Intuitive Mothering

in·tu·i·tion - quick and ready insight

in·sight - the power or act of seeing into a situation

Intuitive mothering is something that I like to practice and encourage other mothers to do the same.  I think that the best mothering advice you can get, is not from another person or book, but rather from within yourself.  I believe that we are born as women already knowing how to best mother our children.  It's an internal insight that we automatically have.  But for some of us, we have been so influenced by our modern day culture, that we have silenced our own inner voice.  We are so unfamiliar with the way our own heart speaks to us, that we need to learn how to tune back in.  For me, it started with TRUST.  I chose to BELIEVE that I could be TRUSTED as the wise woman I was created to be.  And so I literally trust myself!  How many of us actually do that?  It seems that so many women have gone through various experiences in life that have taught them to question their own abilities and insight.  I am here today saying, "It's time to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF again!"  Release the worry and self-doubt.  Be grateful for the inspiration you can gain from other mothers who have gone before you.  But ultimately, grab on to your own intuition and take action as a mother! 

YOU ARE AN AMAZING, INTUITIVE AND INSIGHTFUL MOTHER!!!

Remember to check out the RAW MOM SUMMIT today!

Until 9:00pm EST, interviews are still available from Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Debra Tau (that's me!), Valya Boutenko, and Dr. Anna Maria Clement.  Then the interviews switch over to brand new ones for another 24 hours...

Check out the RAW MOM SUMMIT at:

http://tinyurl.com/y85c3zj

Babies at the Day Village

I was truly inspired by the way the babies were raised who lived in the remote village in Venezuela that was talked about so much in Jean Liedloff's book, The Continuum Concept.  The way of the mothers and the community in which they lived resonated with my heart!  I knew after reading the book that my mothering would never be the same!!!  I also realized that making the shift from a Western style of mothering to a continuum concept mother would be a little challenging while living in a Western culture.  I would need to find support in doing things "differently."  But I also saw that it would be worth it, even if I did feel alone at times, because the way the Venezuelan children turned out was so phenomenal!!!

These children were well mannered, independent, and responsible.  They did not argue with others or ever even try to be better than anyone else.  It was as if they were all secure in themselves.  There was no identity crisis in the teen years.  In fact, by then, they were managing themselves within the "adult" world.  And not because they were "forced" to, but rather because they chose to!  Everyone was left to make their own choices, and because we are all social by nature, when left to make the choice, we choose to "fall in line" and do the "right" thing.  Nobody was judging others either, and this all made for a truly BLISSFUL SOCIETY!!!!  Honestly, it's not just every mother's dream come true for her child to turn out this way, but it is also every mother's dream for herself!  Can you imagine, not feeling like you have to compete for others attention or worry about whether or not you will be accepted?!!!  You would feel so free and secure that you would be EMPOWERED to be the BEST YOU that you knew how to be!!!

And so, feeling inspired by the Venezuelan mothers, I have chosen to implement the concepts of their society as much as possible and as best as possible.  From the moment my baby was born, literally he came out of my womb and went straight into my arms, laying on my chest, listening to my heartbeat, and he's been with me ever since!  Or he's been in the care of his father, which does happen on a regular basis.  In fact, he was always with either one of his parents without exception until about three months of age.  And since then, until the start of the Day Village when our son turned nine months, he had only been in the care of another person - either another family member or very close friend - for one to two hours at most and only on three separate occasions.  I intuitively chose this even before I read the book, knowing that our role as parents is significant.  I personally did not have a child to have someone else raise my baby.  We are committed to being the primary care givers with the vast majority of responsibility being on me as the mother.  I have embraced this role as a new mama with great joy!  Now with the start of the Day Village, I have connected with other like-minded moms who are committed to raising their babies the same way.  Now as a tight-knit community, we do give each other a "break" on occasion from our role as mother, in order to center ourselves.  It is important to note that all of our babies at this point are older than seven months and are in the crawling stage where they are desiring more and more independence.  They are put down on the ground to have independent play with the other babies and crawl and explore.  But as soon as they crawl back to us, we are committed to meeting their needs and answering their cries, which is their way of communicating with us since they do not yet speak in words.  Until they gain an even larger amount of independence through walking, us mothers still carry our babies in our arms using slings and carriers for several hours a day.  This allows us to go about the tasks that need to be done throughout our day.  We also co-sleep and have our babies near us at all times.  And of course, we also breastfeed our babies, and do so A LOT as the babies desire!  This is just the beginning of it, and yet we all see a HUGE difference in our babies and receive constant remarks from outsiders on how happy, content, and healthy our babies are!

To learn more about The Continuum Concept, visit:

http://www.continuum-concept.org/cc_defined.html

Thaddeus, Noa, and Ellie all play nicely as they learn to share their toys.  Us mothers are nearby, but are intentional about not interfering too much.  We allow the children their freedom to interact independently with each other and learn to be social on their own.

