Words of Wellness with Shelly

Shelly's Shares: Every Day Is Mother's Day: Honoring the Most Important Job on Earth

• Shelly Jefferis • Season 2 • Episode 86

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What makes motherhood simultaneously the most challenging and rewarding journey a woman can experience? In this heartfelt Mother's Day special, Shelly reflects on the profound impact of motherhood and why it truly isn't "for the faint of heart."

Motherhood demands strength, determination, and dedication—qualities we aren't born with but develop through observation, experience, and for many, through faith. Whether you became a mother through birth, adoption, or step-parenting, the responsibility and joy that comes with nurturing young lives remains unparalleled. Drawing from her experience growing up with a single mom after her parents' divorce, Shelly shares how challenging circumstances often bring unexpected blessings through additional maternal figures who shape our lives in meaningful ways.

The motherhood journey transforms through distinct phases—each with unique joys and challenges. From first smiles to empty nesting, the common refrain that "it goes by quickly" proves consistently true. Yet amid these fleeting moments, mothers must remember to prioritize their own wellbeing. Through Shelly's Moms Who Flourish community, she is passionate about empowering mothers to place their health and wellness at the forefront, recognizing that we must fill our own cups before attempting to nourish others. This commitment to self-care isn't selfish—it's essential for sustainable parenting and modeling healthy boundaries for our children.

Looking to connect with like-minded mothers on their wellness journey? Join our growing community at our next in-person event on October 4th in Santa Clarita, or reach out about our mentorship programs designed specifically for mothers in various stages. Remember: motherhood doesn't have to be a solitary experience. Together, we can support each other, share wisdom, and celebrate the extraordinary gift of raising the next generation.

CONNECT WITH SHELLY:

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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless!
And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!

In Health,
Shelly Jefferis

Speaker 1:

It really, really takes the support of one another and just knowing that we're in it together and I hope that you feel that and I hope that you know that and definitely I hope you're feeling it from me, because I really, truly believe that. Do you get confused by all of the information that Vabar does every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or should not be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more to share tips, education and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will. We all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives, full of energy, happiness and joy.

Speaker 1:

Now let's dive into our message for today. Hello everyone, welcome. My friends, this is a special for all of our moms out there. I wanted to jump in here and honor all of you because it happens to be Mother's Day and I wanted to do a short recording and shout out to all of you moms and I know I mentioned a couple episodes ago that we would have a few episodes that would be focused on moms and motherhood and, given the fact that it's all around Mother's Day, and it's Mother's Day as I'm recording this, I wanted to just do a quick episode and just honor all of you.

Speaker 1:

And I know it is different for many of us. For me personally, my own mom is no longer living and it still is special to, of course, honor her on this day, and what I find to be more true for me is, as I honor my mom, I am even more grateful for the mother that she was to me and the example that she was to me, and then that just causes me to have even more gratitude for being a mom myself, and I share often that it is the, I believe, the most important job on the planet and I do understand that for some they might choose not to have children, and that is perfectly okay, while others might struggle to have children and I completely completely can empathize and sympathize. I went through a few struggles of my own, which I shared on a recent episode, and I just want to say it's such a big, important, lifelong job and commitment that is so extremely rewarding. And I did hear someone do a live on social the other day who kept saying that being a mom is not for the faint of heart and all of the different things that we experience as moms. I thought that's a pretty great way to put it. It definitely is not for the faint of heart. You have to have some degree of strength and determination and dedication and so many different other qualities and let's face it, we aren't born knowing how to be moms. It's something that we pick up from our own moms. We pick up from our own mother figures in our lives and we learn a lot of it as we go along. And for me personally, I truly believe that a lot of it is led by my faith, is led by my faith. I trust in God a lot all of the time and pray all of the time about my family and about my children, and one of the biggest, like I said, biggest jobs and very important jobs to me personally is the job of being a mom, and I never have, never do, never will take it lightly and I have so much gratitude in my heart for being a mom and I look at each of my children all of the time and I just, I just think wow, wow, what a blessing, what a huge blessing. And I just wanted to really take time to honor all of you and some, some of us have become moms through adoption, some through being step-parents, and it all is important and you know I wanted to share that I grew up.

Speaker 1:

My mom, my mom, was a single mom. My parents split up when I was around six years old and you know, thankfully I don't have really any recollection of it being a bad scenario or a bad situation, but what I do have and what I am very grateful for is the fact that I have other women in my life who have been other mom figures to me in addition to my own mom, and I really, really am so grateful for that. And so for any of you out there from you know, divorced parents, or maybe you are a single mom right now and you're going through it or you've gone through it it can be challenging, of course, in the moment, but I like to look at it as there are people that have been in my life and that are in my life because my parents split when I was a really young girl and you know my husband and I. That was never, never something that even remotely became a possibility for us, and I'm grateful because we both come from broken homes. His parents were divorced, my parents were divorced, and I know it was always, and still is just very important to keep, keep, you know, our family together, and not that it was ever even a a thought, but I'm so grateful that we we broke that cycle. We broke that cycle and and I'm not I'm not in any way bashing anyone who goes through divorce I I know that it absolutely is the best, best case scenario for many families and the best decision depending on the circumstances. So I in no way in bashing or judging anyone who goes through it or has to go through it and I know every situation is different but I do hope that, whatever scenario you might be in, that whatever scenario you might be in, if it is you going through a breakup or a breakup of a family, that I hope that in time you can look back and think okay, I have some really beautiful people in my life who I might not have met otherwise and that's really truly the case for me.

