Spring and Motherhood: Embracing the Beautiful Chaos
Author: Lindsay Gurley
Spring. It's both beautiful and tumultuous. It's a time of new beginnings, planting seeds. It's also a time of unpredictable rhythms, especially in the mountains. Like the earth is questioning, is it still winter or are we transitioning into the warmth of the summer? The day can be glorious, bright blue skies, the creek rushing with melt-off. Then without warning the winds can rip through, coating the fresh green buds with a layer of red dust, clouds can roll and cascade rain across the valley, or even snow. Right when I think I know what the weather or day will hold, it can shift without any sense of control.
It feels pretty comparable to what I know of life as a mother, especially what it has felt like as a newish working mom. Motherhood within itself is an uncontrollable, unpredictable wave. There are extreme highs, there are extreme lows, and everything in between. Add a layer of being a professional on top of the new experience of motherhood and it can feel like those 50 mph gusts blowing me off the landscape, rocking all balance and having to adapt or persevere through the moment. It’s not all rocky, don’t get me wrong, there can be a new sense of purpose going back to work, creating and fostering another realm of life that is not about this beautiful being you brought into the world. It might be a tether to who you were “before”.
Everyone's experience of motherhood is different. It's the same with working motherhood; I can only speak to my experience and what I have heard and witnessed of my clients and friends.
One of the main elements I see in both spring and being a working mom is that ability to adapt, that resilience that breaks through in moments when there is no control, no forcing to make it different. You just "get to" (or "have to" is probably better language) flow with the winds, the rushing rivers, or the sick kid on a big presentation day. Mothers have this innate power to balance the chaos of the uncontrollable and to adapt to what needs to be handled. This willingness to face the challenges head on and to clearly see what direction to go, what choice to make, and to show up as best as possible.
Just like the ecosystems of the natural world, that adaptability and resilience is vital – and it can come at a cost. Although we are capable as mothers of handling so much that comes our way, it's also just freaking hard. It can feel isolating and lonely. It can bring forth inner questioning that can take over thoughts and the day. And the list goes on.
Finding Community in the Chaos
I find that a supportive way to move through these challenges, and to celebrate the wins, is to be in community with other women who are going through similar, be it their own, experiences. It can be so easy to just be "doing it alone" and continue to charge through life and work in that isolated chamber. But, we are creatures of community, and there is so much magic that comes from being with one another and seeing that you are not alone in the process.
Science confirms what we intuitively know – motherhood fundamentally changes us. There's amazing new research on the shifts in the brain when becoming a mother. No matter if you've been a mother for years or just had your first baby, you have shifted, you have changed. To slow down and take stock of who you are now, what matters now for you, what is occurring in your inner and outer world as a mother, as a professional, and as a woman on this planet is both nourishing and grounding.
This is one of the reasons I created "The Motherhood Identity Shift: [Re]Finding Yourself as a Working Mom" workshop coming up in May at True Nature.
It is a space designed specifically for professional women navigating the profound transition of motherhood while maintaining, changing, or growing their professional lives. It’s an intentional time to explore who you are becoming – as a mother, a professional, and most importantly, as yourself – in this new chapter of life.
Embracing the Season of Change
Spring is truly, freaking beautiful. It's also chaotic and unpredictable. It's really about how you choose to approach it, choose to see it, and how to set yourself up for how you are being in the midst of all of it.
So, if you are a working mom or aren't working now but thinking you'd like to go back at some point, I invite you to come be in community with an inspiring group of women to slow down, nourish yourself, and [re]find yourself in this wild Motherhood Identity Shift.
Join us on Sunday, May 18th from 9:30am - 1pm at True Nature Healing Arts in Carbondale, CO. Together, we'll plant seeds of intention that honor both who you've been and who you're becoming.
Register Now and more information.