A mum’s empowerment Do you know your Mum’s empowerment story? Do you know about your mother’s life before you were born? Her story beyond her role as a mother. Her dreams and ambitions – lived or unlived. It takes courage to have a real conversation with our mothers about their stories and histories. When we are brave enough to do so, there are great rewards, as we come to know of the virtues and wisdom our mothers behold. Mother Wisdom are the gifts and virtues that have been handed to us genetically down the maternal line. The greatest gift you can give to your mother and yourself this Mother’s Day is to create the opportunity know and really see her. Our mother is our first love. For nine months in utero, we are but one. When a mother gives birth, a process of separation begins between the mother and child. During this process of separation, so often our mother’s story is lost, ignored or not honoured.
Up levelling women’s empowerment It is an exciting time of women’s empowerment. Brave female voices are speaking up and influencing social change. Women’s circles are being birthed at a rapid rate and women are collectively redefining roles, pay grades and visibility. Yet there is a powerful force, that can offer great healing, that is unaddressed within this movement. That is the powerful bond between our mothers and ourselves and the exponential healing that is offered when we know her empowerment story. This can be one of the greatest tools for selfempowerment. Perhaps it truly allows both 46
ourselves and our mothers to be seen. And being seen in the world is how we heal.
Mother wisdom Science has shown that trauma can leave a chemical mark on a person’s genes which is passed down to subsequent generations. Epigenetic gene expression means that the feelings, traumas, and memories of previous generations may be experienced in our lives as truths, even though the environment is different. Mother Wisdom is the opposite of the Mother Wounding. Mother Wounding is the pain of being a woman, passed down through generations of women in patriarchal cultures. We all have wounds, but they must not define us. The core belief of the Mother Wounding is ‘Am I worthy?’ This is not our voice, but a voice from many generations ago. What is not spoken about is the epigenetic expressions that relate to Mother Wisdom - the triumphs, gifts and virtues of our mothers. Perhaps the telling and retelling of our mother’s stories in a powerful way can activate this gene expression too.
My mother’s story I have come from a line of brave woman. Brave because they have had to endure difficulties. My mother had an arranged marriage and migrated to a new country leaving behind her entire family at a young age. My grandmother’s husband died suddenly of a heart attack when she was in her early forties, she then raised four children on her own with little money. Courage, tenacity, and resilience were generational virtues handed down to me. The more stories we have of the courageous woman, the heroine, the more memories we stand to build for the collective. This starts with our own family. This starts with our mothers.
