Ecstatic Goddess Transformation

4 of my girlfriends and I ~ all health conscious mamas and bloggers ~ share an uncommon addiction.  We all LOVE goal setting and establishing new healthy disciplines into our daily lives to embody our Inner Ecstatic Goddess in ever greater ways!  Every time one of us goes on about some new life upgrade we're into, the rest of us are lit up and jumping in with our own versions.  We must discover, just HOW awesome can life possibly get?!

Kristen posted one of her versions a while back, and Lauren just wrote about her most recent aspirations.  Of course, now I'm lit up and ready to write my own!  So here they are, my most current transformational disciplines!


Ecstatic Foods

• Daily super herbal elixirs with my favorite nutrient-rich superfoods, raw plant-based protein powder, and jing-building tonic herbs.  

• Daily green veggies (preferably wild-harvested or home-grown), fermented food, plenty of protein rich seeds, seaweeds and algaes

• Minimal amounts of glycemic sweets (mostly use stevia & xylitol for now)

• More spring water, in the morning and throughout the day

I do all of this already, so this isn't a huge shift, just some intuitive tweaking in the direction of increasing my intake of tonic herbs, greens, wild foods and ferments... foods that definitely take me further into ecstatic realms!

For the past few months I have also been laying off the sweets almost entirely, for some deeper healing.  After years of an extremely unbalanced high-sweet-fruit diet (many years ago), I lost interest in store-bought, mono-cropped sweet fruits, and switched to local raw honey as my main sweet food.  I've been re-balancing even further lately, by only occasionally eating honey, and enjoying more foods that are rich in protein, healthy fats, and minerals.

I am also focused on building my blood right now, currently using a food-based iron/B-12 supplement (and a couple of powerful Chinese yin jing tonic herbs), inspired by a recent realization that I've had varying levels of anemia for the past 16 years.  I have a whole plan for strengthening my blood to levels I have yet to EVER experience, and I'm very excited about the effects this will have (and already is having) on every part of my life!


Ecstatic Movement

I feel best when I enjoy some form of ecstatic movement (joyful exercise) daily. Variety works great for me.  My favorites are:

• Ecstatic Dance.  I love going to group ecstatic dances, and for a more consistent dancing fix, my absolute favorite exercise ever is being outside by myself at night, with headphones, dancing myself into another dimension to energetic and uplifting music.  This is something I used to do every night for years, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning.  I re-discovered this greatest-of-pleasures just a few days ago, and afterward felt so ridiculously amazing that I was floored I had forgotten it for so long!  It is truly a Divine Worship practice for me.

• Long walks.  Another thing I did every day for many, many years.  It's my moving meditation, therapy, and creative inspiration.  After my son was born, I did my best to maintain this practice somewhat regularly, by putting him into a carrier and walking with him on my back or front.  My daily walks fell away at some point, and when I added them back in, I had some immediate serious upgrades in my daily mood and well-being.

• Strength building.  Besides yoga, this has yet to be a consistent practice for me at any point in my life, so I still kind of feel like a newbie in this area.  I've done enough sporadic experimentation to have developed some familiarity with various exercises and their effects, so I am slowly adding them in with more regularity and building my confidence.  I desire to discover how being physically stronger than ever will affect me in all areas of my life.  Will keep you updated! :)

Nature Connection & Earth Skills

For the past few years, I've had a major interest in changing my lifestyle and adapting my body and mind to feel really comfortable in nature.  This has included developing skill and confidence in gardening, growing fruit and nut trees, foraging wild edible & useful plants, walking barefoot on a variety of terrains, building my nerve force by consciously increasing my tolerance to temperature extremes (like hot & cold weather and water), and fine-tuning my ability to observe and be aware of nature's subtle messages (which all wild animals are acutely aware of).

