“The most difficult part of birth is the first year afterwards. It is the year of travail — when the soul of a woman must birth the mother inside her. The emotional labor pains of becoming a mother are far greater than the physical pangs of birth; these are the growing surges of your heart as it pushes out selfishness and fear and makes room for sacrifice and love. It is a private and silent birth of the soul, but it is no less holy than the event of childbirth. Perhaps it is even more sacred.” — Joy Kusek
The process of transitioning from woman, or “maiden,” to mother, what anthropologists call “matrescence,” can feel like a metamorphosis. Like adolescence, it is a time of huge physical shifts in your body and mind. It is a time of questioning yourself, and maybe even questioning everything.
This tender time can be emotionally, physically, and spiritually challenging. Just like it takes a village to raise a baby, it takes a village to honor and support a new mother through this transition. Yet sadly, in our Western culture where there are few villages, we are often left to cross this threshold alone.
Are you a mother who is juggling life with young kids?
Do you feel like you are just now coming up for air after the complex newborn months?
Are you yearning to get reoriented to the woman you are now?
Do you want to connect with other mothers who understand firsthand?
Are you craving an afternoon that’s just for you?
Join us for a restorative and contemplative mini retreat honoring matrescence and the transformative power of stepping into motherhood. The afternoon will be spent in ritual and community and will include meditation, gentle movement, journaling and creative expression, sharing time, and restorative yoga.
Together, we will begin to explore, honor, and process the changes we’ve experienced since becoming mothers. We will seek to hold space for one another’s stories and our unique reclaiming of the sacred in motherhood.
No yoga or meditation experience is required.
Where: Limber Yoga, 7901 35th Ave SW Seattle, WA
When: Saturday, February 10, 1-4 pm
Bring: yoga mat (also available to borrow), water bottle, journal and writing utensil, and wear comfortable clothes to move your body and a cozy blanket or shawl that makes you feel at home
Provided: yoga mats, props (bolsters, blankets, blocks, chairs), herbal tea
Cost: $80 (sliding scale available upon request)
Facilitators
Michelle Jones, MA, LMHC, is a Seattle-based mother of a curious toddler as well as a trauma-informed psychotherapist for adults who are processing the complex layers of life transitions. She is passionate about supporting mothers of young kids who need space to process changes to their bodies, relationships, and identities. Whether it is in the soil of her garden or women’s lives, she loves partnering in growth and supporting what is unfurling.
Kristen Gutierrez, MS, RYT, is a West Seattle-based mother to an energetic toddler as well as a perinatal yoga teacher and storyteller for health and wellness brands. Whether she’s wrangling her kiddo, digging up weeds in her unruly garden, gaping at mountains, or stopping to smell the flowers, yoga is the lens through which she examines it all. She is passionate about birth work and believes pregnancy, birth, and motherhood are sacred rites of passage worthy of deep care and reverence.
Please reach out to Kristen at mother.matricaria@gmail.com with any questions or to reserve your spot. I’ll reply with a link to register.