Tag Archives: mama spirit

Birthing Your Dream through Visioning

I create vision pages in chunks. When I participate in one of Hannah’s programs, I find myself catching up with 10 prompts in one night, scraps of paper flying, recycling bag filling, as I rip, cut, glue, repeat. Again and again. And then, when I stop to take a breath hours later and look back at what I’ve done, I’m in awe.

Sometimes it’s a few days later, sometimes a few months, that the messages on the pages begin to have meaning for me. During the recent intense full moon energy (did you feel it?), I didn’t know what the messages coming across meant. At one point I did something unusual for me – I pulled off some words that I had glued down. Suddenly, they didn’t feel right.

The next day the energy was still with me, and two more pages came out, in black and white, and they terrified me. I’ve kept them open on my desk. As I shared with friends my fear in these words, they helped me peel back the layers so I could begin to uncover the meaning. I was scared because of what I thought they could mean. Then I opened up and accepted what they did mean.

“Look, it’s hard to let go, take the leap…”

And just like that, I hired an amazing virtual assistant (who I know in real life) to help me with parts of my business that drain me so I could let them go.

“The making of magic, search for excellence…”

And then I had a conversation with an incredible woman who has worked in the infertility field for 30+ years (and probably held me in the NICU when I was born) and we are meeting for lunch to discuss how we can work together to support women during this incredibly intense time.

“Authentic life, designed by you.”

Another women signed up to work with me and I was so aware of how freeing it feels to get to create my own schedule and work with women who are ready to do what it takes to see their dreams fulfilled.

This all came just from the last two pages, black and white, from a couple of days ago.

I’ve been so enthralled with these pages that I have barely begun to comb over the 16 pages that led to this. Well, except for my favorite. Here’s C.C.:

And here’s one that I created a while ago for you but finally glued down the other night:

When we open ourselves up to the process of visioning, we get to imagine and begin to create the life we want to be living. We get to breathe life into our dreams.

The soulwork around visioning is an incredibly powerful place to start your journey (or the next leg of your journey) because you get to throw out all of your preconceived ideas, what you think you should be doing or thinking or feeling, what others think you should be doing or thinking or feeling, and you get to play. You get to step into that place of possibility and say this is what I want. You get to claim it.

When we gather for the Creating Fertile Ground Circle at the beginning of June, our first month will be all about stepping into the vision. From there, we’ll get to explore how to bring that vision to life, bit by bit, as we explore deeper each month.

Visioning will continue throughout the 6 months because there are always new messages, new layers to uncover and explore.

If you are ready to begin to breathe life into your dreams, if you’re curious about what creating a vision for your future can help your manifest, I encourage you to join us for the Circle.

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

What the Process of Growing a Business Has Taught Me about Preparing to Grow a Baby

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When I started Womb to World Wellness in 2011, I already knew the feeling of desire very well, as I had experienced it through the desire for a baby. I learned a lot along that journey, but sometimes we need to learn lessons more than once before we can fully begin to integrate them into our lives. As I open the Creating Fertile Ground Circle, some of that vulnerability comes back for me, and I wanted to share that with you today.

This is not the first time I have launched a group program. I have now run a few successful programs (my favorite until now being Growing with Gratitude), but back in 2012 I tried for the first time, and what felt then like failure left me feeling raw and unsure of myself.

I had just run I Want One (or another one) for the first time, and it was amazing. More women than I had expected joined me for that week of gentle emails, welcoming them to see what this journey could be like. I was excited at the idea of having some of them join me as we dove deeper into that content, exploring and beginning to flesh out how they could start creating these changes with ease. So I opened registration, spread the word, and waited. Crickets. Nothing. Nada. And as quickly as my excitement had risen, it deflated.

I questioned myself, I questioned the work I was doing, I questioned my business, and I looked for new paths to travel. I ran a couple of programs geared towards mamas instead of those dreaming about becoming mamas, and while they were well received, they didn’t light me up like this preconception work does.