I have come a long way.  My interest in these skills is mainly because I find nature to be far more inspiring and aesthetically pleasing than the man-made world, and I desire to reduce my dependency on all the intricately intertwined aspects of "the system" (consumerism, slave labor, government, currencies, climate-controlled boxes, modern entertainment, and the like).  This has resulted in a slowly shifting self-identity... feeling I am "in the (man-made) world, but not of it", and able to feel myself as originating from and being home in nature (God's creation).  This brings deep peace to my soul, and I long to go deeper.

So this continues to be an essential area of self-improvement for me.

• Connect daily with the seasonal wild edibles of whatever area I'm in, by eating them.  Currently it's the young spring greens like chickweed, dock (the short time window when dock actually tastes good raw!), wild lettuce, dandelion, henbit, and plenty more. Also enjoying wild edibles I have previously harvested and preserved.. right now that includes sumac berries, dried horsetail, vitex & pine pollen tinctures, pecans, lotus nuts, and some tea herbs like fennel & bee balm.  Continue learning more about edible and useful wild plants.

• Continue strengthening my nerve force by enjoying temperature extremes.  In Mount Shasta, this meant taking daily walks in the snowy cold, doing occasional "snow plunges" (rolling in the snow in my swimsuit!), and dipping in cold rivers and lakes!  During my current Texas visit, it will mainly involve being outside during the wild weather fluctuations of the winters here.  In a very short time, it can often go through cold, rainy, warm, balmy, windy, and more.  Good for adaptability practice!

• Plant gardens everywhere I go.  The more I do it, the more nuances I learn, and the easier it gets.  This morning I scrounged up some starter pots and dirt, and planted kale and radish seeds.  We'll be here just long enough to enjoy eating them.  Then we'll go somewhere else and plant another garden!

Thank you, Lauren, for inspiring me to share my current practices with my world!  And thank you Debbie, Joanna & Kristen for being my amazing friends and enthusiastic transformation partners!

Anyone else up for some Ecstatic Transformation?!  Share your current aspirations, and what you're doing about them, below, or post a link!

Holy Manifestation!

For most of my life, starting around adolescence, I have been aware to varying degrees that I can create things and situations into my real life from my inner thoughts and feelings.  This awareness was part of how I was raised by my parents, although it was never reliable for me, nor did I believe I was very good at it (except for at seemingly random moments).   At many points throughout my life, I have lost faith in this idea and stopped believing it was a reliable or even possible way to reach my goals, which was always reflected by a decrease in easy manifestation and an increase in frustration and the appearance that I was only able to achieve things by some kind of hard-won struggle, and even then the seeming achievement would often have a way of slipping out of my life soon after.

Gradually, on my path of increasing awareness and awakening to my own inner power, my intuition has consistently steered me towards the "we can create our reality" idea as having deep truth to it, so I have again opened to it, this time slowly and cautiously (aware of a residual inner hurt/fear of being "let down" by the idea) over the past several years.   My logical mind has examined the potential validity of my intuition's attraction to this idea often, and has reported back to me many times (each time with a fuller understanding) that it is, indeed, the way things must be, all things considered (and with a lot of underlying complexities that I didn't understand at first).  I have moved gradually from my initial teenage enthusiasm of "I can create anything I think about!" to the understanding that our creations originate not so much from the thoughts we WANT to think, but our overall vibrational "emanation", which we can actually affect and change at a core level through various means and a sincere desire for transformation.

The reason I am inspired to write this post is because I have been DELIGHTED lately by the ease in which I have been manifesting!  I was just today thinking of all the things I have manifested in the past month, just from having a thought of it, being able to easily imagine having it, and being completely open to the means in which it comes into my life.  In the past month, most of these things have been GIVEN to me, at a seemingly random moment, most of them without the person having any idea I desired them, soon after I had enjoyed imagining having them in my life:

• The Body Ecology Diet book ... it was on a bookshelf in the house we're subletting right now, so I got to read it again, absorb and implement what I desired from it, and then put it back, instead of having to add a new possession to our intentionally minimalist travel setup, which is even better than owning it for me!  So... this one manifested in a way even more aligned with what is right for me than I had initially imagined
• A laptop computer
• Awesome yoga pants
• Jojoba oil
• Bags of superfoods (ones I have been specifically desiring)
• A high-definition video camera

There are more, but these are enough to illustrate my point.  Even more important than these things, I often manifest outer information and guidance that helps me upgrade my life, appearing in response to specific sincere desires for clarity about something.  I have been contemplating the reasons why my manifestation ability has strengthened lately, and I have come up with a few things.

