Spiritual Tools on the Journey to Motherhood

Presented by Miriam Lelah Moussaioff

June 12 and 19, 2010

“The conscious mother becomes empowered.”

-Jacqueline Kramer*

Intuition is your inner guidance system—a wellspring of love, knowing and

wisdom that exists within you. Learning to access and trust your intuition can

help you make wiser choices, connect deeply with your self and your child

and stay sane as a mother.

Our culture showers mothers-to-be with endless information and advice.  On

the road to becoming mothers, we face dozens of choices, from how to eat

well to navigating the birthing process.  Becoming a mother dramatically

impacts our relationship with our selves and others.  This is an opportunity to

awaken mother’s intuition and explore the powerful changes, decisions and

feelings that arise as you grow into mothering.

This workshop offers a safe, nurturing space for mothers-to-be to:

_Learn simple practices to connect with your body and trust your intuitive knowing

_Connect with your spirit and the spirit of your child

_Open to universal healing energies to facilitate well-being for your self and your child

_Explore what is happening within as you grow into mothering

DATE: Saturday, June 12th and June 19th, 2010

TIME: 2:30-5:30 pm

LOCATION: 918 Parker Street in West Berkeley

(between 7th and 8th Street, one block south of Dwight).

FEE: $150 (may be paid in 2 installments)*

REGISTER: Pre-register by June 5th at 510.525.0679 or miriam@intuitivesense.org

*from Buddha Mom:  The Path of Mindful Mothering

Listening to and Cultivating Intuition by Miriam Lelah Moussaioff

Ever have a gut feeling grab hold of you in the belly? Or have a funny feeling or hunch about something or someone? Start paying attention. These messages may be the voice of your intuition speaking. When it comes time to step into the unknown, understand what is happening in your life or your body, or make a decision about which road to take, your intuition has something important to say.

I n t u i t i o n is a wellspring of knowing and love that exists within each human being. Intuition is your sixth sense, an essential part of your being that can help you heal, grow, and create what you deeply desire in life.

As Frances Vaughan writes in Awakening Intuition, “at any given moment, one is conscious of only a small portion of what one knows. Intuition allows one to draw on that vast storehouse of unconscious knowledge that includes not only everything that one has experienced or learned either consciously or subliminally, but also the infinite reservoir of the collective or universal unconscious, in which individual separateness and ego boundaries are transcended.”

Because intuition is a non-rational way of knowing, sometimes it is difficult to trust or explain intuitive hunches. When I teach people how to reconnect with intuition and deepen trust in this amazing resource, I start by helping them quiet the mind and connect with what is happening in their body. Tuning in to your body’s messages, signals, and sensations makes it easier to know when something feels right or not. I believe that being present in your body is the foundation for opening to intuitive wisdom and, ultimately, for embodying your spirit.

Often it takes practice for people to discern the difference between the voice of fear, anger and/or wishful thinking and their deep inner knowing. Intuition may speak in the language of symbols or as a little whisper in your ear. Intuitive knowing comes through diffferent pathways for different people. With practice, you can begin to discover your own intuitive pathway and let intuition become a natural part of daily life.

Here are some things you can do to cultivate intuition:

* Quiet the rational mind so you can hear what your intuitive voice has to say. This means, in essence, practicing some form of meditation. (If you are new to meditation, it may help to practice with the support of a teacher or group.).

* Ask for and be receptive to intuitive guidance through meditation, dreams, writing, and daily life. Pay attention to whatever arises no matter how simple or irrational it seems, including hunches, feelings, inklings, mental images, dreams, and/or synchronicities.

* Ask with the expectation that you will receive guidance. Stay neutral. Try to listen to whatever arises without judgment or mental interference. Let go of fear and wishful thinking.

* Pay attention to how your body feels. Notice first impressions. Inner guidance often expresses itself through mental images, body sensations and responses. Is your belly tightening? Does your heart feel light? Be aware of your personal boundary, of where you begin and end so that you stay centered and in your own space. Over time you will learn to trust your body’s messages and know when something feels right or not.

* Intuition speaks to each person differently. Explore your own intuitive pathway, e.g. body sensations (clairsentience), images (clairvoyance), sounds (clairaudience), direct sense of knowing, telepathy (mental communication), or precognition (perception of future).

* Let yourself experiment; test your intuitive guidance. The more you use your intuitive sense, the easier it is to trust.

