Being mindful brings intention into your business, cultivating a ripe ecosystem for you to feel at home.
Feeling at home in our body, our lives, our marriages and our businesses – I mean is there anything more delightful and invigorating for a woman?
With Winter moving into full swing, the holidays on our doorstep, tapping into the depth of this season can be a powerful conduit to bring online more of what we truly want. As cyclic beings, who have been divinely created to move with the seasons, Winter offers many untapped opportunities to tune into the soul of your business while cultivating greater levels of connection in the home.
This time of year brings us inside more, it shifts the way we interact with ourselves, our partner and our children. The magic pulls us closer and invites us to adopt a rhythm that doesn’t often exist at other times of the year.
What if this season offered a level of intimacy with yourself and within your home-life that poured life-energy into your business like never before? The perfect invitation to walk dripping in life-wealth exists, right now.
Here are my 5 best mindfulness practices to ignite your Winter as a Mom in Business:
#1 Bathe In Breath Basics.
“With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Let’s begin by bringing ourselves back to the very thing you did when you entered the world: you took your first breath. Fundamentally, pursuing your vision without excessive hustle, requires the ability to return to center, breathe deeper and reconnect to your inner harmonious world.
Breathwork literally refers to ‘any type of breathing exercise or technique’. It involves conscious interruption of the subconscious ‘sympathetic’ breathing patterns that many highly stressed Moms in business adopt.
The Box Breath is a simple technique that requires just a few minutes of intentionality to bring the body and mind back into alignment:
- Set your timer on your phone for 5 minutes – yes that’s right, start small and aim to drop in for the entire time.
- Imagine you’re breathing around the outside of a square, for gentle counts of 4.
- Breathe in for a count of 4, hold at the top for 4, breathe out gently for 4 and then breathe in for 4, REPEATING THE PATTERN for 5 mins.
Remember, our ultimate goal is to bring life-force through all that we do, while pouring that nourishment into our work. Breath is the purest of life-giving energy – whenever I feel disconnected, this practice is my absolute go-to!
#2 Ice Ice Baby.
Deepening your connection to the breath through ice or cold water submersion is a favorite mindfulness practice among some of the most influential Performance Mentors of our time. You may have heard of Wim Hof, better known as ‘The Iceman’, who brought the practice to mainstream society in recent years.
“Exposing oneself to cold conditions such as cold showers and ice baths is related to serious health benefits, including stress relief, better sleep, faster recovery from physical exercise, and even relief from symptoms that are related to diseases like fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis”, Wim shares.
Through the power of the cold, your ability to be happier, stronger and healthier is increased. Unsurprisingly, there is a direct correlation between happier and healthier CEO’s (as Moms, we are the CEO in our home) and their ability to communicate more effectively, connect deeper and impact farther, which in turn directly influences higher levels of satisfaction in their work, income capacity and willingness to be present at home.
Starting small, even 20 seconds beneath the stream of a cold shower will build new receptivity that will flow over into many facets of your day. Deepen the trust you have with your body and that your body has with you, by consciously interrupting your breathing pattern, and controlling your breathing rhythm. Awakening the senses further through playing your favorite music and burning a candle will drop you into greater levels of presence for an enhanced experience.
Expand your practice by aiming for one-minute cold showers and then begin to include ice baths, whether naturally occurring at your local lake or put ice in your bathtub, and submerge yourself for 2 minutes.
#3 Unhinge from Unhealthy ‘Boss-Mom’ Culture.
The rise of the ‘boss mom’ culture is destroying the health, mental and hormonal wellbeing, and the harmonic ecosystem within the family unit, and I believe that women, especially Moms have been sold a lie.
I remember watching my Mum give up everything for her family. I watched my Grandmother do the same – it wasn’t until my Grandfather died, that at age 86 she came to life.
Maternal Martyrdom is not something I celebrate or subscribe to, in fact, a lot of my work is in supporting Mothers to detangle from this web of insecurity that says a Mother must sacrifice herself and her life for that of her family.