Top 4 Tips for Manifesting Your Desires (in my experience)

1.  A Playful Attitude

2.  Openness to the WAY the thing comes into our lives

3.  Practice & Momentum
4.  Clarity of Life Purpose

A playful attitude.  This one seems so consistently important.  Anytime we're in "survival mode" and trying to manifest something we seem to need right now, our true creative power is stalled.  Survival mode and Creation mode are mutually exclusive.  The only way I've found to manifest things that I feel stressed about "needing by a certain time", is to first accept the possibility of NOT having it by my mind's "deadline" (a funny term that's very revealing) and realize that it won't be the end of the world, relax about it, then start to PLAY with having and enjoying it in my imagination until I feel the excitement of actually having it.  Sometimes I can do this better than at other times... and if I can't seem to get from survival to creation in that particular moment, the best thing to do is get my mind off of it completely by focusing on something else that's enjoyable and fulfilling for me, and letting it come back into my awareness later when I feel more ready to deal with it in a more relaxed place.

Openness to the WAY the thing comes into our lives.  So often, we feel that to have a thing or be in a situation we desire, there are very few ways it can come into our lives.  Cultural programming seems responsible for these beliefs.  For example, we often think the only way we can have a certain thing is by using money to buy it.  Or, the only way to be in a situation we desire is to go through a certain series of steps that we've been taught are essential to achieving this goal.  The classic modern-day example is:  Go to school -> Get a job -> Have a career -> Buy a house -> Retire and finally enjoy your life and do what you REALLY want to do.   This process is completely unnecessary, and can only seem to be necessary because we believe it, and have narrowed our awareness to not being able to accept any other means to our desired outcome, which in that case would be "enjoy my life and do what I really want to do".   A quick example of this that happened for me just yesterday... I was thinking about my desires for the business Isaac and I are building right now, and how important the medium of video is going to be in getting our message across.  We don't have a video camera, besides the crappy one on our phone.  I noticed a "let down" thought of my ability to buy a video camera being far in the future, then immediately afterward "came to" and expanded my awareness to the WAY a video camera could come into my life, accepting that it may happen much more quickly.  THAT VERY NIGHT, I was talking with my mom on the phone, and briefly mentioned my desire for a video camera, and she immediately offered to GIVE me hers, because her new iPhone has a great camera so she doesn't need her other one anymore!!   I was elated, and AMAZED at how quickly I had manifested something as important as an excellent, high-definition video camera for the business we are building!!

Practice & Momentum.  The importance of this is in gradually developing confidence in our manifestation powers, by proving to ourselves again and again, through real-life experience, that it is indeed possible.  At first, you may have a strong resistance and questioning about whether you can do it at all.  PERSIST.  Do it anyway.  It may take days to start seeing results, or many years.  It doesn't matter, because in my opinion, developing mastery over our power of Creation is one of the primary reasons to live at all.  Once you start actually manifesting things consciously, you will begin noticing a building momentum that increases every time you have another success.  It's just like mastering anything else... it happens gradually, and your confidence in your ability grows through the small successes that come with persistence and dedication.   First, you must believe to see... then you will see what you believe.

Clarity of Life Purpose.  Very recently, I experienced a quickening in my clarity of purpose at this time in my life... meaning, I received a huge influx of inspiration and ideas for what I desire to manifest in my life, with great clarity and specificity.  The level of alignment and enthusiasm I feel for these projects has noticeably heightened my feeling-emanations and the speed and clarity of my thoughts, which has seemed to directly increase my manifestation ability.  It's like the cosmos is noticing that I'm "in the flow" and creating with inspiration, and is supporting my creations in manifesting, supplying me with what I require with ease, so I can continue focusing fully on creating.

