It’s the season of giving and as usual we want to make things easier for…
Self-Care
The Spiritual Awakening of Motherhood: 4 Journal Prompts To Guide You Through Postpartum
October 3, 2022 • By Natalie Kehren
It’s no secret – this is one of the most vulnerable times in your life. Motherhood and postpartum embody a deeply layered, expansive, hormonal and incredibly potent spiritual awakening – all while tending to a new born baby!
In my opinion, this phase is divinely designed to be this way; it has to be this way. The difference that has been imposed on this journey is that we now have little support and must dig deep to cultivate the support we need and deserve. We have to create the village of support that was once given.
When we look back in ancient teachings and rites of passage, this time is seen as more sacred than pregnancy. In some traditions, mother and baby were kept indoors resting with their needs being catered to for 90 days. They were deeply supported so the mama needed to worry only about her recovery and supporting her new little baby. There were often ceremonies, rituals, herbal remedies, and body work to ease the transition into her new role, new self, and new life.
Taking a deeper look into the spiritual and energetic aspects of what is happening, there is an energetic imprint that shows not only the new baby being born, but also the mother. The mother is a newborn too. Some ancient scriptures and teachings describe the mother “dying” metaphorically during labor and birth. She is then reborn which marks the beginning of the postpartum journey.
As newborns, the experiences of both mother and baby are similar. Both are experiencing new smells, poor vision, new heightened senses, learning how to physically move in new ways, how to regulate breathing, temperature, sounds, and an overarching experience of being in-between worlds; the world of spirit and the physical world.
Everything is divinely designed to support a spiritual awakening.
Everything in your body, mind, soul, and newborn life experiences the symptoms of this spiritual awakening. Which is new. And when everything is new, it can feel deeply uncomfortable, vulnerable, and challenging. When you’re unaware that this massive spiritual transformation is occurring you lack proper support, feel depressed, overwhelmed, unstable, resentful, bitter, as if you’ve lost everything you knew about your world and yourself.
So, how do you support yourself during this transformational time?
- Reach out to people who you feel safe with. People who are loving and ready to support you through this journey. This can be family, friends, support groups, doulas, coaches, guides, therapists, and/or holistic practitioners of all kinds.
- Be extra gentle and kind to yourself. Talk to yourself with encouraging thoughts and words of affirmation. This time will pass, everything will continue to evolve, and you will step into a beautiful new version of yourself.
- My favorite gentle and profoundly effective tool, that we have at our disposal every moment of the day no matter where we are in the world, is journaling. We can do it after the baby falls asleep, in the middle of the night when we can’t sleep, and we can do it while nursing or sitting in a park.
I am honored to share the four journal questions below that are designed to connect you to yourself, your spiritual journey, the energy that needs to be activated and/or released, and ultimately strengthen your connection to your little one.
So grab your journal, a cozy spot and get ready to write!
- What are five emotions and or energies that you feel are strongest in your everyday postpartum experience? Where do you feel these emotions are rooted? What do you and your feelings need to feel more supported?
- Breathe deeply and take a moment to tune into your body. Set an intention by saying out loud: “I ask my body to reveal what it needs to heal and function optimally when it’s ready. I am open to listening to its voice. I act in support of my body.” Does your body have any messages you need to hear? What are they?
- Write out your birth story. If you have already done this, feel free to do it again or reread what you wrote – you may be surprised what comes through! Allow your emotions to be free and flow as needed. Get raw, get messy, use these papers to have your voice heard.
- What are ways in which you feel new? What parts of yourself no longer serve you and are being called to release? Now write ten things you are grateful for during your experience starting at pregnancy all the way to this present moment.
Remember mama, you are an incredibly powerful, wise, capable, worthy woman who transforms and births new consciousness onto this planet. You are the seat of the soul and we rise together. And wherever you are in your postpartum journey while reading this, I hope you know that your intuition is guiding you through a very spiritually and energetically potent time. If you ever feel lost, alone, or overwhelmed, take a deep breath and envision all the women who ever lived by your side holding you up. Because they are holding you up. Because we all are.