As I just shared with my mastermind group, “we drive ourselves crazy with expectations.” This is true whether our expectations are about our businesses, our future babies, or simply our daily lives.

Everything shifted for me when I surrendered, released the expectations and let myself be guided by my passion.

Surrender means to cease resistance. Do you often find yourself fighting, struggling, and working what feels like too hard to reach your dream? That is the resistance, and I can promise you that most of the time it will keep you stuck. When you surrender to what is, you gain a clearer vision of what is possible, what needs to happen to get you unstuck and moving with flow towards your dream.

Releasing expectations means to open up and let go. Let go for a moment of what you expect this journey to look like. Let go for a moment of what others expect of you. Open up to understanding that your path is unfolding as it is for some reason. It might suck. It might hurt like hell. It might make you question what you’re doing right or wrong. And I’m sorry if you’re feeling that – I know those feelings too. It is about trust.

Being guided by your passion means focusing your energy on what makes you thrive. When you create the space to fill your life with what lights you up, what brings you joy, and what brings you happiness, you create an energy about you that attracts what you most desire, because you are in flow.

It was awful when I put myself out there 2 years ago and heard crickets, but you know what? I wasn’t ready like I am now.

I wasn’t ready like I am now to hold space for those women.

I wasn’t ready like I am now to run a program that feels completely in flow.

I wasn’t ready like I am now to surrender to the process.

I wasn’t ready like I am now to release the expectations and enjoy the journey.

I wasn’t really like I am now to trust in my passion and let it guide me.

I just spent a day at a mini-retreat, creating much of the content for the Creating Fertile Ground Circle, and let me tell you, it’s nothing like I could have created two years ago. And I’m so excited that you’re here with me now to have the chance to experience it.

I know now that the women who are meant to Circle together in this group will be drawn to it and know that it is what is the right next step for them. If you are one of them, I look forward to connecting with you more deeply soon! You can learn more and join us here.

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

What To Do When Your Fertile Energy is Feeling Stuck

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I am so excited to be bringing a new feature to this space!

Sometimes I get questions from women that I know they are not alone in wondering about, and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to share some of those questions and answers with you.

If you’ve got a question that you’d like to hear me answer, whether it’s about your own journey or you’d like to know more about my journey, please send an email to xandra at wombtoworldwellness dot com with the subject line I’ve got a question for you, and you might see it featured here!

Please join the conversation by leaving a comment below after you watch today’s video.

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

Shifting into Trust for a Healthy and Empowered Conception and Pregnancy

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I’ve shared 4 keys to empowered conception and pregnancy with you this week – toxins, food and nourishment, relationships and communication, and self care and stress reduction. Trust holds all of this together. We’ll be exploring all of these more deeply next week during the Creating Fertile Ground Virtual Conference, but for now, let’s explore trust.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I strive to come from a place of love and not fear, but let’s talk for a minute about what can happen when you don’t have trust.

You doubt the choices you make, sending you into an anxious tailspin.

You lose confidence in your ability to have what you want.

You fall back into old habits that keep you from moving forward.

You give up your power and hand it over to others.

You regret shifting out of alignment with your core values.

When you take the time and do the work necessary to cultivate trust, firstly in yourself and then in others, you can create an environment for the experience that you want, even if things don’t go according to plan.

With the foundation of trust,

You know what you want and take action to making it happen.

Your surround yourself with people who will support you in your choices.

You learn from your old habits as they remind you why you are moving forward.

You excavate a deeper power than you may have known you had.

You live in alignment with your authentic self, creating what you most desire.

When you create a strong foundation of trust, all of these other pieces fall into place because you know you can do it. If you doubt in your ability to follow through, you will continue to fall short of your dreams. When you can step into your place of power and fully trust, then the magic happens….

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

Why Self Care Matters for Conception, Pregnancy and Motherhood

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it, because we all need the reminder quite regularly – it all starts with you.

