Category: Nurturing

Deepening Self Nurturing – Developing Connection with Me

~ womeninlivingness

by Emily Billsborough, Wollongbar, Australia

Over the past couple of months I have been developing my relationship with nurturing and what nurturing truly means to me in my life. Each moment is full of different interactions between people, environments and situations. We could put this all down to being part of daily life.

I began to ask myself what happens to me in these moments (daily life) when something that I don’t like occurs, or if I react to my partner, family member, friend, colleague, a stressful situation at work, home, at the shopping centre etc.?

  • Do I feel stressed, angry, sad, overwhelmed, frustrated? Or do I still feel like my amazing, lovely and beautiful self?
  • Do I ever stop throughout the day to feel what is happening and how I feel when experiencing all of these different feelings, activities, relationships and situations?

How do I cope with what has happened if I have had a ‘bad’ day? Continue reading “Deepening Self Nurturing – Developing Connection with Me” →

True Nurturing – The Way I Return to Me

~ womeninlivingness

by Adrienne Ryan, Brisbane, Australia

I went to a presentation for women today hosted by Jenny Ellis and Mary Louise Myers from Universal Medicine. What was shared there about ‘True Nurturing’ inspired me deeply…

Nurturing is something I had begun to invest in by taking time to be attentive to what was needed to support me throughout my day. Before this, I can see how my way of life was designed to waste no time: a 2 minute shower, 5 minute dressed and ready to go, multi-task my way through many things at once, not wasting time painting my nails or spending too much time on my hair or paying too much attention to what to wear on an ‘ordinary’ day, and so on. In all this speedy efficiency there was no quality time, no space for just enjoying being with me – it was all about ‘moving on’, ‘getting things done’, ‘not holding other people up’, or ‘not taking up too much of their time or space’ and certainly not indulging in any perceived self-absorbed frivolous-ness or girlie-ness – these were just big unnecessary, indulgent, time wasters.

But today things are different. I have come to love making time to take my time getting ready for the day, tenderly and lovingly looking after myself, enjoying putting on makeup and clothes that highlight (not hide) my beauty and womanliness. I make time to take my time now, and because I do I get to enjoy the feeling of me – the loveliness that is within me – and I notice that I don’t want to brush this off, dismiss, diminish, play it down, reject or deny my innate preciousness anymore. Instead I want to honour it, embrace it and confirm the truth of it: I am worth TIME.

Today at the Brisbane Women’s Presentation I discovered Continue reading “True Nurturing – The Way I Return to Me” →

Motherhood and Autism – Celebrating A Nurturing Woman

~ womeninlivingness

by Kate Greenaway, Australia

The names in this real life story are not real, but the events and sharing of the challenges and learning along the way are very real. Christina is a 44 year old woman, she is married to Tom who is 46 years old and her partner of some 19 years. They have a 15 year old son, Will. 

At 2 years old, Will was diagnosed by a team of Medical Specialists as having moderate Autism with a severe ‘Global Delay’. Global Delay means that Will is significantly delayed in all aspects of communication and development. This affects his behaviour and interaction with himself, his parents and all that come into contact with him. He requires constant supervision including self care, behaviour development, safety awareness and setting appropriate boundaries, including how to interact and communicate with people generally.

When Will was 18 months old, Christina was aware there was something ‘not right’ with him; when she was told of his condition she thought “Why me, why am I being punished in this way? Haven’t I already suffered enough?”. Amazingly, she let this go pretty quickly as she and Tom realised that Will was a blessing, not a burden or punishment. Continue reading “Motherhood and Autism – Celebrating A Nurturing Woman” →

Today I Sat Down – Nurturing Myself as a Woman

~ womeninlivingness

by Beverley Brown, UK

It was a usual Monday morning and I was getting ready for the day. I noticed I felt a little off as I had my period and it was a little uncomfortable, so this I gently pondered on.

I proceeded to shower, gently washing and drying myself, as part of my morning ritual. I then put on my underwear, which I had felt to warm on the radiator beforehand. This felt amazing and a very loving and nurturing thing to do.

Then came the make-up and hair. I usually stand in the bathroom (the light is better here) for the make-up, or in front of a long mirror at the top of the stairs where the hairdryer, brush and product station is.

Today, due to achy legs and a mild ache in my uterus, I felt to see what it would be like to sit down whilst doing both these tasks. Continue reading “Today I Sat Down – Nurturing Myself as a Woman” →

Nurturing According to My Body’s Rhythm

~ womeninlivingness

I have always understood ‘nurturing’ to be something very lovely and honouring that I do with myself – like having a bath with my favorite essential oils… or a bubble bath and maybe some candles and plenty of space and time to be with myself in a lovely and relaxed way, enjoying the warmth of the water around me.

