Awaken: Spring Equinox Mama Alchemy Circle 2025

This past weekend at Cassava Acres, a group of heart-centered mamas gathered to celebrate the arrival of Spring.

Spring is associated with the heart chakra, new beginnings, and projects and ideas receiving light and blossoming into the world.

To tie these elements together, I chose to center our conversation around heart expansive self-compassion.

I didn’t have to debate with a single mother sitting in our circle that she is deserving and worthy of love, self-compassion, or self-care. Simply by showing up, each mom demonstrated her sense of the value of taking time for herself, and just how much she deeply cares about her role in motherhood.

Together, we dove deeper, into unhooking from the culturally ingrained narratives our bodies have latched into. Stories and beliefs that prevent us from expressing love for ourselves daily. (IE the idea that we’re all supposed to have all of our shit together) And further investigating how this affects not only our relationship to self, but our capacity to show up for our families and communities.

When we reframe self-compassion as a means of fortifying our resilience against life’s challenges, it resonates with a sense of necessity rather than privilege.

As a group, we encouraged one another, held space, journaled, moved, sat (and laid) in stillness on the earth, hugged, laughed, and (perhaps most importantly in these turbulent times we’re living in) acknowledged that not a single one of us is alone. We listened to guidance from the cosmos and acknowledged the energetics of the now and how that's being reflected in each of our very real lives. We reflected on our hopes and dreams and griefs and plot twists.

Motherhood, especially in todays busy world that’s more “connected” and more “on” than ever before, with endless opportunities to feel “supported” online - has simply left many of us feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, and isolated.

But moments of gathering and honoring the significant gift it is to hold this season of motherhood reminds us how untrue that is. We are never alone. We’re connected to millions of mothers around the world, and mothers who came before us. (And my dear friend Tegan guided us in a special loving kindness practice where we sent love out beyond our circle, so even if you couldn’t make it, know that we lifted you up too!)

In our circle we had the full spectrum from grandmothers to two brand new mamas wearing their two and three month old's on their chests - and many moms with kiddos of varying ages in between. But we all felt held by simply knowing that we are all in this together.

We leaned into trust and surrender to our humanness. Yes, life is hard; and at times we're all going to feel overwhelmed. But the more compassion I can feel and express inward increases my capacity for sharing compassion outward. I breathe deeper and show up differently in my own home. And the stronger that muscle grows, the wider the net gets to ripple. And to that end, each of us working on our own relationship with self, and personal development and evolution, creates a symbiotic dance of expansion and abundance for our whole community. As mamas, we are the anchor to our families, but we also have the opportunity to provide a well of nurture.

I personally walked out of this space feeling rejuvenated and inspired for all that’s in store and awakening this Spring in my own life. I’m so grateful to have had the honor to hold this space and for the women who took the time to slow down together and ground into this season ahead, and am already looking forward to the next round.

PS Someone remind me to share this recipe for Carrot Cake Bars with Protein Cream Cheese Frosting :)