“I am indigenous” she said as we made our first introductions.

“Some of my students say that they have machines at home that wash their clothes and that they have hot water for showers. Me, I don’t see the point! Cold water is so refreshing!” My spanish teacher held her head high and waved her hands in the air as she said so.

She raised two sons and a daughter and was a retired public school teacher. Manuella often recounted what she prepared for dinner the night before. I learned how to soak and cook beans the Guatemalan way, while she laughed at my frustration to get my daughter not to pick her nose (reminding me that she still had to tell her 20 year old son to put away his folded laundry).

“Motherhood is about repitition” she laughed.

She held my shoulder when I cried over our seeming never ending sickness and brought me to the pharmacy to buy an electrolite drink. Which was gross, but did work. She brought my daughters homemade empanadas, bargained for me at the mercados and taught me about the Guatemalan genocide. I found her beautiful, smart and interesting, and I always had questions with me to ask before our grammar lesson. Truly, I loved our conversations about motherhood, womanhood and culture the most.

I hadn’t realized how much I craved this type of companionship from a nurturing woman. In person, in the flesh, in real time where we could see, smell and touch each other. I had come to Guatemala to study, having no idea it would turn out to be a place I’d return to year after year and continue to forge deep connections. Perhaps most importantly, I became convicted that we as wimyn must come together, in real time, to feel and learn from one another. In messy kitchens, amongst laundry piles, cranky children, hair unwashed but souls intact. Communing in spaces where we are talking, sharing stories, laughing and crying together. Where we are drinking tea, breaking bread and bringing of ourselves, as we are. I’m afraid that when we don’t hear and feel one another, we become isolated and lonely. We lose our wild natures and instincts, become sad and wonder why, become dry and overworked and desperate for something, anything that offers a shred of connection. Keeping women and especially mothers, looking at screens of curated photographs and superficial story telling deprives us of our deep need to nourish and be nourished. And it makes us unhappy in our lives.

Authentic relations are forged around the kitchen table, on the living room floor, in conversation at the local farmer’s market, during the forest hike and at the playground with children. They are done in real time. Yes, in this day and age of appearing picture perfect, it takes work to gather, to be seen.

How do we start?

Invite a woman over for tea. What begins as a one on one hang out turns into a revolution. The womyn surrounded by her circle cannot be beat, cajooled, or swayed. She is unique yet supported, loved, held and understood. Stronger together, let’s not wait for the ‘perfect time’ to be seen.

Whether you are an established Yoga teacher, a doula, a healthcare practitioner, a mother, a gatherer of wimyn or all of the above, our 10 day Mystical Mama training and retreat is an enriching learning experience you don’t want to miss.  Chances are very high that you are serving a pregnant womyn, especially a sister, friend, client or student. Learning how to safely nurture our mothers is the cornerstone to building healthier communities all over the globe!

A pregnant womyn is a living, breathing and walking temple of creativity and grace. She needs to be encouraged to listen to her body, to spend time in nature, to eat nourishing foods and to move in safe and primal ways. Yoga to the pregnant mother is so nurturing to both herself and the baby within. Yoga may be the only time in her day that she carves out to be connected with self and breath and baby, making this a beautifully sacred time in her life. She may be encouraged by the dominant culture to just live as normal, however, we believe she is to be treated like a Goddess!

Here are 5 things that you will learn in our Mystical Mama Training:

1. How To Tailor A Yoga Class For Pregnant Mothers

Our program is hands on and experience based. It is rooted in hours of detailed posture break-downs, practice teaching and class design. If you are a current Yoga teacher, you will learn how to teach specific prenatal yoga classes or modify all poses to suit your pregnant students in all level classes. If you don’t teach yoga but work with pregnant wimyn, you will learn how to add private yoga sessions into your scope of practice. If you are curious for yourself and your circle of friends, you will learn how to design a personal prenatal yoga sequence that will be beneficial information for a lifetime!

2.  How To Honour All Aspects of the Divine Feminine

We spend a lot of time learning multiple ways to lavish and dig deep into the life of the pregnant mother. We explore topics of nourishment and nutrition, how to examine her dreams and day visions, how to conduct a sacred Mother’s Blessing, how to make and use plant medicine and placenta remedies, body butters, sacred art and more!

3.  What Holistic Pregnancy, Birth and Motherhood Look Like

Our whole training is broken down into trimesters and we journey deeply into each stage of pregnancy, including anatomy and physiology. We also give you the opportunity to undergo your own unique transformation through the trimesters, birth and postpartum phases. We explore how wimyn give birth not only to babies, but how in fact we hold the very seeds of creation in our womb space at all times! One of the most exciting cultural and deep learning experiences of the training is the afternoon we sit and learn from the Indigenous Guatemalan midwives over tea and snacks.  

4. How To Create Ceremony and Care For Self

We won’t just be speaking about Yoga in pregnancy, we will be living and embodying the very essence of this transformation over our 9 nights and 10 days together.  From daily meditations and yoga classes, to journeying through the Peruvian medicine wheel, sharing delicious meals together, hiking up volcanoes, swimming in Lago Atitlan, sharing circles in the tea house ~ we will have so much time to learn, grow and retreat together!  

5.  How To Take This Information Back Into Your Communities

This course was created and taught by Mothers, doing the work of creating and birthing babies and raising those babies while serving their respective communities. It takes a village! And we want to learn and share alongside you. We want to share what works for us, and we want to know what works for you. We will share and create real plans for how to create wimyn’s circles and how to integrate our learnings into the world.

We can’t wait to see you in Guatemala this January 6-15!  Come and join us! Space is limited to ensure a deeply connected and intimate group so register today to avoid disappointment.

**Image captured by Adelaide Rogers Photography