Recently I went to an Esoteric Women’s Health (EWH) event presented by Natalie Benhayon: it was an inspiring presentation about Nurturing and being aware of the cycles and rhythms in one’s body. Natalie introduced something that I have never before truly heard or understood, even though it may have in the past been mentioned many times: that sometimes a bath with your favourite oils, bubbles or settings etc., may not actually be nurturing. Continue reading “Nurturing According to My Body’s Rhythm” →

Nurturing – What it Really Means

~ womeninlivingness

I recently attended a group presentation for women (and men if they chose to come), where many things were discussed, but one thing I found really potent was; what it means to deeply nurture oneself, and how this may look.

I had heard of the idea of nurturing oneself before, and then basically I had created a list from past experiences of things that were nurturing e.g. having a bath, going to bed early, preparing a loving meal, taking time to get ready for my day, doing my hair or nails, watching a movie etc. Where I had gone wrong with this was: I saw times when I needed to deeply nurture myself because I had a bad day and required some support to come back to myself, or alternatively if I had had a brilliant day and wanted to do something nurturing to confirm this feeling. When I had felt these times arise, I would have gone to the mental list I had created in my head and just performed one of these activities without really feeling if that was what would support me in the confirming / coming back to me process. And if I had not felt like doing anything on my so-called ‘self-nurturing’ list, I would almost berate myself for not caring or wanting to support myself. Continue reading “Nurturing – What it Really Means” →

My Hot Date

~ womeninlivingness

About a year ago it became very clear that I needed to upgrade my bed mattress and my couch. There wasn’t anything structurally or practically wrong with them, but over the last few years I had let go of a lot of hardness in my body, so both my mattress and couch now felt too hard and it was clear that it was time to step up to the next level of love that my body was calling out for.

Now, I was raised in a family that didn’t have much money and so we had very little to spend on ourselves. Watching my father was how I learnt to unashamedly bargain, so in later years when I wanted to be frugal with my money, that was easy for me. So growing up and spending money on things for me was quite new.

In my 20’s I was mad on game shows and did quite well, winning lots of great prizes. The $5,000 worth of Stanley Rogers cutlery sets was one of them that sat in my cupboard for over 10 years, because in my eyes they were just too good and expensive for my house rental. But then one day I began to question… was I not equally as precious? And finally about 2 years ago, out they came to grace my cutlery draw. Continue reading “My Hot Date” →

Nature versus Nurture – A Loving Perspective

~ womeninlivingness

by Sarah C. London, UK

In the middle of my media career I felt that I wasn’t ‘contributing’ at all to the world and decided to take up part-time study for a Diploma in Childcare. The childcare industry’s definition of nurturing is “something that comes from outside the child, personal experiences / environment”.

Definition of Nurturing:

  1. Care for and encourage the growth or development of.
  2. Cherish (a hope, belief, or ambition).
  3. To feed, nourish (Middle French Origin 1300-50).

In the “Nature versus Nurture” study within childcare, Nature is referred to as “the individual’s innate qualities, hereditary”. These two factors are considered to be the core of caring for a child. At no point during this time did I feel that these qualities of caring, cherishing or nourishing ever applied to me. Continue reading “Nature versus Nurture – A Loving Perspective” →

Self-Worth and Nurturing: How One Leads to the Other

~ womeninlivingness ~ 1 Comment

by Victoria Lister, Brisbane, Australia

Recently I attended a meeting of a group of women who regularly get together to discuss issues that arise in our daily lives. It was a beautiful chance to catch up with friends and re-cap on all we’ve covered so far. During the meeting, I found myself drawn to a very simple, yet key, aspect of our latest get-together – nurturing – and how we can all go deeper, and what that truly entails.

Simply, it was presented to us that although we have all come a long way in terms of developing a more nurturing connection with ourselves as women, we can all go much further by looking at what this means for us personally, and how we might develop simple routines and techniques we can use to support us in our daily lives.

Many of us could feel the truth of this, with several women commenting on the things they have found (or suspected) prevent them from being truly nurturing towards themselves. One woman linked it to a lack of self-worth, with the premise that we cannot truly nurture ourselves if we don’t believe it is worth giving that time, attention and loving support to ourselves. Continue reading “Self-Worth and Nurturing: How One Leads to the Other” →

Returning to Tenderness

~ womeninlivingness

After a life of tennis training, drug taking and ‘Do-It-Yourself’ in overdrive, practitioner Mary-Louise Myers shares how she eventually came to find a truly tender way of being with herself.

by Mary-Louise Myers

I was a gorgeous little girl who started playing competitive tennis at seven to win my father’s attention: each time I won a match he would pat me on my head and say, “well done, little one!” (I don’t think he could remember my name!). That was my way of getting the attention I was craving for. I was Victorian junior champion at a young age and continued to spend all my younger years training or playing in tennis tournaments around Victoria. As I reached teenage years I realised that I did not even enjoy playing tennis. I now know that I only did it for recognition and acceptance.

I gave it all up and started down a path of anorexia and bulimia. My father was obsessed with his own weight and his family’s. My sister was given diet books at around the age of 13, mind you, looking back she was simply going through a chubby stage and I was championed for being skinny. From a young age there was a lot of emphasis on how you looked, not your being. (Please note I am not in any way, shape or form blaming my parents; they were good people who did the best they could.) Continue reading “Returning to Tenderness” →