honor motherhood.  But what exactly is motherhood?  Birthing, nurturing, educating, giving?  Selflessness and sacrifice?  Love and empathy?  Motherhood is so many things.  Collectively, though, it is an ancient art and practice of love, compassion, and the passing on of knowledge and wisdom.  Motherhood is a collective wisdom and experience.  It is a sacred space that all mothers know and dwell in, no matter how different our personal journeys.  Motherhood resides within our souls in a knowingness that is intrinsic to who we are.

It is in this collective space that motherhood is most powerful.  When mothers come together, our souls sing.  We share our uncertainties, joys, hardships, and challenges.  We speak a language of experience, knowledge, and wisdom to reassure one another, to grow, and to delve into a deep body of collective consciousness that has passed from one generation to the next.  From our mothers and grandmothers and beyond, the thread of motherhood connects us all.  And from this connection we each gain strength to power us through our own mothering journey.

To bring forth that wisdom and strength we need community.  We need to share our space and our lives with other mothers.  We need to dive into the collective consciousness and ancient wisdom by connecting, sharing, and learning from one another.  In-real-life community is the only way for us to truly unleash this sacred power.  Without it, motherhood is like an underground spring, deep and nourishing but not fully accessible.  Community brings it forth.

Give yourself the greatest gift you can this Mother's Day.  Get connected to a mothering community.  Open your soul and your heart to the collective consciousness of motherhood and to the ancient wisdom that we share not just in words and advice, but in the commonality of experiences and knowingness.  Become a supporting member of the Holistic Moms Network in May and tap into mothering community while adding your sacred journey to the collective wisdom and experience that is motherhood. 

Honoring Motherhood

Motherhood is both a noble and humanizing journey.  There few paths in life that require so much strength, calm, organization, and compassion, and few that demand as much sacrifice or that take a more profound toll on our bodies and minds.  Motherhood can be joyful - filled with the deepest love imaginable.  Motherhood can be painful - testing our limits and sorrow.  Being a mother is being alive.  Living the full spectrum of existence, from the highest peaks to the lowest valleys and everything in between.

It is odd then that we take just one day in May to try to honor all that motherhood is.  Moms (and dads) certainly deserve a special day, but the journey of parenting is so significant, we believe it needs at least a month of ongoing attention to bring to light just a small portion of the glorious spectrum of motherhood.

Here at the Holistic Moms Network, we believe in Mom's Month.  We want to dedicate the entire month of May to mothers and mothering.  Our goal is not only to bring attention to the highs and lows of parenting, but also to demonstrate the importance of supporting and empowering mothers each and every single day.    The Holistic Moms Network is built on a very simple idea: moms matter.  Moms matter because they are birthing and raising the next generation.  Moms go to enormous lengths to do what is best for their children, in pregnancy, birth, and parenting.  We make choices every minute of every day on how to feed our children, how to teach our children, how to show our children their connection with the world around them.  The choices aren't always easy, but with information, resources, support, and community, moms can be empowered to make the best decisions for themselves and their families.  Joining together in community opens up a world of possibilities and gives us the strength to make optimal choices, no matter how popular or unpopular.  Nothing gives a mother wings like a supportive community.

Help to empower mothers all month long.  We want all mothers to fly with the wind at their backs.  Your donation to the Holistic Moms Network during May can be that wind.  You can drive change by being a supporting member, a local or national Sponsor, or a donor to our 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  Join us and make moms matter in May.

Being Heard

Being a parent is hard work. Each day gives us new joys and new challenges that we want - and need

- to share with others. When we are heard, we are validated, understood, and fulfilled.

Sharing our life journeys with others heals us in profound ways. Giving voice to our concerns, questions, successes, and failures helps us to grow as individuals and as parents. From the early years when our children are babes through tweens, teens, and adults, the challenges persist even though they change in nature. Overcoming breastfeeding issues and toddler tantrums evolves into education choices and screen time questions, into dating and cultivating independence and responsibility. Each stage in our children's lives is a stage in our parenting journey. Being heard gives richness to that journey.

At HMN, we strive to create sacred spaces where parents can connect, share, and be heard. A place where bonds can be created, questions answered, and support offered and received. Community gives us these opportunities and so much more! Community gives us an opportunity to be heard, but also to laugh and to cry, to help and be helped, to have companions or to walk alone knowing that others are with us in spirit.

Our core mission is to bring people into these spaces - into our Chapters - to be heard. Start 2015 off with the most profound healing that you can and give yourself the opportunity to share your voice. Being heard will empower you, and your knowledge and experience can help guide another along her/his own journey. Join Holistic Moms during January to set a powerful healing intention and save $5 on an annual membership. Refer a friend to HMN and get a one-month extension on your current membership. Help us to help others. Spread the word, spread the healing, let's be heard in 2015!