I would love to hear about your experience with conscious creation and manifesting your desires!  Please comment below if you have stories to share, questions that are baffling you, or anything to add to the list I made!  We can help each other improve our manifesting powers, for the Good of All!

Resurrection of blog!

Yay, blog resurrection!!   Here begins the new phase of my life, as expressed for all to see.  What was formerly Ecstatic Mothering is now Ecstatic Woman, to more accurately encompass all that I Am.

I type by candlelight, as my family sleeps, in our current house in my favorite town ever, Mount Shasta in California.  I have recently discovered a blissfully new level of quietness by embracing the dark hours of late night and early morning... the silence is so quiet I hear it ring loud, at the end of the daily sound symphony of my son's enthusiastic exclamations of all aspects of life. 

Winter... snow is still piled on the ground from a big snowstorm on the solstice.  I love this new substance, so rare in Texas where I recently lived.  A few mornings after it first fell, it was already piled 3 feet high, and I was so happy that I went to greet it in my swimsuit, falling deep into its fluff and rolling around, meeting my new friend with my bare skin.  If you think coffee is the ideal morning activator of body and mind, I'm guessing you haven't tried this....

The snow does cover the winter wild edible greens I'm used to... so what to do, as a year-round wild edible enthusiast?  Make snowcones, of course!!  A scoop of snow in a glass, a couple shots of homemade Jun or Kombucha, and a quick stir.  Mt Shasta seasonal snowcone special!   I also thought to harvest some pine needles from some of the tall, stately pine trees that cover this land (in a community of firs, spruces, manzanitas, and the occasional redwood) and brew up some tea.  Aromatic, high in vitamin C... and it tastes like Christmas trees! :D

We arrived here in Shasta right before Winter Solstice... the long-anticipated 12-21-2012, galactic alignment, "apocalypse" (originally a Greek word that translates to "a disclosure of knowledge, hidden from humanity in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception") ...  for me, this solstice ended up being a time of new friends, ecstatic celebration, and healing ceremony.  My son fell asleep at the perfect moment for me to jump in to a group healing circle, where I had a grand time discovering that I have a surprising amount of interest, sensitivity and natural ability in reiki-type energy healing.  The super herbal raw chocolate balls I ate beforehand definitely helped with that...  the remainder of my night was filled with vivid dreams and blissful energy surges.

This most recent new moon in Capricorn had quite a noticeable effect on me, as well.  It was like some kind of amazing Goddess had her foot stuck in the door jam of my subconscious for a long time, and finally freed herself and stepped up to run my life for me.  I am now in the midst of a deep life transformation, which has so far resulted in highly increased clarity of direction, a new level of awareness of my creative power, and inspiration to implement new habits that are definitely taking my life up a few levels in awesomeness. 

An ecstatic transformation in the homeland of Saint Germain and the Violet Flame Angels, surrounded by 4 volcanoes...

Do you ever feel energy changes in yourself as the cosmos moves around, and the stars, planets and Sun change their relationship to the Earth (and us)?  Please comment and let me know! 

To whom in you do I speak?

To whom in you do I speak?

When you read my words and they are repeated to you through the perspective of your inner voice, which aspects of your diverse self are being activated and stimulated? Is it your mind.. your rationalizing, comparing, analyzing, justifying mind? Or do I speak to your feelings.. your subtle sense of truth, your quiet inner nudges of divine guidance, with upward surges of elated inspiration and the calmness of contemplation?

I am learning to speak from my feelings, directly to your feelings. Your mind can organize, compare and judge, but it can perceive no truth without the guidance of your feelings. It often steps in to protect us, to defend the position we are temporarily identifying with, against the attacks of "opposing" viewpoints.

