My Spiritual Journey: Mothering and Meditation
Welcome to My Spiritual Journey: Mothering and Meditation
My Spiritual Journey:
Today I looked back through some old blog posts. About six years ago, when my youngest daughter was new-born, I experienced a bout of mild depression. It was not clinically diagnosed: I visited a doctor who informed me that I did not need treatment for post-natal depression, I needed marriage counselling.
I still remember that doctor and her abrupt manner. She was not at all helpful or sympathetic to my struggles. At the time I was home alone with two young children and the family dog, plus other pets, while my husband worked ridiculously long hours away from home. It was never the way I imagined my early years of parenting to be. But then I never took time to consider what they might look like.
Mothering and Meditation
Throughout the time of these domestic challenges, I practiced meditation and mindfulness. I still do. My spiritual journey began a very long time ago, when I was in my early twenties. I picked up a book in a crystal shop one day, read the book, and did the recommended exercises.
That book was You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay, and I absolutely loved it. I read more books by other very helpful mindfulness experts and psychologists, and my practice of mindfulness and meditation grew into a daily habit.
It helped me to navigate the change from a full-time office job to become a freelance writer. It helped me through pregnancy and childbirth twice. And now it helps me through life’s daily challenges.
Meditation seems like a very difficult practice to begin with. Our society seems to view it as a luxury, something that only dedicated spiritual practitioners can achieve. How can we possibly fit meditation into daily life, when we have day jobs, family commitments, personal goals and homes to care for?
The answer is that we can fit meditation into our lives. I didn’t think I could do it with young children at home. But I found time, either while they were at preschool, while they were napping, or even on rare occasions when my husband was at home and could watch them while I shut myself away.
I even persuaded the children to meditate with me once or twice, although they did have a short attention span! You only need to give yourself five minutes during the day to stop what you are doing, stand or sit still, breath deeply to slow your heartrate, clear your mind, and then do nothing.
Those precious moments of blank time will leave you feeling refreshed and able to cope with the demands of daily life, and slowly you can build up a better practice of meditation, take more time with it, and find your own way in the spiritual world.
Nowadays my meditation practice has expanded to include reiki energy healing. I am now a qualified 2nd degree Okuden reiki practitioner, and soon I will begin training at Master level so that I can develop my own teaching practice, if I should choose to do so.
For now I use reiki as a method to heal myself when I need to, and to support my friends and family. Ultimately, we must take care of ourselves before we can take care of others. And meditation is a very good way to start. Do you meditate? Please share your experiences.
About the Author of My Spiritual Journey: Mothering and Meditation
Catherine Green: ghostbuster, author, mother and wife. My ghosts lurk within the human mind; my supernatural creatures are loud and proud.
You heard me. I hunt ghosts, both the scary old house kind, and those that are not so easily revealed. I live with people that have mental health challenges, mainly depression and anxiety, and those kinds of ghosts are the most difficult to slay.
I also suffer from chronic pain caused by a rare congenital eye disorder: Lymphedema Distichiasis. I bet you couldn’t even pronounce that one, eh?! I have severe Dry Eye Syndrome, Blepharitis, and a host of other symptoms that leave me with extremely sore, dry eyes most of the time.
I practically pour eyedrops in all day every day, but it’s never enough. I carry a recessive gene, FOXC2, meaning my parents were a bad biological match. But I never let it stop me doing what I enjoy: writing.
As the pagan housewife I blog about lifestyle, family, the world of books, and of course, my favourite pastime, ghost hunting.
I also blog about my adventures in British shamanism and witchcraft, holistic health and wellbeing, and living with a rare genetic disorder.
Contact me for collaborations, product reviews, and anything else we might create together.
It is not surprising, then, that my stories feature supernatural creatures exhibiting weird and wonderful personality traits, magical powers, and all the quirks of a human magnified and heightened.
#TheRedcliffeNovels series is set in a fictional seaside town in Cornwall, and my next series of novels tell tales of vampires and vampire hunters in the North West of England. Come and look, if you dare…
@SpookyMrsGreen
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Great post!
Meditation is something newish for me. I’ve only been doing it for a few years but it does help me when my anxiety gets bad.