Mothering Your Inner Child

With May comes Mother’s Day, something that may bring up a complex range of emotions depending on your personal relationship to your mother or mother-figures, or to yourself if you are a mother or mother-to-be. Recognizing that there may be some expectations or emotions prior to Mother’s Day and exploring what the day means to you can be a helpful way to bring conscious intentionality to the day. Something anyone can practice, regardless of your circumstance, is visualizing yourself as a small child, vulnerable, open-minded, and playful. Picture what your mother or what you wish your mother could have said, felt, or done to honor, radically accept, support, and encourage you as a child. This may look like non-judgment, compassion, lightheartedness, problem-solving, active listening, making individual time for just you, calmness, understanding, fearlessness, or playfulness. Whatever you wish you received (or if you did receive it) visualize gifting your inner child those things, holding yourself with the fullness of love, gratitude, and appreciation for your young self. What would it sound like to say some of those things to yourself right now in this moment? Or what would it sound like if you could tell your childhood self those things? Can you take a few moments to say aloud or quietly to yourself in your head what you are looking for?

Mother’s Day is about celebration of motherhood and the beauty, strength, and sacrifice it takes to mother. Whomever that individual is to you and regardless of your relationship, I encourage you to practice a few moments of giving your inner child the mothering it needed and may still need in this moment.

-Chima