You are the foundation for your family.

So many of us give give give yet we struggle with the idea of being open to receiving.

The energy of creating life calls for a receptive energy. It is a space of surrender, of trust, of pure love. If you have given all you have to give and have nothing left, there is no energy left for creation.

By not taking care of yourself, by refusing to treat yourself as sacred ground in which to plant the seed of life, you send a message that you are not deserving of this care, and that you are not open to receiving more.

The greatest disservice we can do to our family, current and future, is to consider self care to be selfish. It is the opposite. If we do not carve out the time to take care of ourselves, we become overwhelmed, overstressed, resentful, and often we make ourselves physically sick because it is the only way our body can get the message across that we need to slow down.

In The Gift of the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes, “For the most part, we, who could choose simplicity, choose complication.”

Let’s choose simplicity with self-care.

Self-care is about carving out space just for you.
Self-care can be as simple as slow, deep breathing.
Self-care can take moments or hours; it is timeless.
Self-care has no right or wrong.
Self-care is an act of self-empowerment.

I encourage you to think about who you want to be as you prepare to step into the role of mama.

Do you want to be the woman who constantly feels like you’re falling apart, like you have to add one more thing to your list constantly but that you’re always at the bottom of it, and you’re growing resentful?

Or do you want to be the woman who has the energy to be fully present and joy-filled with your family, knowing can find gratitude within the small moments, and who can model the importance of caring for yourself for your children?

The choice is yours.

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

Why Now is the Time to Create Fertile Ground

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When we are struggling to conceive, we show up in fear and we talk about it.

When we take that test and discover that there is a being growing inside of us, we wonder what we ‘should’ be doing or what we ‘should’ have been doing, and we talk about it.

When we feel the desire growing so strongly in us for this role of mama, but we’re paralyzed by whens and ifs and all of the potential fears, we keep it inside.

It’s time for this to change.

We, as women, have a power deep inside. I like to call it mama spirit and I believe it is never too early (or too late!) to begin nurturing and nourishing this part of ourselves.

She is our essence, full of creative capacity, and until we take divine care of her, she’s not at her best and strongest self.

This conference, this gathering of women, is just a small part of a much larger vision. It is a way to start the dialogue, to let women know that it is amazing to have this desire to be a mama and to show them how they can step into this role right now.

It is not enough to go to your doctor and say, “We’re thinking about start a family, what should we do?”

It is not enough to secretly harbor this desire as you take steps to grow your mama spirit (I did this, and I deeply felt that lack of much needed support and community).

It is not enough to say “this is a future dream, so I’ll just shut down this desire for now.”

I want you to fully awaken your desires.

I want you to begin taking steps on this beautiful journey right now.

I want you to feel empowerment and authenticity radiate through you.

I want all of this in service to your and to your future baby.

In the years that I’ve been growing my practice, I’ve heard two main things:
– Women before they conceive? That is a hard group to find!
– And from mamas, I wish I’d know about you when…

So here I am, calling you forth. Step into this dream now, claim it as yours. Know that this conference is a gift straight from my heart to you.

We can’t wait for others to call the shots, to tell us what we need to know and do. We need to find what we are searching for and dive in, heart first.

If the idea of your future baby is in your heart and on your mind, welcome to the path that will help guide you to your little one.

Ready to take that next step? We’re waiting for you here.

Next week, I’ll be sharing with you why the five topics that we’ll be covering are, to me, the foundational pieces of this journey.

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

Creating Sacred Space

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My home is sacred space. Taking care of my home is an extension of taking care of myself. When my home feels out of balanced, cluttered, and visibly like it’s not receiving the care it deserves, I know that is a reflection of myself. This is tricky for someone who has wanted to tackle clutter for a long time. I am getting there – in my home, on my computer (oh the files!) and in my mind and heart. I am so incredibly aware of how they intertwine.

