A Journaling Mom’s Path to Self-Discovery

As we begin to enter the last quarter moon phase, I’m mindful of the baby steps that are needed before we can take off on a full run toward anything in life that we may desire.

And with each step we take, there’s an impact – an impression that we make on the path – that has an everlasting effect, not only on us, but on those around us.

Imagine for a moment a “pebble thrown into a pond.” It creates a ripple that goes on and on and on.

I believe that mothers are a significant part of the “ripple effect” – that will transform the world into a more loving, more nurturing place.

When a mother is living life with complete authenticity, she’s subconsciously giving permission for her kids to do the same. She’s truly at her best – creating powerful change for her family, her community, and for the world at large. It’s all part of “the ripple.”

But what if something goes awry – and “the ripple” stems from a place of frustration, confusion, disconnect or unhappiness?

I’m a big believer that we’re all living OUR life story – in whatever way that story needs to play out. And for many of us, this story involves significant life lessons.

In order to learn OUR lessons, we must journey through the challenges. This is where we grow – emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

My work with the moon phases came out of my own experience of connecting with the moon during a really dark period in my life. Shortly after the birth of my first child, and after making some fairly significant life changes at the same time, I fell into depression – a place that felt so foreign to me, a place where I felt like I had fallen into a black hole with no way out.

It was during this time, a period that spanned over two years, that I had disconnected from everything that made me happy. Because my son suffered from chronic illnesses related to serious colds and severe ear infections, I made a very difficult choice to give up a successful career in order to care for my son full-time. I hadn’t realized until this experience how much of my identity was tied into my career. Without it, I felt very lost and very unhappy.

It was also during this time that I fell back on a great passion of mine – journal writing. And as a mom of a baby who did not have a normal sleep schedule, I found myself exhausted and emotional much of the time. So night after night, after I’d get my son settled and after my husband went to bed, I’d grab my journal and retreat to my favorite chair – beside a big bay window where I caught a glimpse of the moon. It was the moon that taught me the meaning of transition. I’d watch this beautiful lunar goddess, night after night, move in and out of her various phases. And before long, I began to connect her phases with my own emotional tides.

I noticed that the moon always began in darkness and gradually, she’d move into full light – and cycle back around again. And I noticed the contrast between dark and light – the darkness of the night sky against the beautiful full moon light. I started connecting to this – as if I was being divinely guided through my own transitions of dark and light. I began to notice the ebbs and flows of my emotions. There were good days and bad days – and I began to capture these emotional tides in my journal.

When we’re on a journey of self-discovery, especially one that has the potential to change our lives in a big way, journal writing can help. We can ask ourselves the deep, thought-provoking questions and we can listen for the answers, allowing them to feed through us. We are all divinely guided – and when we are willing to ask the questions and when we are open to receiving the answers, we can travel a more purposeful, more authentic path.

Journal writing is an invitation to jump into the depth of our heart and soul. It’s a place where truth can be spoken without fear of judgment and without worry of being censored. It creates a very private, very sacred place where we can have an honest conversation with our subconscious (that deep inner knowing that we all have). It also provides the space where we can dialogue with our higher power, asking open-ended questions and waiting for thoughtful answers.

But it all begins with truth. Before we begin our search for answers, we must first be willing to tell the truth. We must be willing to speak from a place of honesty, which many times comes from a place of pain.

So when I came to the point of writing my book, Journaling by the Moonlight: A Mother’s Path to Self-Discovery, I wanted mothers to realize that every human transition begins in darkness and gradually moves into light, where we get a glimpse of what is possible. And then we retreat, to ponder the many ways we can manifest these possibilities into reality. This requires deep work, where we step into our own truth and into our own power – and where we can emerge in the most authentic way possible. This is what I call the Blue Moon phase – when we finally realize that we are here on this Earth to be who we REALLY are, to put our personal thumbprint on the world in the most truthful, most authentic, most unique way possible. Each one of us are individuals being divinely guided on our own purposeful path.

Because moms are natural role models, our kids are observing all the time. There’s a lot of truth in the saying, “Monkey see, monkey do.” In other words, when a mom is modeling the value of following her heart, her kids “get it” – much more than they would if she was just saying it. Kids feel energy. They know when a person is happy and when they’re not. So why not be happy – and let the ripple flow?

Self-empowerment is a beautiful thing!

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* For more information about my book and the work that I do with moms, please visit www.JournalingByTheMoonlight.com – and receive my 12 best tips for journal writing.