In meditation we have a wonderful opportunity to honor and connect with our mothers, the Mother Archetype, Mother Earth— whatever mother figure you choose.  Sometimes this kind of honoring is only possible through meditation if your relationship with your living mother is complicated, or if she is no longer living.  Perhaps meditating on the Ideal Mother is healing for you, or maybe you are learning to be a mother yourself.

Here is a poem by e. e. cummings to evoke the mother archetype:

if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)haveone.   It will not be a pansy heaven nora fragile heaven of lilies-of-the-valley butit will be a heaven of blackred roses

my father will be(deep like a rosetall like a rose)

standing near my

swaying over her(silent)with eyes which are really petals and see

nothing with the face of a poet really whichis a flower and not a face withhandswhich whisperThis is my beloved my

(suddenly in sunlight

he will bow,

& the whole garden will bow)

At iamHeart we breathe with our heartbeats.  The very first sound that we hear in utero is the sound of our mother’s heartbeat.  The double-beat, the “Lub Dub,” sounds like “Mama” or “Amma.”  “Mama” is a nickname for mother in English, Spanish, Swahili, and Swedish (apparently) and likely many other languages too.

This points to the universal experience of having a mother, although we have wildly different stories from our childhoods.  It highlights the profound recognition that one’s mother exists within one’s own heart. Cultivating your relationship with your own heart through Heart Rhythm Meditation is a direct method for deepening, healing, and re-energizing your mother-relationship.  Your relationship to your mother is deeply linked to your relationship to Self.

In adulthood, many people continue the inner work of individuation from their mothers, or they long for meaningful closeness with their mothers, or both.  Childhood is so full of complexity. There are those glowing, happy memories of laughing with mother, or reading with her, or helping her with a project, punctuated by shadowy memories of angry or absent mother, or manipulative or controlling mother…

Breathing and listening to the primordial rhythm of our heartbeats can connect us to the Mother Archetype that we may forgive and celebrate our human mothers for their heroism, their caring efforts to provide for us and protect us, and come to the important realization that our mother did the best she could, all things considered.  Through meditation we can bring this intellectual realization into the fabric of our being that we may live more freely, and with a more real spiritual connection to our mothers, and to ourselves.

For more on using Heart Rhythm Meditation for manifesting an intention, read Puran’s Blog Post here.

Try this meditation on the mother (and you can choose whichever mother– human, earth, ideal– that allows you to most open your heart):Sit up straight in a chair, and bring your attention to your breath.  Put your hand over your heart.Let the breath move throughout your body.  Feel your connection to the lineage of your mother, and her mother, and her mother before her.  Your cells are the continuation of her body, her breath, and her life. If you are a mother, feel this lineage reaching into the future through your own children. Feel the emotion of the bowing garden from the poem.  Inhale deeply into your heart, and then on your exhale bow your head gently towards your heart.   Whatever your story is with your own mother, bow in gratitude.Take a few breaths this way— lift your chin gently on the inhale and feel tenderness in your heart, then exhale and bow your head, in honor of your mother.