There are times when I move furniture around, and warn my husband so he doesn’t hurt himself or go into shock when he gets home. The last move was just a couple of tables, but the time before that was moving some big pieces of furniture between rooms. It’s what I do. It’s part of how I shift the energy and create space for what I most need.

But I don’t always have the time or desire to go big when it comes to cleaning and moving things around in my home. Sometimes, even if I wish I could wave a magic wand and have our home look like the sacred space that I know it is, I have to be content to start small.

There is magic is starting small.

There is magic in picking one small space and knowing that you have made it what you want it to be.

There is magic in creating a part of your home that is free of clutter and that fully reflects what you want.

There is magic in creating little altars throughout your home, spaces that bring forth love, peace, and calm even amidst a larger mess.

Last night I chose one small space.

It never ceases to amaze me how filled with junk our medicine cabinets get even when I think I’m staying on top of them.

Today, I chose another small space. Granted, all it took to create this space was removing one misplaced item from the shelf, but look at the magic!!

When you create a calm and sacred environment for you to live in, you begin to feel the calm and sacred within, and that is a beautiful act of self-care.

What is one space in your home that you can make sacred today? Share with us in the comments below.

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

Is this what’s blocking your fertility and creative power?

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Happiness and bliss come in many forms. For me, one of them is snow. I got giddy when I saw the first few snowflakes fall on Sunday and I had no idea that it was going to turn into 4-6 inches. Talk about blissful! Another thing that brings me happiness is sharing information with you that can shift your life and boost your fertility. I’m sharing some of that in today’s newsletter. If it triggers you, I encourage you to keep reading, and if you’re really brave, to schedule some time to talk to me about it!

Recently, I read an article by Chris Brogan where he talked about the difference between spending and investing. Here’s part of what he had to say:

“You spend on what gets spent. You invest on what develops into even more value.”

This is a distinction that many people often miss, especially when it comes to our health and well being. Spending can actually come more easily, because it has become so ingrained in our nature. Even when we feel like we need to keep a close eye on where our money is going, we spend on things like coffee and candy bars, things that are actually often detrimental to our future well being.

So why does investment feel harder to do? Investing in yourself is a deep act of self care and a stretch because it can be scary – it means change, it means growth, it means letting go of what isn’t working and shifting to ideas that do work. (tweet this)

Now all of that sounds good, but many people feel more comfortable living within their comfort zones. When it’s what you know, it can feel safe, even if it’s causing you pain and suffering.

So what does all of this talk about spending and investing have to do with fertility?

Your second chakra (located about an inch below your belly button) is associated with fertility, the uterus, the ovaries and with finances and person power! It’s also associated with the color orange.

When you have blocks around money, you are often also blocking your personal power and fertility. To me, this makes a lot of sense because when we feel like we can’t invest in ourselves (even if we know that’s what it takes to pull us out of a rut), we keep feeling stuck. When we experience that stuck and stagnant energy, it’s no surprise that our creative and reproductive energy is dampened. We’re not in the flow of creation.

So how can you strengthen your second chakra, learn to feel comfortable investing in yourself, and boost your fertility all at the same time?

Practice Malasana – This was my favorite yoga pose when I was pregnant because I felt like it gave me such a sense of power. Squats are known to strengthen the second chakra so it’s a perfect act of self-care to spend some time here.

Drink water – Water is associated with the second chakra, representing flow and movement. Make sure that you are drinking plenty of water (add a little lemon or opt for coconut water if it’s not your favorite thing to drink on it’s own).

Create a vision board of personal power – Tap into your creativity by making a visual representation of your personal power. This can get your creative juices flowing and help you to focus on what feels powerful and blissful to you.

Invest in yourself – Stretch yourself out of your comfort zone and reach out for support, knowing that this is not spending but investing, in yourself and the future of your family. Bringing together finances, fertility, and personal power in one action can melt barriers that once felt like impenetrable walls.