I desire to speak in poetry. To rise above the never-ending battlefield of viewpoint opposition, jabbing with swords of right and wrong, weighing and analyzing and studies and proof and convincing. Sometimes I am invited onto the battlefield by a well-intentioned soldier, and my battle strategy is as good as any, better than most. I could forage a lot of powerful weapons to hold my own in the most epic battle of all time.

But I don't have the heart for it. I cannot oppose you. I cannot convince you, win you over to my side, because I don't have a side. My inner world is not constructed of walls, armies, dogmas, evil, and saviors. My inner world is made of laughter, intimacy, togetherness, bridges, and... soaring. Can I even communicate my truth except in poetry? With my words, can I gently take your hand and take you on a vivid, all-encompassing journey into the world of my feelings and imaginings? And can I do this without setting you on guard, triggering defenses raised reactively to your perception of my "opposing" viewpoint? Because... well, sorry, I can't oppose you. But I CAN gaze deeply into your eyes and speak to you in images, if you're ready.

How can I communicate to you that I am not an attachment parent, a raw foodist, a vegan, an unschooler, a purist, a hippie, or a whatever else you may make of me that separates us... how can I communicate that I do not claim ownership of any views that oppose yours, and I am truly battle weary? I am a seasoned strategist, clever with words and concepts, and if I wanted to I could see a dozen moves ahead in any chess-board battle of minds. Sometimes I take the bait and begin to enter the battle, because I still feel so new at communicating in any other way.

But when I step in, I notice the crushing weight of oppression. I notice the tension and blockage in my being, the hard, painful rigidity of defending a position, and I have to step off the battlefield to save my Soul.

The battle is over in my world:  all sides ended up surrendering their positions. It is now just a distant memory of insanity. Now I am simply here in this moment, alone, and always present with every one of you. I desire to know and feel our sameness, our kinship, which I can see in your eyes when we become quiet and still enough to hear the deep hum of the universe itself.

To whom in you do I speak?

Ecstatic Alternatives to Punishment

When I first put the words "ecstatic" and "mothering" together, I did so because there was just something about that combination that resonated with me. I am just now realizing what ecstatic mothering truly means to me, and how it guides my entire experience of parenting (and living).

Ecstatic communion is a state of being we can experience in any relationship with any living being during our lives. It is most commonly felt as the blissful high when we first "fall in love" with a lover... it is like we are transported to another dimension where everything is right and perfect, and the whole world is our playground. Ecstatic communion is characterized by feelings of deep attunement with another being, wordless understanding, a blissful dance of energetic entwinement, and being unspoken allies who are always inspired towards their shared highest good.

Ecstatic communion is my guiding light, my highest aspiration, for all my close relationships, especially my children (since their entire experience of relationship is initially defined by their relationship with me). This type of all-encompassing love is our most cherished desire as living beings... if we are lacking in this, nothing else in existence is good enough to replace it. Helpful hint: we can give this to our own selves too, in fact, we must if we are to truly receive it from another.

I feel sad when I see a parent spank their child, or verbally/emotionally manipulate their child, humiliate them, bribe them, or use any other form of "love withdrawal" to control behavior. My sadness comes not from seeing the spanking/anger/manipulation itself, but because of what it implies: neither the parent nor the child are experiencing the nourishing, blissful state of ecstatic communion with each other. They are experiencing disconnection, frustration, emotional pain and despair, although they may not recognize them to be that because those are such normal feelings for so many. The parent does not understand the child, and is not softening their opinion of what is happening and questioning deeply enough to hope to reach an understanding of their child.

Many parents think their child does not know how to act in the world, and it is their job to show the child how to act, by whatever means necessary, for the child's own good. The end justifies the means. But think... which is more innately perfect, the "ways of the world" (meaning our cultural routines and unquestioned traditions), or your child who just entered the world and looks upon it with pure eyes, and interacts with it with pure, highly sensitive and huge feelings? Your child has not yet created an emotional stone wall between the way they feel about an experience they had, and the way they are told they should feel about it. Hopefully, they will never have to.