Speaker 1:

So I just wanted to kind of hop in here today and just talk about motherhood. I'm thinking about the different women in my life who have been there for me, who have influenced me as a woman and as a mom. And I have also wonderful aunts who have made an impact on my life. So you know again, even though my, my mom, my mama isn't here living, I mean, she definitely still is with me and she, she was just a wonderful, beautiful light and I am so grateful for her and I'm also so grateful for the other women in my life who who have influenced me through the years. So I wanted to share that and honor all of you again. I know I keep saying that, but I think it's such a big deal and I believe that you know, every, every day, every day is mother's day. Really, truly right. Nothing, nothing changes from day to day. Every day, we, we are honored and it's and it's it's a beautiful gift, and I just wanted to give a shout out to all of you.

Speaker 1:

And I know that there are so many different phases of motherhood and I've spoken about this a little bit on my podcast and I've had a couple of guests where we've shared about becoming empty nesters. And I look at some moms that I know who are just now starting their families and I think, wow, it's just such a beautiful journey and there are so many beautiful stages and, yes, it does go by so, so quickly, and I know that that's such a cliche and I know that moms hear that all of the time, but it is really so true. Like I just can't even believe that our oldest, our daughter, is 26 years old. It's just amazing. But every stage, every phase is is a blessing. It's just different. You know it's different.

Speaker 1:

You have your the baby phase, which is amazing, and then you have when they start to crawl and walk and talk and so many milestones. And then they start school and then it just seems like everything goes just fast forward. And then if they play sports, you have those experiences and whatever it is that you experience with your children, it's just always so, so fun and just a huge blessing. It's always so, so fun and just a huge blessing. So I hope again that all my moms out there that you have enjoyed your day. I know when you listen to this, mother's Day would have ended, but again, I hope that you can treat every day like Mother's Day and honor yourself and give yourself grace for the moments that maybe don't go as smoothly as you. No-transcript. I know that you all are amazing and I am so grateful for all of you and I know that I have so many beautiful friends who are moms and you know it takes a try, it really does.

Speaker 1:

And when my babies were babies, I had a business called Stroller Strides and we worked out outdoors. We would gather moms and the babies in the strollers and we would go for walks with tubing and workout, and then we would also have night out, mom's night out. We'd have family workouts. So it was just a beautiful way to connect moms to other moms and to connect families. And I feel like I've come kind of full circle now as I have created Moms who Flourish, which is another community specifically for moms, and for those of you who maybe haven't heard about it just yet, I have hosted two in-person events and it's focused they are focused on wellness, and my mission with Moms who Flourish is to empower moms to put their health and their wellness and their self-care as a priority. I noticed that that happens a lot through the years, where maybe we put our self-care kind of on the back burner, and I will always say that we need to fill our cups up first before we can fill up the cups of others, before we can fill up the cups of our loved ones, of our children, of our families, and so that is the mission and the purpose of Moms who Flourish and it is such a blessing the community is growing.

Speaker 1:

We have also had two in-person business mixers for those moms who are owning their own businesses, and that's a part of wellness. Right, that's your passion, that's your way that you might be making a living, and so when we talk about wellness, there are various components that are included under that umbrella included under that umbrella, and for those of you who might be local to Santa Clarita, our next in-person wellness event will be Saturday, october 4th, and I would love, for any of you who are listening to this, any of you who are local, even if you're not local I mean, I had speakers at our last event who came from out of state. They came from Arizona, they came from Palm Desert, they came from Santa Monica and they came from far away, and so I want to encourage you to join us. And if you are a speaker, or perhaps you have a business and you'd like to be a vendor, or perhaps you'd like to even be a sponsor, please, please, reach out. My contact information is in the show notes and you can always find me on Facebook and also Instagram, and I would love to hear from you and I'll be branching out and offering mentorship programs and we will be offering a program for empty nesters and I also have an ongoing mentorship available for for anyone who wants to connect and work one-on-one just to deepen your, your understanding of your, your journey as a mom, and and incorporating wellness alongside that journey, and what does that look like?

Speaker 1:

And and I can help you with the goals that you might be looking into pursuing and reaching, and we can. We can do it together and, like I always say, let's let's flourish together. So please feel free to reach out If you would like information about any of my moms who flourish programs, as we are growing and building this community and, again, like I said earlier, we are a tribe. We have this huge, huge commitment and undertaking and journey in common and it really really takes the support of one another and just knowing that we're in it together and I hope that you feel that and I hope that you know that and definitely I hope you're feeling it from me, because I really truly believe that and I'm always here to support and offer any kind of guidance that I can from what I've experienced, and then also share the wellness component as well, because that is critical. We need to have our health. We need to have our health. If we don't have our health, then our day-to-day function really really is not going to serve not just us, but our children and our families. So we really need to take care of ourselves and put ourselves as a priority. So I hope that you are doing that and, again, if you need some direction and guidance in doing so, please, please reach out, please reach out. And again, I hope that when you listen to this episode, it will inspire you, it will make you smile and I hope that your journey as a mom is the most rewarding and fulfilling experience of your life. And a happy Mother's Day to all of you, and I hope you are having a beautiful blessed day and celebrate, celebrate this gift, because it truly is a gift. It truly is a gift. So happy Mama's Day everyone. I'll see you next time.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did, and if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries, and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness, on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy and blessed week. You.