NTM 461: Unveiling the shadow side of the ‘selfless’ mother

Nourishing the Mother

It’s held up as the pinnacle of perfect mothering in our culture, but is it really? Often, what you’re over functioning on, is related to what is intolerable for you to be. The more practiced we can be at examining our subconscious motives ahead of time, the less shock we feel when we get angry. So let’s go on a self-examining journey into the shadow side of the selfless mother.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Nothing is ever completely selfless or altruistic

- Where there’s selfless, there’s selfish

- Where you’re giving you are gaining

- Often shame is attached to focusing on the self, and receiving

- Whatever is unacceptable behaviour for ourselves, we make sure our child doesn’t behave like

- Overfunctioning and hyper-dedication is often a control strategy

- To change the ‘mother-as-selfless’ narrative would undermine our social and patriarchal structures and systems

- Deriving our self-worth from being in service to others

- Examining where over-functioning is a strategy to mask or avoid something

- True empowerment requires self-service and other-service
To explore feminine embodiment, intimacy and relationship in Honey Club with Julie, visit https://julietenner.love/
To explore conscious parenting and inspiring motherhood in Reimagining Motherhood with Bridget, visit https://www.bridgetwood.life/