Mother’s Day – A Perfect Day for Healing

This is an image of a mother holding her child above her head at sunset

© Konstantin Sutyagin/shutterstock

 

 

Mother’s Day is just around the corner.  Mother’s Day, a holiday proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914,  is a day of celebration in which we honor mothers, motherhood, and maternal bonds. The power and influence of mothers and maternal figures in our personal lives and in our society is beyond measure.  Mothers and grandmothers are the core strength of the home, the creators of life, the nurturers of children, our first teachers, our female role models, and our indispensable companions. Most importantly, when we think of a mother’s love, we frequently think of the unconditional boundless love that is the closest human expression of divine love.

 

 

Mother’s Day, like all holidays, elicits different feelings for each one of us.  Whether we think our mothers did a “good” job or a “bad” job of raising us, the truth is that our mothers played an enormous role in helping us to form our system of values, sense of self, foundation of security, and, in general, the initial foundation for all of our perceptions in life.

 

 

Some of us were fortunate to be raised by mothers or mother figures who were confident, strong, and a model of unconditional love.  If this is the case, the mere mention of the word “mother” conjures up feelings of warmth, nurturing and safety. If you are one of these people, Mother’s Day is a joyful day where you are inspired to cherish and appreciate your mother and buying a card, giving a hug, and saying “I love you”  feels completely natural.

 

 

If your mother has passed on, this may be an especially sad time of year as you recognize that losing a mom creates a void that no one else can fill in your life.  Who could ever understand you, unconditionally accept you, and always love you the way your mother did?

 

 

And then there are others who have had a vastly different experience. There are many people who attribute the root cause of most of their pain and problems to their mothers. In working with clients over many years in my spiritual healing practice, I discovered that blaming our mothers for our shortcomings is the deepest underlying issue for almost every major healing issue: mental, emotional, and physical.  In fact, I observed that our mothers have so much influence in our lives that when a mother would heal a painful issue, the child (whether young, middle age, or old) was automatically positively affected; and, conversely, when the child (of any age) would heal, the mother would also be positively affected.

 

 

From a spiritual perspective, the soul of a child chooses his or her mother, and the mother chooses the child.  Because our life journey is all about becoming whole, we choose parents from whom we learn what we most need to know – we fulfill these lessons in both positive and negative ways.  If, for example, our mothers did not praise us very much, it could be that our souls needed to remember that we get our genuine validation from within ourselves – not from external sources.  On the other side of the coin, mothers learn just as much from their children.  For example, a child with learning differences may be teaching a mother all about patience and acceptance.

 

 

The single most important factor that affects our relationships with our mothers is our own attitude.  As children, we typically had great expectations of all the qualities we wanted our mothers to have — we wanted her to be our Rock of Gibraltar, the model of an ideal woman, have the patience of Job, and express the love of an angel.  As we mature, we need to accept that our mothers are human and that they have had to deal with issues that were passed on to them by their parents. I truly believe that most mothers love to the best of their capacity and want the very best for their children.  I also think most mothers would agree that motherhood is simultaneously the both most difficult and rewarding job in all the world.

 

 

Unconditionally accepting our mothers for who they are (or were) is our greatest lesson in compassion and forgiveness. Since we are inextricably connected with our mothers, forgiving them for their shortcomings and for falling short of our expectations is the same thing as forgiving ourselves for carrying forward any unhealthy patterns which need to be healed.  And when you think about it, who better than our mothers to teach us this magnificent lesson.

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

 

 

Love and Light,

 

Sandra

How to Base Your Life on Self-Love

This is an image of an abstract human with a heart radiating light with a magenta background

©Hermin/shutterstock

 

 

In my last blog we discussed how essential it is to build your life on the foundation of self-love. This may have sparked an awareness within you that has caused you to realize that, for the most part, you have not been treating yourself very well and that you have primarily placed everyone else’s needs ahead of your own.

 

This may have been a pattern of behavior for your entire life, so what if you want to change and adopt a whole new way of thinking that focuses on the ideal of self-love? Where do you begin?

 

As always, awareness is the first step in healing any area of our lives, so congratulations on becoming conscious of an area of your life which you are ready to heal!

 

The following are some simple steps that can help you shift your focus from being self-less to self-loving:

 

 

1. Forgive yourself – There is no point in beating yourself up for all the times you can recall acting out a martyr role or sacificing your own basic needs in order to accommodate someone else. If you are like most people, you have simply been acting out what you have seen modeled or taught to you by your parents, caregivers, teachers, and other important people in your childhood. Beating yourself up is exactly what you need to stop doing!

 

 

2. Be in Present Time – It does not matter where or from whom you developed your belief systems. Blaming others for what we believe in life is counter-productive and continues to perpetuate the same patterns of behavior. If you want to change, let go of the past. You only have the power to choose your own perceptions when you are in present time.

 

 

3. Create the Time and Space to Regenerate Yourself – Make it a priority to schedule a period of at least 20 minutes every day to nurture yourself. The key word here is “create.” Build this time into your schedule and commit to it as you would any other appointment. It could be first thing in the morning as you read an inspiring piece of literature while you have a cup of coffee, or you could choose to do a meditation that is as simple as closing your eyes and taking deep breaths. If you prefer the evening, take a soothing, warm bath or take a walk by yourself. Choose whatever activity nourishes your soul. The important thing is that you are being kind to yourself by acknowledging your own need to regenerate.

 

 

4. Base Your Decisions On Your Own Values – Rather than making choices motivated by the need to please others, get in touch with your own feelings regarding what is important in your life. For example, you may make a conscious decision to spend more quality time with your spouse or partner rather than spend more time at work. The objective is to make choices that support your priorities in life – not to make everyone happy.

 

 

5. Trust Your Intuition – Allow your intuition to guide you in making choices. Your intuition is the universal wisdom that comes to you through spontaneous thoughts and feelings. You may sense it in many ways;  gut level feelings, a feeling of warmth, or a sense of expansion or energy. Since intuitive messages are coming from your Higher Self, the insights you are receiving are rooted in love. Trusting your intuition will guide you to make choices that inspire you.

 

 

6. Affirm Self-Love – “I deeply and completely love and accept myself” is one of the most powerful statements you can ever affirm. Say it out loud or repeat it quietly to yourself. Affirm it in any situation, and all the time, especially when you are feeling unloved. It does not matter whether you believe it when you say it – you will come to believe it. We change our belief systems by first choosing to think differently.

 

 

7. Forgive Yourself – Here we are again – full cycle. Even though you are committing yourself to a healthy new way of thinking and acting, there will be many times when you think, say, or do things that are not kind to yourself. This is the perfect time to forgive yourself and get right back on track with the guidelines above.

 

 

Loving, respecting, and honoring yourself means you are projecting your energy to others from a radiant heart.

 

As within, so without. The way you feel about yourself will be the way you feel about everyone else.

 

Love and Light,

 

Sandra