The moment that I became a mother, I knew that I would die for my babies. The flood of emotion that washed over me the night that I gave birth for the first time was undeniably one of the most powerful experiences of my life. In a moment, my whole reality changed, my priorities changed, my mindset changed, my life changed. My heart opened like nothing I had ever experienced before. Everything else in my life faded away, and I found myself understanding parts of myself that I didn’t even know existed before I had children.

The moment that I became a mother, I knew that I would die for my babies. What I didn’t understand was that I would heal for my babies. I would lean into personal development in a way that I had never imagined. I would sit with emotions, thought patterns, and behavioral patterns in a way that I previously never would have. I became willing to explore wounds and parts of me that had been too painful to even consider exploring previously. I became willing to feel the pain of my trauma so deeply that it no longer controlled me. I became willing to look at myself in the mirror and take brutal truths about myself in a way that took my breath away. I became willing to grow and heal and expand for them when I wasn’t willing to do it for myself.

It is easy to say that we would die for our children; what parent wouldn’t? But the real question is, would you heal for them? Are you willing to face your trauma and the pain that it creates so that your trauma doesn’t negatively impact your children?

Being a mother is a gift on so many levels. But the gift of healing, profound healing, was a gift that I never expected when I made the decision to become a mother.