Of course, it is beneficial to accept the world as it is, even if there are many things you wish to change. But that does not mean you have to compel your child to conform to the "ways of the world" using stern and angry feelings. You certainly can, and that is okay... but how do you feel when you do that? Is that how you desire to feel?

What I do instead, simply because it inspires my experience of ecstatic communion: I remember that my child is more perfect than the world... and will certainly improve the world by their presence, if their higher-vibrational purity is allowed and encouraged. Then from this place, I am my child's ally, and show him around the world he entered with all its nuances, willing to patiently demonstrate and explain anything he requests a deeper understanding of. Example: I ask myself, is he ready for the responsibility of carrying a glass over a hard floor? If not, all the glasses stay out of his reach, and if he sees me with one and wants it, I explain why I am going to hold it for now, so he becomes familiar with the concept long before I feel he is ready and willing to take on the responsibility of caring for something as fragile as glass. If he throws a fit about it (which is likely, since his desire for experience is so strong), I acknowledge his feelings (usually just with my peaceful, loving presence) and offer him a more appropriate activity to direct his energy into. There are many more examples, some simpler and some more complex in their most harmonious approaches. But examples aren't necessary if you let ecstatic communion be your guide.

If you desire to experience more ecstatic communion in your relationship with your child, here are some aspects of ecstasy consciousness I value the most:

Be in Your Bliss, All-Ways. Live for yourself, not for your child. You can't be centered in someone else... so be self-centered. If you ever feel depressed, lonely, exhausted, irritable, etc... it means you are not doing what you are meant to be doing at that moment. This is of such vital importance to parenting. Your child looks to you for their primary example of HOW TO LIVE. Would you rather them see you enthusiastic about each day and all the amazing things in your life... or trudging along and living your life for someone else, mood swings and all? You know what it is that fills you with life. If you are feeling unfulfilled, ask yourself, "if I could do anything right now, what would it be?" ... then consider how you can restructure your life to bring you more of this element, and all others that inspire you. Your child will see that life is grand and beautiful, and that it is to be lived fully and with appreciation.

If you feel anger or frustration about your child behaving differently than you desire, immediately assume that the core of what initiated their behavior was a desire for something good, important and essential. Even if you don't know what it is at first (sometimes it is buried deep under a seemingly unrelated behavior), knowing that their core, hidden desire was for something beneficial, will change the way you respond to them, and you are more likely to seek harmonious resolution, express acceptance and loving kindness, and return more quickly to ecstatic communion with them. Extend this same assumption to yourself whenever you feel moody or "act out", and you will experience so much more self-love and self-understanding.

If you happen to find yourself in a state where your stress threshold is near its tipping point (most of us have been there at some point... always a result of not being in our Bliss at that moment), and your child just triggered you, and you have an urge to yell or hit something, this is an important moment where much learning can occur. You can turn around and yell away from your child, and/or hit a pillow or the floor, or something similar... and your child will see that it is not about them, it's about you. They will learn that strong emotion, when it is OWNED (rather than projected onto another with anger or blame), is a powerful energy capable of great benefit. They need to see how to handle strong emotion, since they have so much of it that is seemingly out of their control when they are young. After you vent some and are feeling a little calmer, sit down next to them (so you are at their "level"), make eye contact, and talk to them about your feelings. For example, "I feel so angry right now, because you are doing this thing and I have yet to find a way to influence you in the way I desire. I feel sad because it seems like you haven't been listening to me, and I desire to be heard! How can we strengthen our communication so you can understand what I desire? I realize I have also been feeling sad lately because I haven't been with my friends as often as I desire... let's plan a time where we can be with friends soon" etc... let all the passion you feel, your desire for illumination, come through your voice with authenticity. This is MUCH more beneficial than either suppressing your feelings, or projecting angry opinions towards them. This way, you are acknowledging that your anger is a personal transformative energy, and you are up for the challenge of transforming in the heat of that moment. Then an experience that was seemingly just stressful and frustrating becomes a very powerful learning experience for both of you!

