In need of the Healthy 'Mother'
As the movement of both the fear and the physical manifestation of the COVID19 virus shifts around the world, I’ve noticed today how much there's a lack of healthy mothering on a grand scale.
Healthy mothering has been missing in our society - how to mother ourselves, in our connection to the Great Mother (Earth), in strong mothering figures that have real power and influence.
We’ve had a patriarchal society for such a long time and have always looked to ‘Dad’ to tell us what to do. Whether that be political leaders, heads of businesses, medical systems, global organisations, not always a specific person but a structural ‘Dad’.
These ‘Dads’ don’t know what to do right now. No one knows exactly what to do right now. But what’s becoming clear is that ‘Dad’ doesn’t have all the answers, and what's been missing is the healthy ‘Mother’.
The nurturing, the compassion, the empathy, being able to hold the individual and the whole, the knowing of settling the nervous system, the embrace and creation of comfort and safety in the unknown, the strong feminine. It’s needed right now, and what's being revealed is just how much we've relied on 'Dad' in power in society.
This isn’t a man/woman issue, and I'm definitely not criticising Dads (because we absolutely need strong healthy fathering too, from the familial to the structural), it’s just what our society has held up as ‘all-knowing’ and 'the' way.
Powerful, healthy, aspects of mothering leadership is emerging. Perhaps, actually, it’s always been there but we're more aware now that we need it, and technology has given a platform for more voices to be heard and be sought out.
Rightly or wrongly, there's a lot of fear, worry and panic swirling in the collective and as with all things, it starts with us, knowing how to mother ourselves is step one.
For me, mothering yourself looks like a few things -
Staying informed and listening to your own wisdom
Knowing what are your own self-care needs, what calms your nervous system and supports you to feel grounded again, so you can be in healthy support to others
Keeping your self, and what/who you are immediately accountable for in mind, and, the needs of the wider collective that we're all a part of
Staying in rich connection and sharing with others (how fortunate are we that we can stay authentically connected online)
Listening to the thoughts and advice from a broad range of wise people - women, men, non-binary, academic, non-academic, spiritual, scientific, younger, older.
Often ‘mothering’ can have a negative stigma in society. With connotations of stifling, being too soft, over-protecting, over-giving, we need to understand the healthy aspects of ‘Mother’ and understand the role it has in our society, our environment and in places and positions of power.