I deeply believe the opposite: Mothers make potent leaders and grounded entrepreneurs.
My question for you to ponder here is: Have women gone too far in the other direction? Have we lost the ability to allow the medicine and wisdom that lives within the journey of the fullness of Motherhood to be expressed only to have replaced it with chasing of money, status and perpetuating unhealthy hyper-masculinity?
If you were abandoned or abused by the masculine, or had a Mother who operated from wounded masculinity, it is likely that operating in the paradigms of ‘Boss Mom’ culture simply feels easier. Regardless of the fallout.
Is it easier though? Tune in right now and answer these questions:
1. Are you rushing, racing and resisting pleasure most days?
2. Do you feel a rush of heat and sense of urgency when notifications appear on your phone and that email *ding* sounds?
3. Are you pushing your man away and have an operating manual for his behavior that he never seems to be able to meet?
4. Does playing and being present with your kids feel hard?
5. Is there a daily undercurrent of anxiety and overwhelm while you find it difficult to hear your intuition and feel your womb space?
We can be successful and soft. We can be a Mother and a turned-on passionate Wife. We can be present and pursue our dreams.
We can live, love and lead from a slower pace without the other shoe dropping.
#4 Embody Your Wild.
As we drop deeper into our wild ways, amplifying our intuition, letting go of hyper-masculinity and remembering the journey of Motherhood, the swords and shields fall as you become your own safe haven. There is no need to outsource safety to external validation for the money you make, the status you hold, the likes and comments you receive, or the fighting and running anymore.
Safety informs our pleasure. The more you trust your body, the more you trust your life, the more you trust your man, the more you trust the seasons, the more you trust your children, the more you trust your business, the more these things trust you in return.
This is a remembering. This is a re-wilding.
And it is the most lush journey you will walk.
My best advice, from someone who is recovering from hyper-masculinity in her life and in her business, is to find your tribe and let nature hold you while you return to the season which you are truly in.
+ Nature is a powerful co-regulator: get outside often and hike, bike, ski, run.
+ Don’t be a wallflower in community settings, bring your body online and let her know she is safe to be fully seen, heard and received. Being witnessed is one of the fastest routes to transformation.
+ Dance like nobody’s watching; your hips store a lot of emotion, let them move freely and allow your body to release what she is holding that was never hers to hold to begin with.
#4 Sacred Starts.
Choosing the way which you know aligns and amplifies your energy and focus for the day ahead, matters. Tending to a family, clients and more, has its demands, however when you intentionally bolster your mind, body and spirit for calm and readiness, you set yourself to close each day feeling held and on a high!
My biggest piece of advice when it comes to redefining the way your day begins, is to tune into YOU. What does your inner-voice desire? What does she ultimately need to come online and feel supported for the day ahead? Don’t let the noise of social media, 5am starts or productivity hacks make you feel like you’re behind by not subscribing to what they say works.
You are your best coach. Always. Move with discernment.
Here are my 5 Essential Elements for a devoted sacred start:
- A great night’s sleep, free from intrusive blue or outside light and distractions.
- A wake-up time each morning that feels like a ‘heck yes!’
- Movement. Don’t be too strict on the type. For me it is gentle stretching while sipping my cacao.
- Breakfast before coffee – because hormonal health matters if we want ultimate inner alignment.
- Connection. Whether it be through prayer, gratitude, journaling or life-giving conversation with your partner, make this a priority before showing up in the world.
In Closing
The common thread within these 5 Mindfulness Practices is an optimized nervous system, allowing you to lead your life and your business from a more centered and empowered space. Whole life-wealth embodiment impacts your relationships, finances, mindset, body and experience of life.
Ultimately, mindfulness is about willingness. Willingness to see yourself, meet yourself and resource yourself with more of what is available to you without having to fight for it. In return, becoming a Mom who is full to the brim with all that she can offer, just by being, is serving at the highest level.
