Finding Your Inner Mama

Motherhood can be one of the most intense and transformative experiences of a woman's life. While there are many books that offer the "do's and don'ts" of effective parenting, few offer guidance on navigating the tumultuous inner experience of being a mother, with all its joy, pain, change, and uncertainty. This collection of writing by psychologists, poets, novelists, spiritual teachers, and everyday moms explores the rich, transformative journey of motherhood. • Poet and novelist Louise Erdrich captures the sheer wonder and awe of early motherhood. • Self-described "hip momma" Ariel Gore reflects on the challenges of dealing with her daughter's adolescent rebellion. • Journalist Joan Peters highlights the rise of the "Power Mom" and the risks of overparenting to our children and ourselves. • Zen teacher Cheri Huber shares a spiritual perspective: sometimes it's us parents who need a "time out" so that we can be more fully present and loving with our children. Previously published in hardcover under the title Your Children Will Raise You.

“Rachel Macy Stafford's post "The Day I Stopped Saying Hurry Up" was a true phenomenon on The Huffington Post, igniting countless conversations online and off about freeing ourselves from the vicious cycle of keeping up with our overstuffed agendas. Hands Free Mama has the power to keep that conversation going and remind us that we must not let our lives pass us by.” --Arianna Huffington, Chair, President, and Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, nationally syndicated columnist, and author of thirteen books http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ DISCOVER THE POWER, JOY, AND LOVE of Living “Hands Free” If technology is the new addiction, then multi-tasking is the new marching order. We check our email while cooking dinner, send a text while bathing the kids, and spend more time looking into electronic screens than into the eyes of our loved ones. With our never-ending to-do lists and jam-packed schedules, it’s no wonder we’re distracted. But this isn’t the way it has to be. In July 2010, special education teacher and mother Rachel Macy Stafford decided enough was enough. Tired of losing track of what matters most in life, Rachel began practicing simple strategies that enabled her to momentarily let go of largely meaningless distractions and engage in meaningful soul-to-soul connections. She started a blog to chronicle her endeavors and soon saw how both external and internal distractions had been sabotaging her happiness and preventing her from bonding with the people she loves most. Hands Free Mama is the digital society’s answer to finding balance in a media-saturated, perfection-obsessed world. It doesn’t mean giving up all technology forever. It doesn’t mean forgoing our jobs and responsibilities. What it does mean is seizing the little moments that life offers us to engage in real and meaningful interaction. It means looking our loved ones in the eye and giving them the gift of our undivided attention, leaving the laundry till later to dance with our kids in the rain, and living a present, authentic, and intentional life despite a world full of distractions. So join Rachel and go hands-free. Discover what happens when you choose to open your heart—and your hands—to the possibilities of each God-given moment.

Join a respected Jungian analyst for a deep dive into the emotional and symbolic journey of motherhood. Motherhood is the true hero’s journey—which is to say that it can be as harrowing as it is joyful, and enlightening as it is exhausting. For Jungian psychoanalyst Lisa Marchiano, this journey is not just an adventure of diaper bags and parent-teacher conferences, but one of intense self-discovery. In Motherhood, Marchiano draws from a deep well of Jungian analysis and symbolic research to present a collection of fairy tales, myths, and fables that evoke the spiritual arc of raising a child from infancy through adulthood. After all, this kind of storytelling has always been one of the most important conduits of humanity’s collective wisdom—and Marchiano provides each tale alongside keen insights into the timeless archetypes they represent. Balanced with real-life case stories from Lisa’s own practice and in-depth questions for personal reflection, Motherhood explores how events like pregnancy, the calamities of childhood, and the empty-nest experience are invitations to an adventure into the wild frontier of your own soul. Here you will discover: • How the challenges of motherhood send you on journeys into your innermost source • Seeing the value of conflict with your child even while working to solve it • “The dark passage” of confronting and dispelling the energy of childhood wounds • “The thirteenth fairy”—how to recognize when we are resisting inconvenient or uncomfortable truths • Understanding how anger, rage, and aggression arise in parental relationships • Recognizing the ways that you have been taught to ignore your deepest instincts • How to navigate the inevitable periods of grief that accompany your child’s many life changes • Why much of successful mothering requires surrendering your sense of control With Lisa’s gentle but straightforward guidance, you’ll return from this inner journey in possession of the treasured knowledge needed to clarify your values, embrace your disowned parts, and claim the mantle of motherhood in the full bloom of your empowerment.