The Magic of Expectation: A Story

A couple weeks ago, Cedar and I were "reading" a book that he loves, Evie's Kitchen by Shazzie (totally awesome book, btw, about raising ecstatic children!). He loves to look at the pictures, and asks me to read the words and tell him the letters. Anyway, on the back cover of the book is a picture of Evie, probably as a 3 or 4-year old. Blue butterflies are photoshopped around her in the picture, and one butterfly appears to be in her hair, on the left side above her ear. Cedar loves pointing at her and saying "E-bee", and pointing at the butterfly and saying "buh". So he was doing that, and I said "Cedar, a butterfly landed in Evie's hair!!" ... "Uh-huh!" he said. "Cedar, do you think a butterfly will land in your hair, too?" I asked him. He then gazed off into the distance, like he was imagining something, then a moment later said "Uh-huh", his vocal inflections full of wonder and desire. I said in confirmation, "I think so, too".

A few days, maybe a week, later... we were sitting in my parents' pool room, and I saw a butterfly flying towards us, behind Cedar. It landed in his hair, right above his left ear, in the exact place it is in the picture of Evie. He didn't see it, so I told him "Cedar, there's a butterfly in your hair!!" and pointed to the spot. He reached up and gently pulled it off, and saw it in his hand, then it fluttered off. He squealed with delight!! He was very excited about the whole experience.

This was a powerful experience for me, as well, and showed me the magical power of PURE expectation: truly expecting something to happen, with such purity and zero doubts.

Think about this, and think about what your child can create for him/herself if he/she believes it can happen. The only thing they need to be able to believe AND physically manifest something, is the support of the people in their lives they look up to and believe are powerful. If you tell them something is possible, it absolutely is for them. And then, because of the purity of their thought, they will be able to manifest it!

Natural Parenting Works

When Cedar was an infant, in-arms, and I was already doing many things differently than conventional, modern parenting (see previous blog posts), there was no obvious way at the time to see the implications and long-term results my approaches were going to have... I was just doing things My Way, simply because this was how Love & Joy were guiding me.

Cedar will soon be 20 months. I can officially announce that my approaches have worked... and I believe they will continue to work in more profound ways as he grows. I see so many things about the way that he is that inspire wonder and awe in me, things that are reflections of his influences as a fetus, newborn and infant.

This blog post was inspired by a little boy who was just born to some friends of mine who live a similar lifestyle as we do, nature-infused and free. They, also, will be raising their child Their Way, and I desired to share with them how rewarding it has been ALREADY for my husband and I to raise Cedar according to our hearts and intuition, rather than other people's theories or cultural programming.

If you are parenting with purpose, and with consciousness of the effects of every influence you provide, you will see your own version of the results I am seeing. Here are examples of my version, to inspire you to continue with conscious and purposeful child-raising, with enthusiasm and faith in the inevitably amazing rewards!

At 19.5 months, my son Cedar...

...is the most cold-hardy person I have ever met. Do you really have to "bundle up" little babies in thick clothing during the winter to protect them? Or are we meant to develop a natural level of comfort in any weather with minimal or no clothing, if only we are given the chance as an infant? Cedar wears minimal or no clothing (depending on the season, and if we are at home or in public), usually just a t-shirt or two and leg-warmers at home in the middle of winter. We use minimal to no heat in our home in the winter (usually just a couple of space heaters on the coldest winter days). I have become fairly cold-hardy, from purposeful adaptation... but Cedar is WAY moreso, and I am in awe :)

...has never worn a diaper. At his early age, he is pretty much "potty trained". He knows (and often announces) when he is going to pee or poop, and usually does so outside in the grass (this works for us, since we have some wild acreage). At night during sleep, we used to use a puddle pad and towel in our bed for him to sleep on, and at this point most of the time he just sleeps directly on the sheets with me, because it's rare that he pees on the bed now. If he has to pee during the night, I take him to the bathtub and hold him while he goes. I will write a more detailed blog post soon about our experiences with elimination communication, since this is one of the most common things I am asked about!

