Meditate Like a Mother

By Kyle Schauenberg

Meditation is the act of offering yourself over to the arms of life's nourishing energies and letting them embrace you, enliven you and heal you.

In this way, meditation harnesses a healing energy that feels a lot like that of a mother: an energy of unconditional love, acceptance, nurturing and guidance. And we can lean into this concept in innumerable ways to get creative with our meditation practices and receive the utmost nourishing care from them.

As you meditate like a mother, you’ll notice that you are never separate from the creative, nurturing energy of the life force itself.  Life is always offering you nourishment all around you: in nature, in relationships, in the elements, in your own heart.  This nourishment is abundant and there is plenty for everyone always.  Just give yourself a moment to be embraced by it and receive. 

Here are some ideas:

Mother's Embrace Meditation:

Begin by thinking of the idyllic mother energy, whatever that means to you. You could make it up in your own mind and heart. Or you could draw from your own personal experiences. Or you could think of a character in a film or book that exemplifies the mothering energy to you. Still another source of inspiration could be an idol from spiritual tradition, like the Mother Mary, Hindu goddess Durga, Greek goddess Leto, Bhuddist goddess White Tara, St. Anne or Lady Fatima of Islam, to name just a few.

Simply thinking of the energy of the mother will conjure a sensory experience within you. You might enhance the experience with a visual in your mind's eye as well.

Notice what this mothering energy feels like to you and give your body over to it. Let the feeling absorb into you and merge with your experience of yourself, noticing that the energy of the maternal is alive within you and accessible always.

As you feel into this sensation, you will have all kinds of thoughts and feelings about life. Whatever comes into your awareness is showing up to receive this same unconditionally loving energy. So just flow with it and let all of you be nourished.

Mommy Mantra:

Choose a variation of the word mother that appeals to you today. It might be mother, ma, mom, mommy, mama, a personal mom nickname or the word mother in another language.

Say the word out loud a few times, as loudly as you like. Say it quickly and then say it slowly. Then say it softly, and then softer still until it is a light whisper.

Next, say the word to yourself silently. Notice that after a bit, it may begin to feel like the word is repeating itself to you. In other moments, it will feel like you are actively repeating it.

This is mantra meditation. You might notice that being with a mantra feels a little bit like savoring the word and letting it soak into you, much like you might savor a piece of chocolate or a caramel. Feel free to be playful with it, letting the word swirl around within you, sometimes cherishing it, sometimes letting it cherish you.

Mother's Embrace Meditation:

For this meditation, you will flow back and forth between offering yourself maternal love and receiving that same love.

I created this meditation out of necessity one night when my daughter was going through a hard time. I felt like I was just bleeding out in heartache over her situation. And I found myself all curled up in the fetal position in my bed.

In my heart, I kept pretending I was holding her and healing her. And I eventually realized that I, too, needed to fall into the arms of that mothering care.

So I let myself feel like I was receiving the loving nourishment that I was so earnestly feeling toward my own daughter. And I began to let my energy flow back and forth between feeling like I was being held and feeling like I was doing the holding.

Try it. Curl yourself up, like you're in the womb and wrap your own nurturing arms around yourself. Become the energy of the Great Mother, and embrace yourself. Offering yourself abundant flowing mama love. And then let yourself feel like you are the child being held and deeply loved and healed. Keep flowing like this, letting yourself linger in either sensation as long as you want.

PHOTO BY: Unsplash with Getty Images