Sure to become a classic on female empowerment, a groundbreaking exploration of the personal, cultural, and global implications of intergenerational trauma created by patriarchy, how it is passed down from mothers to daughters, and how we can break this destructive cycle. Why do women keep themselves small and quiet? Why do they hold back professionally and personally? What fuels the uncertainty and lack of confidence so many women often feel? In this paradigm-shifting book, leading feminist thinker Bethany Webster identifies the source of women’s trauma. She calls it the Mother Wound—the systemic disenfranchisement of women by the patriarchy—and reveals how this cycle is perpetuated by wounded mothers who unconsciously pass on damaging beliefs and behaviors to their daughters. In her workshops, online courses, and talks, Webster has helped countless women re-examine their lives and their relationships with their mothers, giving them the vocabulary to voice their pain, and encouraging them to share their experiences. In this manifesto and self-help guide, she offers practical tools for identifying the manifestations of the Mother Wound in our daily life and strategies we can use to heal ourselves and prevent our daughters from enduring the same pain. In addition, she offers step-by-step advice on how to reconnect with our inner child, grieve the mother we didn’t have, stop people-pleasing, and, ultimately, transform our heartache and anger into healing and self-love. Revealing how women are affected by the Mother Wound, even if they don’t personally identify as survivors, Discovering the Inner Mother revolutionizes how we view mother-daughter relationships and gives us the inspiration and guidance we need to improve our lives and ultimately create a more equitable society for all.

Combining humor, honesty, and plainspoken advice, Momma Zen distills the doubts and frustrations of parenting into vignettes of Zen wisdom. Drawing on her experience as a first-time mother, and on her years of Zen meditation and study, Miller explores how the daily challenges of parenthood can become the most profound spiritual journey of our lives. This compelling and wise memoir follows the timeline of early motherhood from pregnancy through toddlerhood. Momma Zen takes readers on a transformative journey, charting a mother’s growth beyond naive expectations and disorientation to finding fulfillment in ordinary tasks, developing greater self-awareness and acceptance—to the gradual discovery of "maternal bliss," a state of abiding happiness and ease that is available to us all. In her gentle and reassuring voice, Karen Miller convinces us that ancient and authentic spiritual lessons can be as familiar as a lullaby, as ordinary as pureed peas, and as frequent as a sleepless night. She offers encouragement for the hard days, consolation for the long haul, and the lightheartedness every new mom needs to face the crooked path of motherhood straight on.

Sweet, satisfying and calming, Mom Candy is the perfect pick-me-up gift for mothers of all ages. With 1,000 quotes, reflections, and insights Mom Candy gets at the heart of motherhood—from the anticipation of pregnancy and the arrival of a new baby, through the early years and the school days, to the lifelong bond that women have with their children. With thoughts from Hillary Clinton, Madeleine L'Engle, Michelle Obama, Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon, Erica Jong, Jodi Picoult, and many others. Being a mom has made me so tired. And so happy.— Tina Fey, actress, writer, and producer

Celebrated doula, healer, yoga teacher, and parenting coach Lori Bregman brings a holistic guide to being a more balanced, authentic, and joyful mother. Introducing the "five expressions of motherhood"—Action Mama, Flow Mama, Rebel Mama, Vulnerable Mama, and Free Mama—Lori offers supportive advice, exercises, meditations, and yoga practices to cultivate a healthy balanced life and stronger bonds. Accessible and encouraging, Mamaste provides foundational tools for parenting, relatable examples, and exercises to build selfawareness and mindfulness. Guiding new mothers along a journey of self-discovery, these practices ultimately lead to a more enriching and contented experience for both mother and child. Packaged in an inviting paperback and filled with nurturing advice, Mamaste is essential for any expecting or new parent.

An Honest and Revolutionary Guide to the Emotions Moms Feel But Seldom Talk About A few years ago, Dr. Claire Nicogossian began noticing a trend in her therapy room: Mothers are struggling with the challenging and unexpected emotions that surface during their journey through motherhood. In the confines of a safe, judgment-free space, they share about the heavy guilt they carry from losing control and yelling at their children; the crippling fear that they are failing their families; and the exhaustion of juggling work, home, and family. Dr. Claire calls these our shadow emotions. While varying in intensity, our shadow emotions take some form of sadness, anger, fear, embarrassment, or disgust, often a combination. In this breakthrough book, Dr. Claire sheds light on these shadow emotions and provides a path to thriving joy, inner calm, and radiant confidence. Drawing upon her own experiences of raising four children and many years of counseling mothers as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Claire shares practical tips, strategies, and encouragement to help women in all stages of motherhood. By creating new language for the feelings moms experience but seldom talk about—inspired by the groundbreaking work of Carl Jung—this book has the power to create a radical shift in the way we understand and navigate modern motherhood. With Dr. Claire’s guidance, mothers everywhere will discover the deep joy, fulfillment, and inner peace that are already within their reach.