Remember to catch the new interviews on the Raw Mom Summit every 24 hours!  Starting at 9:00pm EST on Friday, December 11th for 24 hours, the following amazing interviews will be available:  Ron Obadia, Brigitte Mars, Daniel Vitalis, and Lori Painter.  ENJOY!

http://tinyurl.com/y85c3zj

Exercise at the Day Village

We all know that exercise is important.  As health-minded Mamas, we are wanting to keep this key component of health as part of our Continuum Day Village.  With our village "home" being at The Soma Center right now, we are blessed with the option of so many yoga classes to choose from.  Yoga is a wonderful way for us to stretch our bodies, which often get sore from carrying our babies around so much as "Continuum Concept" moms!  A regular yoga practice is also wonderful for de-stressing and refocusing yourself.  The moms in the village rotate taking adult yoga classes, so we all get a turn to have some individual yoga time.  Meanwhile the other moms take all the children on a walk to enjoy nature.  We also enjoy gathering all together with our babies at the Kids Yoga class, which is designed for babies, toddlers, and elementary age children.  It's a super great class for moms with multiple kids to all come together!   Whatever exercise you choose to do, the goal is to get your body moving and flexible and have fun while you're doing it!  Enjoying exercise together with your kids and other families is just one way to make exercise fun!

 

The babies practice their yoga backbends with a little help!

Remember to catch the new interviews on the Raw Mom Summit every 24 hours!  Starting at 9:00pm EST on Thursday, December 10th for 24 hours, the following people will be featured for your listening pleasure:  Shazzie, Dr. Brian Clement, Gina Laverde, and Bernie Siegel.  ENJOY!

http://tinyurl.com/y85c3zj

Nutrition at the Day Village

I have a great desire to raise my son on living foods -- meaning mostly organic, raw (unprocessed and uncooked), plant-based, whole foods!  Why?  Because I have personally found this high alkaline diet to be the most energizing and healthful food I have ever consumed!  I feel AMAZING eating this way and extremely HEALTHY!  And so naturally, I would like to pass this on to my child!  :)


At the moment at 9 months, my son, Thaddeus, is predominantly fed breast milk as his main (99%+) source of nutrition.  I supplement him for fun on other liquid nourishment here and there, giving him an occasional fresh green juice, coconut water, or home-made nut/seed milk.  So far with me eating a living foods diet and my son consuming mostly breast milk, he is a thriving plump-a-licious baby!

Thaddeus at 9 months playing in the salad bowl 

while Mama prepares some raw food!

Since children are social by nature and are going to want to do things that "all the other kids are doing," I consider it important to surround him with like-minded families who are raising their children in a similar way.  And so, creating a community around living foods for the children and mothers to enjoy together is a large component to the Continuum Day Village!  In our current village "home" at The Soma Center, we are fortunate to have them offer a wide variety of raw and vegan foods.  This certainly helps us all to eat nutritiously and deliciously!


My long-term goal for the Day Village is to be located on my future property where my home and village would coincide... location still to be determined.  I desire to plant a garden of veggies, greens, and herbs, along with some fruit trees.  Together we would learn about growing our own food, and would create a sustainable, fun, and affordable way of feeding ourselves!  I would like to incorporate "Edible Forest Gardening" that I have been so fortunate to learn about just briefly from Walter 'Shantree' Kacera on the Raw Mom Summit!  Check out his awesome interview for FREE for 24 hours starting at 9pm EST on December 9th!  Also available for the next 24 hours are interviews from Victoria Boutenko, Dr. Doug Graham, and our very own village mama, Andrea Nison!!!!!!!!!!  

Check out the Raw Mom Summit here:  

http://tinyurl.com/y85c3zj

Village Women Interviewed for the Raw Mom Summit

The Raw Mom Summit is being re-released starting tomorrow, Wednesday, December 9th for 9 days.  Health leaders from around the world are sharing information on nutrition, pregnancy, child birthing, parenting, and other family health issues.  The Continuum Day Village is honored to have two of its own mamas be among these health leaders!!!

Our very own village mama, Andrea Nison, has a wonderful interview with Shannon 'Shakaya Breeze' Leone that came out during the last Summit and is being shared again!  She shares about home-birth, diaper-free elimination, how she plans to raise her baby on the raw food lifestyle, and discusses her relationship to the world-reknown health teacher/speaker/writer, Paul Nison.

Then Debra Tau (that's me!) will be sharing for the first time on the Raw Mom Summit as part of their "Holiday Bonus."  I will be speaking on the Day Village, as well as sharing my own natural mothering tips and techniques.

