Welcome beautiful,
Glorious mothers.
I wanted to create this meditation to help you slow down,
To take time for yourself,
To refill your cup,
And to put your oxygen mask on first.
When there are airplane accidents,
They ask you to put your oxygen mask on first before even your kids take care of yourself and slow down.
So it's time to relax.
It's okay to take a few minutes for yourself right now.
It's okay to stop getting things done for just a little bit.
This is productive.
Just because it's not hard to lay down and simply breathe doesn't mean it's not beneficial.
Meditation has been proven to help the body in many ways,
But the beneficial impact on the spirit in your soul is beyond what stats and research can identify.
So lay down,
Relax,
And as much as you can tune out any of that unwanted stress anywhere you're feeling tension or you're holding on to fear,
Let go.
Focus on your body and where you're feeling tense.
Then send some love to that area and relax a bit further.
Take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Breathe in peace and tranquility.
Exhale fear,
Shame,
Guilt.
Be still.
In the scriptures it says be still and know that I am God.
To me that means we don't need to be going and hustling all the time.
We can be still and let God do his work.
It's not all on our shoulders.
Be still and know that I am God.
Take this time to connect with you.
It's not self-centered.
Love in any form is pure and good.
The commandments say love thy neighbor as thyself.
As thyself.
That means to love and take care of yourself.
So imagine for me,
Imagine love from heaven and a ball of light coming down and filling your soul.
Sit with that perfect light for a bit.
And as you do,
As you're glowing with the light of God,
I want to share some things with you.
You don't need to listen.
Just sit.
Sit as you allow that light to fill you.
Let God's love heal your soul.
It's available for you always,
But we rarely tune in to allow its space to strengthen us.
Let your actions be driven from this place,
This place of light and love.
And let God's love guide you.
Guilt,
Shame,
Fear are not of God.
Even if you're trying to do good,
Such as guilt yourself into being a better mom.
The guilt,
Shame and fear are not of God.
The fruits of the spirit are love,
Joy,
Hope and patience,
Patience with yourself.
The next time you feel guilt or shame or fear,
Replace it with patience with yourself.
Your role as a mother is important.
This means you are important.
And as an important person,
Start training yourself as such.
Show yourself that patience.
Show yourself respect.
And show yourself love.
Just as you show love to your children,
Show love to yourself.
You are so,
So worthy of it.
As you breathe in,
Say,
I am.
I am.
And as you exhale,
Say,
Important,
Important.
I am important.
I am important.
There's a quote given by a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
And he says,
Mothers,
Cherish that role that is so uniquely yours,
And for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones.
Yours is the work of salvation,
And therefore you will be magnificent,
Compensated,
Made more than you are,
Better than you are,
And better than you have ever been.
And may I insert that you will be made more than you are and better than you are if you stop trying to do it all on your own.
If you let God step in,
Give him space to step in.
If you're always going and doing,
You're not allowing him that space to come in and do miracles in your life.
Trust in him.
Turn to him.
You are not doing this alone.
This leader of the church continues,
Do the best you can through these years,
But whatever else you do,
Cherish that role that is so uniquely yours.
And for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones.
You are not alone in this journey.
There are angels around you.
The Lord has given us a beautiful plan about how we can return to him,
But the completion of our mortal journey requires spiritual fuel.
We want to emulate the five wise virgins who had stored sufficient fuel to accompany the bridegroom when he comes,
As seen in Matthew.
The lamps and oil,
Don't you feel more prepared to serve when you've been taking care of yourself?
I've never thought of it that way before.
I always thought about it as preparing spiritually.
But if you're sick,
Stressed or at a breaking point,
It's hard to give love.
So what if we think of the oil and the lamps as being empty in motherhood and taking time to refuel?
To connect and recenter ourselves through meditations,
Journaling,
Following passions that we have,
Following our heart and our desires so that we can feel whole,
So that we can feel like we're doing what God sent us here to do.
We are mothers,
But we are other things,
Too.
We are artists.
We are healers.
We are creators.
We have so much in us.
We are children of God.
We can do more than just mother our children,
Even though that is huge.
And if that is what you feel to do,
If you are a nurturer and that is what you've been sent here to do,
And you have a desire to be around children,
To help and to serve and to take care of people,
Then that is beautiful.
But if you have other desires that God has blessed you with,
Righteous,
Wonderful desires to serve those around you,
That's okay.
What if that is part of filling your lamp?
What if that's part of how God sent you here to serve and to be a light?
Turn to Him to find out what that answer is for you,
Because it's different for each of us.
And it is such a beautiful thing to be in the home and to be strengthening the next generation.
But I do believe that God has given some of us other paths,
Other journeys to take along with motherhood.
We can do both things with God who strengthens us.
Yes,
It feels like too much as one person to do both.
Motherhood feels like a full-time job,
But with God,
Nothing is impossible.
Don't run faster than you have strength,
But turn to Him for more strength.
Let Him fill up the empty spaces that you cannot fill,
But don't push,
Push so hard trying to fill up those spaces.
Pushing is a sign that you're relying too heavily on yourself and your strength.
Start instead turning to God.
Simplify,
Simplify,
Simplify.
And do good and let God step in.
Take time to rest and take care of your soul.
Let God make up the difference of what you didn't do.
It's okay to not do everything.
When I read about Jesus's life,
It doesn't feel like He's stressed or rushed or hurrying from thing to thing.
And yet,
As the Son of God,
It wasn't like He was busy every single second trying to make use of every single minute.
And yet He did so much for the world.
There are many times when He went to be alone,
To do nothing.
The Savior of the world who had so much to do and so much capacity to help took time for Himself.
When I say He was doing nothing,
Obviously He was doing something.
He was doing big things while being alone.
Connecting to God,
Connecting to His soul.
Breathing deeply,
I'm sure.
Feeling much,
But doing little.
Taking time by Himself.
He went to be alone to connect with God and with His soul.
He was resting when there were storms raging.
He was resting.
He took care of Himself.
Even though He had so much to do to take care of others,
He knew that He didn't need to do it all.
He didn't need to heal every single person.
He didn't need to take every second to do everything for everyone.
He trusted that God had a plan,
That God would figure it out,
And that it was important to slow down and to take time to recenter.
And it wasn't necessary to always be pushing.
Simplify.
The Scriptures talk about looking beyond the mark,
And that being sometimes a problem for looking beyond the mark.
I just want you to slow down.
Release that pressure off of yourself and trust in God.
And press forward with a steadfastness in Christ,
Having a perfect brightness of hope.
As we come to the close of this meditation,
Continue to go about your day with a little more love and patience for yourself.
Allowing yourself time to be alone.
Allowing yourself time to do what might feel selfish,
But it's not.
Jesus did it too.
Follow Him by being present,
By connecting to yourself,
And giving yourself that love so that you can then give so much love to your children and to those around you.
Simplify.
Start to wiggle your feet,
Your arms,
Your head.
Turn your neck from side to side.
Take a deep breath and go and shine your beautiful and full of light.