If you’re wondering what investing in yourself can look like, here’s what a client had to say about our time together:

“Initially I couldn’t even talk about wanting to have a baby; by the time we were nearing the end of our work, I was actively trying to get pregnant. That’s a huge leap for me.”

I hope this helps you to see in a new light something that you can be doing to increase your fertility, whether you are still dreaming of baby or actively trying.

And if you’re ready to step out of that comfort zone and have a hand to hold and support you as you do, know that I’m here for you. If you’re curious about what that looks like, I encourage you to sign up for one of the remaining Creating Fertile Ground Strategy Sessions this year.

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

What Are Your Assumptions Doing to You?

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I’m sitting outside – warm sun, cool breeze.

I’m drinking tropical green tea.

I’m thinking about assumptions.

I recently noticed that we go through our days making constant assumptions. I see this in my interactions with others all the time.

Often these assumptions are about other people, but the ones that might matter even more are the ones we hold about ourselves.

Sometimes these assumptions are positive (yoga class will make me feel great), but more commonly they are negative.

Becoming aware of the assumptions you make is the first step in uncovering an important piece of information – are they true?

I promise this will fascinate you! You’ll be mid-thought and realize that what you’re thinking might not be based on any known truth. Or you’ll realize after doing something that you thought you couldn’t do, that you really can (this happens to me in yoga all the time!).

Here’s why assumptions matter: they hurt ourselves and others, and they hold us back. (tweet this)

Let’s flip some common negative assumptions and see what opens up for you.

You assume what you’re capable of achieving.

In doing so, you limit yourself by putting a cap on your dreams, desires, and self-worth.

Believe that you are capable of anything.

You assume what your body can handle.

In doing so, you suppress your natural power.

Believe that your body is strong.

You assume what others think of you.

In doing so, you give away control of your identity to others.

Believe that others see the best in you.

You assume the worst of yourself.

In doing so, you dampen the light of your spirit.

Believe that you are on your journey to becoming your best self.

Think for a moment about all of the assumptions that have become engrained in who you are. How would you feel if you could release them? How would you feel if you could find the positive flip side?

When you hold in your heart the positive ability that you have in your life, you open yourself up for an empowered experience.

When you believe that you are capable of anything, your world opens up to possibility and you begin to stretch yourself and reach out for the support needed to reach and surpass your dreams.

When you believe that your body is strong, you push it to be stronger, you take deeper care of yourself, and you embody that feeling of strength.

When you believe that others see the best in you, you attract people into your life who are supportive and loving.

When you believe that you are on your journey to becoming your best self, you can begin to take the steps to evolve into who you most wish to be.

So what assumption about yourself are you ready to release? Please share with us in the comments below! There is so much power in voicing these feelings and coming together in community.

Peace, Love, and Wellness,

Hey Mamas, Are You Ready to Win the Summer of Your Dreams?

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Does this happen to you? Summer arrives and you create all sorts of ambitious summer plans and lofty ideas about everything you want to do for yourself — things you want to get done around the house, exercise plans, cooking and baking ideas, maybe even something crafty. You have a pile of books you want to read. You want to learn to paint, or meditate, or write in your journal daily.

Then it is suddenly the end of August and you realize you’ve spent your summer running around like crazy, meeting the needs of your kids, and you stand there scratching your head shouting : WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SUMMER??

My friend Kelly Dahl created the Fulfill Your Summer e-course to help you make sure that this doesn’t happen to you this year.

The Fulfill Your Summer e-course is a 3 week online experience to help you claim your summer for yourself.

Filled with journal prompts, reflections, activities, and videos, Fulfill Your Summer will help you create a summer with room for your desires. Check out this video she made for the e-course when she ran it last summer:

To help create your summer to remember, Kelly is giving me the chance to gift a spot in her course. And, if you don’t win? The e-course is pay-what-you-can, which means there is room for every summer budget.

Summer is right around the corner. You deserve to create one that you will remember for years to come.
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Good luck!

Peace, Love, and Wellness,