...has never worn shoes. I can tell that his feet and ankles are extremely strong and well-developed, in perfect proportion to his body, and super cute! He walks around in wild grasses and nature, barefoot. The bottoms of his feet are smooth and beautiful, with an evenly-distributed padding underneath the skin (they do NOT have unsightly callouses, as one might think from not wearing shoes). This beautiful padding on the soles of his feet protects them from sharp burrs and things on the ground, and looks completely natural. From being barefoot, he has learned to be aware of where he is walking, and avoids anthills, spiky plants, sharp rocks, etc. He does love playing "dress up" by walking around in my shoes, which is fun for him... shoes are about play, not something he needs to navigate challenging environments.

...can identify most edible wild plants that grow on our land, and enjoys eating them! He even has his own names for many of them. He can identify, and enjoys eating wood sorrel leaves and flowers, wild arugula flowers ("woo-tah"), wild garlic greens and flowers, greenbriar tips, henbit, dandelion flowers, chamomile, wild dewberries, hackberries, pecans, juniper berries, and more. He can also identify, and avoids, the sharp spiky things that grow here, like bull thistle leaves! We're still working on poison ivy identification... :)

...has already planted seeds in his own garden bed, watered them, watched them grow into plants, and eaten their fruits. He is learning about the growth cycle, and the time it takes, and the nurturing and waiting required for the perfect ripening of plants.

...enjoys a wide variety of strongly-flavored, healthy, natural foods. He experiences a high level of freedom in his food choices, because all the foods I provide for him are nutrient-dense and unprocessed; therefore, it is okay with me whatever he chooses to eat, or not eat. No pressure, no expectations, no enforced mealtimes... just freedom and exploration. One big reason this is possible, besides being only provided with nutrient-dense foods, is that he is still breastfeeding many times daily (he is probably 75% lactarian right now... haha!); so whether he eats or not, I feel confident he is receiving the nutrients he needs from his natural urge to continue nursing on cue.

...is exceptionally healthy and robust. He is strong and gorgeous, with 12 perfect teeth and long blonde hair. He has only had runny noses a handful of times (after being around other children with runny noses), which are only a minor discomfort for him, and only last a few days as his immune system accommodates the new "information".

...understands most of what I say to him. I speak to him in adult language (no baby talk, although I love using his words), and often explain things in detail, with the energetic expectation that he will know or feel what I am talking about. He listens intently, and demonstrates with his actions or words afterward that he understands. When I speak with him, I form concepts as clearly as possible, and also see the images in my mind. I believe there is also a telepathic aspect contributing to his exceptional level of understanding, which is actually normal between parents (especially mothers) and small children... but only if we know it's possible and normal, and act accordingly!


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All that said, this is just as important: when I say "Natural Parenting Works", I am NOT saying that he never cries or fusses, never acts clingy or demanding, or never expresses frustration. He passionately expresses all the emotions that are natural to all humans I have ever met. When he expresses himself, he does it fully, then he is done and onto something else... if he is upset and screaming about something, and I am calmly present with him and listen to him (without getting riled up or trying to change his experience or rushing to "make it better"), he usually resolves it on his own and is laughing again moments later. Childhood is full-on, and intense! This can certainly be challenging for us parents at times, but I can honestly say that the most challenging moments, looked back on, have been some of the greatest gifts he has brought me. I have matured through those moments, by feeling my way through them and being open to their lessons, and I am truly strengthened. I embody more grace, harmony and strength in my being than ever before in my life.

I encourage all parents who read this, as you raise your children, to DO IT YOUR WAY. It may look similar to my way, or very different, but the important thing is to be guided by your own Heart, your own intuition, and what inspires Joy for you. As you make choices consciously and with specific purpose, you WILL see this reflected in your child (immediately or eventually), and your greatest reward will be the Joy you feel from seeing the flowering of the Being in form who is in your care at this time.