Thrive Like a Mother Podcast
I'm Ebony and I'm a mama to 3 beautiful souls. I'm learning how navigate my trauma healing while building the life I never dreamed was possible. I'm a survivor of childhood abuse and for the longest time, I believed that if anyone knew my story, I wouldn't be worthy of love. Many years later and now I know that it far from the truth.
On the Thrive Like a Mother podcast, I'll share the resources and tools I use on the daily to cultivate a healthy mindset break the wheel of survival. Here we're about honesty and transparency. Because at the root of it all, my purpose in creating this podcast is so that you know you are never alone in your journey.
There may be laughter, there may be tears and we'll do it all by linking arms and learning to thrive together.
Thrive Like a Mother Podcast
The journey towards gratitude in my body
Have you ever stood in the shower and whispered "thank you" to your body? A simple act that truly transformed my relationship with my postpartum body after having three C-sections and breastfeeding journeys.
Becoming a mother means undergoing remarkable transformations—growing a human, birthing them, possibly breastfeeding, and then settling into a new normal that never quite matches what came before. These physical changes happen alongside the emotional whirlwind of motherhood, often leaving us disconnected from our bodies during a time when we need their strength most.
Fresh from completing my third and final breastfeeding journey with my son Henry, I'm navigating yet another transition. The duality strikes me: celebration of this milestone along with the vulnerability of relearning my body once again. Through these transitions, I've developed a practice of embodied gratitude that began awkwardly in the shower—eyes closed, whispering appreciation to my C-section scar, my breasts that nourished three babies, my arms strong enough to hold growing children. This practice gradually expanded until I could face the mirror and thank my body without flinching.
The magic happens through repetition love. Like learning any new skill, practicing gratitude for your body becomes easier each time. Starting wherever you feel comfortable—eyes closed in the shower if mirrors feel too challenging, whispers if speaking aloud seems strange. In today's episode, I leave you with a challenge in the shower tomorrow morning. Close your eyes, place your hands on different parts of your body, and whisper "thank you" for all they've done.
Your body may never be the same as before motherhood, but it has carried you through extraordinary transformations—and that deserves celebration.
Thank you so much for listening in! If anything in this episode resonated with you, it would mean the world to me if you left a review or shared it with a friend or on social media.
And don't forget to tag me so I can personally thank you for helping me get the word out.
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Podcast account - @thrivelikeamother.podcast
Personal account - @thrive.empowered
Sending you light and love always!
Hey love, I'm Ebony and welcome to Thrive Like a Mother. On this podcast. We're scared for our truth, but that fear is what fuels us to truly live in it. You're in the right place if you feel like you're stuck in survivor mode and you're ready to step into who you were truly meant to be. I'll share resources and tools I use daily to help you in your journey towards a healthier mindset and to break the wheel of survival. The journey may not be easy, but you won't have to face it alone. I'm a mama of three, healing day by day from past trauma, and I'm on a mission to build a life I've always dreamed of but never thought was possible. So, love, if you're ready to believe in what's possible, let's link arms and thrive together. Does anyone else take time to say thank you to their body in the shower? No, it can't just be me. Y'all, it can't just be me.
Ebony Fleming:Okay, welcome to another episode of the Thrive Like a Mother podcast, and I really want to jump right in and get into today's topic, because it is something that we don't talk about very often. But I feel like Something that we don't talk about very often, but I feel like we should, and it is about those transition moments in motherhood that we go through. Obviously, you know the transition of growing an entire human inside of your body and then, once that little one is here, you're going through another transition, another transformation. If you've breastfed, that's another. You know another transformation that your body is going through. But like, seriously y'all, as you're going through these transformations and these transitions, are you taking time or have you recently shown some gratitude to your body Personally? Y'all, as a mom of three, still as well to say that sometimes, a mama of three, my body has gone through so much it really has. And I want to talk about something that's a little bit more closer to home for me right now, because Henry and I just finished our last and final breastfeeding journey. I breastfed Olivia for a few weeks, I breastfed Jade for over a year and Henry and I have now surpassed our year.
Ebony Fleming:And while it is a very celebratory moment for me, on the other side of that, the duality is that I'm also going through a time again in motherhood where I am relearning my body, I'm allowing it to settle again, I'm allowing it to transform into the next version of who I am. And so, really, during the time that I was breastfeeding Henry. I made sure that I did not beat myself up about you know what my body looked like during that time, because my body during that time period was basically in service to someone else. And I feel like it's such a beautiful thing, right, when you are pregnant, you're in service to growing this tiny little human. You're sharing your body, your life force with this tiny little person for a few months and then, once they're born, you are still, you know, if you choose to breastfeed, you're still sharing your life force with them. You're nourishing them in the way that they need until they're able to start eating like solid foods, and so it's. It's a big deal, y'all it is.
