The powerful meaning of "nurture"

How do we innately and so easily nurture our children? Most every mother can do this without even thinking about it. It's what we were born to do. The definition of nurture from the Webster's dictionary is "to help the growth and development of." And, this got me thinking. Why are we so good at doing this for our children but not as good for ourselves? I want to dedicate this blog to diving into this question. Here are my thoughts.

Because our ability to nurture our children is highly instinctual, we don't even recognize that we are doing it. Which I think ultimately is what makes us even more awesome than we already are! I can remember when my first child was born. I felt this overwhelming connection, unconditional love, responsibility, and commitment all at once. From there, everything else fell into place as far as figuring out what to do. The question of how do I protect her or help her survive never explicitly came across my mind. My body and heart knew what to do. I knew what she needed. That's a super power! And with every super power comes potential consequences. I'm sure you can relate to that newborn baby stage. You bring your precious peanut home and you are sucked into survival mode and you don't even know it. You are in full. Blown. Nurture mode! Okay so this goes on for awhile. Months and years and then finally that little newborn can solve some simple problems, wash themselves, are potty trained, and start to recognize danger. In the midst of it all, during the survival period you may have gone back to work, tried to maintain your marriage or relationship with your significant other, or possibly done this as a single mom. Or, you are trying to figure out what in the world happened to your body, your mental health, and lost connection from people you were once close to. So going back to the question of why we are so good at nurturing our children but not to ourselves...I think this strong need for us to nurture our children contributes to self-sacrifice that comes with the privilege of motherhood.

So what do we do about it? Why does this matter? It is our responsibility to be aware of how powerful this instinct is and how consequential it is to our overall well being. Motherhood looks different on everyone and we are all in different phases of life. Some have newborns, some have children in college, some are "Girl Dad's," and some are "Dog Moms". Us collectively, need to bolster each other up. Reach out to those mothers out there who are in survival mode. Or maybe out of survival mode and now are in the what I call "What in the hell happened after the storm mode." It's important that we recognize the power of nurture and how it relates to motherhood. The better "Mom" that you are to yourself, the better you can be to all the people that need you.

ox,

Desiree