Honoring Our Instincts

We all “know” that our world is in some serious trouble. We feel it in our bones. The recent “green” movement signifies the global shift in consciousness that has been brewing in the corners of our minds for years. No longer mere whispers, the message is now being heard loud and clear.

For some of us, we have reached a place where we can no longer push them away. We are beginning to actively choose more sustainable ways of living. Yet, even as the rest of the world embraces the reality of the situation, our country as a whole still refuses to face the facts.

The bottom line is that Americans make up 4% of the population yet use up 25% of the world’s resources. Sooner or later we will have to make the necessary changes – why not begin preparing our children now?

Toxins invade our children everywhere we turn. New diseases and scares sprout up every day. Life is on this planet is different for our children than when we were kids. Forget the polar bears! We are participating in the extinction of our own species!

A sinking feeling invades us when we reach the realization that the world will never again be like the one remembered from our own childhood days. Mother Nature has been permanently altered.

Within the last ten years alone, we have been bombarded with the onslaught of genetically modified foods, aerosol spraying programs and the cloning of animal species and human body parts. Our waters are contaminated from the chemical laced cleaners used in our own homes to the toxic sludge resulting from factory farming.

What’s one mom to do?

Well, the first step is to trust our instincts and reconnect with our intuitive selves. This takes effort at first because we have been cut off from our instinctual natures. Our culture is designed to disconnect us from the natural world. We are encouraged to consume, detach, become distant and removed. We have been taught not to trust our bodies and listen to their cues.

This reminds me of the days when my children were born. My journey to motherhood began with the birth of my first child. Something internal shifted for me. My choice to birth at home with a midwife was the beginning of my empowerment as a mother.

When women give birth naturally, without any interventions, we innately tap into our intuitive wisdom to do what generations of women before us did. We allow the energy of life to flow through our bodies and guide us in the process. We tap into our inherent nature as mothers when we allow this life force, this passion, to flow though us.

Remembering our relationship to the earth is essential. Teaching our children to respect and appreciate nature, about her cycles and rhythms, where food comes from, how to identify plants, how to garden and other basic life skills establishes a foundation that they can return to.

As mothers, it is our responsibility to share with our children what is amazing about being alive. Let us embrace this window of opportunity to become motivated, inspired and encouraged as we define our future world. Let us teach them what we know so as to remember what needs not be forgotten.

In what ways do you share your connection to Mother Nature with your children? What do you feel is the most challenging aspect of being a mother today? How does your instinctual self serve as a guide in raising your children?