Check out the Raw Mom Summit daily to see who will be speaking each day - It's a surprise!  Registration is FREE and you will have access to the day's interviews for 24 hours only!  (If you want to have ongoing access, there is a purchase option to do so.)  Please go through my direct link here:

http://tinyurl.com/y85c3zj

The "Esteemed Special Guests" include:  Byron Katie, Dr. Bernard Siegel, Dr. Carolyn Dean, Jean Liedloff (author of The Continuum Concept, which was the inspiration for my Day Village!), Susan Weed, and Elena Tonetti.

The "Women Who Knock Our Nutritional Socks Off" include:  Victoria Boutenko, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, Shazzie, Dr. Anna Maria Clement, Brigitte Mars, Kate Magic, Katrina Rainoshek, and Nadine Artemis.

The "Men Who Have Something To Say" include:  Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Dr. Brian Clement, David 'Avocado' Wolf, Paul Nison, Walter 'Shantree' Kacera, Daniel Vitalis, and Wayne Gendel.

Among the "More Inspirational Women" are:  Angela Stokes-Monarch, Valya Boutenko, and Lorenna Bousquet Kacera.

The "Moms with Guts and Gusto" are:  Karen Ranzi, Andrea Nison, Ellen Livingston, Sonja Watt, Gina Laverde, Jinjee Talifero, and Lori Painter.

The "Special Holiday Bonuses" include:  Dr. Douglas Graham, Prof. Rozalind Graham, Debra Tau, Ron Obadia, Michaela Lynn, and Karen Knowler.

Thinking Outside the Box

When envisioning the perfect location of my first Day Village, I initially thought that I would move from South Florida back to North Carolina where some of my family lives.  But when I released my vision from the "perfect box" in which it resided in my mind, and began to be open to new possibilities, the Universe answered in an unexpected way!  Although I should have expected it... After all, I was the one putting my belief and thoughts out there!

When I connected with Sara Green from The Soma Center and my long-time Mama friend, Andrea Nison, and we began to brainstorm ways to get the Day Village started, we all realized that "Let's Do It Now!" was what our hearts were shouting!  And so the "where" became literally right here in South Florida where we were all currently living!

Thanks to Sara's connection with The Soma Center, we had an "easy in" with the owners.  Our start-up location is a beautiful historical home that's been converted into a cafe and yoga studio in downtown Lake Worth.  The cafe serves organic raw vegan food, bringing in our desire for us as "the village people" to be partaking in nutritious & delicious cuisine together!  The yoga studio is a newly renovated stand-alone building that provides a beautiful and peaceful space for our yoga practice.  We alternate which moms attend, while the other moms care for all the babies, usually going on a walk together, so that everybody is receiving the benefit of exercise!  It's a wonderful trade-off and gift that we give to one another.

When the yoga studio is not in use for yoga classes every afternoon, we gather there for a safe place for our children to play while we Moms create our eco-friendly crafts that eventually will be up for sale.  We will soon be helping to support our families financially through our work together in our Day Village.  It's a wonderful feeling knowing that we do not have to choose between going to work and being with our children, because now we can do both in our Day Village!!!  And it truly has been feeling like a village with lots of support and love for one another!  I am grateful to see my vision unfolding!

Andrea Nison helping Baby Noa             Sara Green supporting Baby Ellie's

with her breath using the yoga                hips so she can do a headstand

ball that expands and contracts.                         during Kids Yoga class.

The Ball is Rolling and the Vision is Unfolding!

My Day Village Vision debuted on"The Raw Food World" TV Show on YouTube, thanks to Matt Monarch and Angela Stokes-Monarch!  ...And then the ball really started rolling!!!  I am grateful for all the emails from women around the world (for which I am still catching up!) and the new friends I have on Facebook who all saw my video interview!

More momentum was gained when Shannon 'Shakaya Breeze' Leone of RawMom.com contacted me after seeing my interview with the Monarchs and asked to interview me for the next Raw Mom Summit!  Starting December 9th, for 9 days, there will be awesome interviews to listen to online!!!  And I am honored to be among some amazing leaders in the raw food movement!  In the meantime, I have been sharing about myself on the Raw Mom Blog and answering some questions for some of their readers!

Then... the ball was rolling faster... when Sara Green, Yoga Teacher at The Soma Center in Lake Worth, Florida saw my post on the Raw Mom Blog! She was so excited about the vision... and then we ended up in the same Kids Yoga class with our babies at The Soma Center!!!  It was a divine connection indeed!  And so a million thanks to my fellow visionary who has come alongside me to help get the Day Village started right at The Soma Center.  Our dear friend, Andrea Nison, is our other partner who is helping to make it all happen!  I appreciate both Sara and Andrea soooooo much!

Mama Andrea Nison with daughter, Noa, in the Ergo baby carrier on left.

Mama Sara Green with daughter, Ellie, in the Moby wrap sling on right.

Andrea, Sara, and I had a brainstorming session 

about the Day Village at the Palm Beach Zoo!