Ebony Fleming:And it can be tough to look at your body and you know, as things are happening so fast and say, oh man, you know, I don't really look how I used to, or like how can you connect with who you are right now, in that moment, and then again when you transition or transform into the next version of you, and I feel like a big part of that is giving gratitude to your body, is giving gratitude to your body. It's like, as you think about it, you go from being, you know, getting rounder and rounder. You know, as you grow this human and you spend months embracing, becoming bigger or you struggle with it, like some moms do. I know with Olivia I definitely struggled with getting the baby bump and going through that transformation. It's a mind trip, y'all. It is a mind trip once you have that baby, to look at your body right after delivery it. You know there's so many emotions and things involved and I think a piece that we are missing. Yes, the baby is here. Yes, there's so many things that you now need to do, but I honestly wish that mamas would take more time to really sit with what their body has accomplished, to really sit in gratitude for all that has taken them through Y'all.
Ebony Fleming:There was a point, um, I want to say maybe during my pregnancy with Jade, and I realized, hey, I'm going through this transformation again. It was, I think, during that time when I really accepted that my body was never going to be the same as it was before, ever, ever again. And you know this goes for even when you're not pregnant. Your body goes through transformations. But pregnancy and being a mother is such a major transformation that you have to go through some type of processing of what you have experienced, you have to try your best to get to some point of acceptance that things are never going to be the same again. And although that can be hard, it's also beautiful. And so I started to when I was in the shower and this was really, really tough because I've had three C-sections y'all. But when I was in the shower and it's really it was really tough, like right after I had my babies, because, you know, the scar is still there, it's still fresh.
Ebony Fleming:But I tried my hardest to at least while I was in the shower, you know, no matter what I was feeling, to at least say thank you. Thank you for giving me these three babies, thank you for being able to undergo three surgeries and heal three times. Three surgeries and heal three times. Thank you for, you know, my chest, for allowing me to nourish these three babies that I've birthed. And what I started to realize is, more and more as I started these kind of micro exercises in the shower of just giving gratitude to my body. I worked my way up. I worked my way up from in the shower to actually facing myself in the mirror and saying thank you to the different parts of me.
Ebony Fleming:And what happens is you start to, every time you are looking at your body, you start to accept, like where you are now, be thankful for all that your body has taken you through and all that it will take you through. And it's like, it's like practicing. It's like practicing a new move, y'all. It's like practicing. It's like practicing a new move, y'all. Every single time you practice it gets easier. Every single time it gets easier to say thank you to your body, thank you to your legs, to your knees, to your arms for their strength to hold those tiny little people, because they are heavy, they are.
Ebony Fleming:The more that you do it, y'all, the more that you do it, even when it's uncomfortable in the very beginning, like I said, like right after I had my little ones was the hardest. But if it's that difficult to look in the mirror, or at least look at yourself, start in the shower, you can even close your eyes. Honestly, y'all, and just I mean you're washing anyway, right? So, as you're washing, just take a moment, even if you can't say it out loud just yet. Practicing thank you in your head.
Ebony Fleming:Next shower, practice saying thank you out loud, even if you have to whisper it, because the more that you say thank you, the more that you practice sitting in the gratitude of all that your body has done for you, the more you can get to that acceptance stage that your body is absolutely phenomenal, that your body is something that you're going to have for life and it's going to go through changes and you'll get to a point where it won't feel as uncomfortable anymore to say thank you or to say, eventually, you are beautiful, you are extraordinary, you are magical because you are, you are, and so, mamas, I want to leave you with that today and a challenge the next time you're in the shower, like I said, even if you have to close your eyes, go ahead and do that, but close your eyes and really start to practice gratitude for your body, really start to try to get to an acceptance stage that, yes, your body may never be the same, but it has done and will continue to do so so much for you, has done and will continue to do so.
Ebony Fleming:So much for you. Thank you so much for listening. Love, if anything in today's episode resonated with you, share it with your bestie or share it on social media and tag me so we can chat about it, as always, sending you light and love and remember you are worthy, you are enough and you deserve to thrive.