Cultivating intuitive clarity takes practice. Learning to trust your intuition and body’s wisdom can be an amazingly powerful and healing journey. To me, one of the most beautiful benefits of listening to intuition is that the more you use this tool, the more available it becomes.

In my work as a professional intuitive, bodyworker and teacher, I have come to believe that intuition is an essential resource for healthy living, one that that can guide us through the unknown and help us reconnect with our true essence or spirit. When there is a willingness to listen deeply  and follow intuition, the possibilities are endless.

Grounding is about being Here. Now. Really being here fully, in this moment. Just as you are. For most of us, this is no small task and takes practice. But I can tell you after practicing and teaching grounding for many years that the rewards are well worth the effort.

Grounding helps you connect with your inner strength; it helps you plug in so that you can listen to and follow your intuition. A strong grounding system also helps keep you healthy, balanced, clear and present.

Grounding is a tool for not getting lost in your thoughts about the future or the past. When you are ungrounded, your energy can plummet or rev up and spin out of control, like an engine idling too high. People and events can easily knock you off your feet. Being ungrounded often makes people feel easily overwhelmed, confused and/or drained. Sound familiar?

These days when so many of us rush around trying to do 10,000 things at once and stress runs high, grounding can calm you down, help you land and return to sanity. Grounding gets you back on your feet. Which helps you make better decisions instead of flying by the seat of your pants.

Like a tree rooting deeply in the earth, strengthening your ground helps plant your feet on earth so you can live life more fully. The grounding practice I teach is a guided meditation that, like all forms of meditation, brings awareness to what is happening in the present moment, in your body.

Here is a little taste: Take a moment to notice what is happening in your body at this moment. How do you feel? Is your breathing shallow? Are you feeling any tension or pain? Can you feel your feet….your belly….your chest rise and fall as you breathe….? Try taking a deep breath in and slowly let it go….Do you feel present as you read or is your mind racing all over the place planning, thinking, analyzing or problem-solving?

Everyone has a their own way to ground. You can ground through meditation using imagery, intention or sensation or just by bringing mindfulness or presence to what you are doing each moment. Some people ground by dancing or singing; others by writing, listening to music or hiking in the woods. Even washing dishes can be grounding if you practice being present and connected with your body.

Ultimately, grounding helps you become more present. As one of my teachers says, “You have to be present to win.” When you practice grounding you are basically showing up, saying yes to life even in the midst of all the ups and downs. For me, grounding is the foundation for all energy healing work because it opens the doorway to your real self/true nature/ Spirit. When you show up, you open to the light of your Being which is always here anyway, only now you get to taste it and feel and know and be that.

“Our true home is in the present moment. To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now. Peace is all around us-in the world and in nature-and within us-in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice.” -Thich Nhat Hanh, Touching Peace

P.S. For those of you who wonder if I practice what I preach: During the three weeks prior to writing this article, my computer crashed, my loaner computer crashed, my internet lines went down, my refrigerator and new dishwasher stopped running, my watch stopped and one of my kids got sick. Let’s just say I got plenty of practice returning to my roots, remembering to breathe and most of all, showing up one moment at a time. Which is all we can do anyway. With gratitude to the healing energies of Mother Earth for being Here too.

A BIGGER TASTE: Basic Grounding Meditation

The following meditation is one way to slow down and ground. First, find a comfortable place to sit and close your eyes. Bring your focus to the bottom of your feet and press them into the floor for 30 seconds (keep your legs uncrossed, which is easier to do if you sit in a chair). Just let your feet rest. Keep your focus on your feet, letting them feel heavy and relaxed. See/sense/feel the earth’s energy moving up through your feet, into your calves, past your knees and into your pelvis.

Now imagine that you have a big taproot extending from the base of your spine deep into the earth as if you were a tree. Imagine your roots reaching deep in the heart of the earth. Let yourself be supported by the earth. Feel the earth’s gravitational pull. Without it, you would fly off the planet. Let any tension in your body or mind move down into the earth through your grounding root. Your grounding root is like a plumbing system that can flush out and release disharmonious or negative energies (to be composted energetically in the earth the same way excess electricity grounds to earth via outlets in our homes). This grounding practice is part of what I call “energy hygiene.” You brush your teeth each day to take care of your teeth. If you ground each day you will be tending to your body/mind/spirit.d follow intuition, the possibilities are endless.