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Seasons
My son’s freshman year is almost over. He’s about to be a rising sophomore. I have a new parenting perspective, the finish line of this stage of parenting. In three years he’s slated to leave our home and it’s a view I’ve never had before.
My view was from the little kid trenches before, the little kid trenches that felt monotonous and never ending.
Yet here I am now with an end in sight.
It reminds me that in parenting there are seasons. The constant ebb and flow of change. In some ways this can be exhausting, when will things stabilize!? In other ways, it’s reassuring because that one hard season will always shift.
It’s important to know what season of life you are in. This helps you make choices in congruence with what matters most to you and also helps you give yourself some slack in more difficult seasons and expand in easier seasons.
I help my clients orient to what season they are in and live with intention and choice.
A lot of my clients are in a postpartum season which is a very unique season!
What’s unique about your season of life?
What does this season require of you?
What are you saying yes to in this season? What are you saying no to?
I love my clients! Getting to journey with families through the postpartum season (however long it is, we get to decide that) is a deep honor. Here are some thoughts from a client of mine. π§‘
Channeling grandma vibes in my coaching today. π Wise, nourishing, strong, comforting & experienced women. πͺπ½
I found this at an estate sale & was gonna give it to my grandma but I haven’t yet and it always makes me smile when I see it! I seem to gravitate towards it. π
My coaching is fueled and inspired by those who have gone before me! & the postpartum time is filled with needs for comfort and extra hugs to all the parents of little babies as they comfort and love on their little ones. π«ΆπΌ
Postpartum
“relating to the period of time after a baby has been born”
Cute definition, huh? (Hear my sarcasm!?) It doesn’t really speak to the deep unearthing, body breaking, heart cracking open, end of yourself glory & agony and jolting introduction to a new love that postpartum so encompasses. And more and more. I can’t quite even put words to it fully.
THIS is why I am a postpartum coach. It is a crucible of an experience in all the best and hardest ways. It is one none of us were meant to do alone and yet often we are holed up in our houses vulnerable and under supported & wondering why we are struggling. We need voices of wisdom, guidance, curiosity, connection & reminders of our strength and stability that help us birth our own new becoming. That is what I do. I love standing on this threshold of becoming with you! It is one of my deepest honors. ππ½ππ₯β¨
Fun to be back on UT campus yesterday at the one & only @mediciroasting with the genius of @alisonvaclav with @pagemageworkshops doing some Winter Reflection time- December, January, & February.
It’s hard to slow down, it’s hard to leave my family, it’s hard to look back often BUT I know that reflection is crucial to my health as a human, coach, wife, friend & mother. I tend to be hard on myself that I’m not doing “enough” and this is a wonderful way to anchor into what I am doing and also the themes present in all parts of my being, not just my day to day. Grateful for the opportunity & space to pause and reflect.
What helps you reflect? What pauses do you have built in? Coaching is one way I love to reflect, DM if you need help reflecting on your life past, present and what you want moving forward. β¨
The first 3 months of having a new baby is often marked by a sense of just trying to survive. It can be hard to meet our most basic needs at that time, as we are also trying to meet our babies needs. Often all of ourselves are undergoing a deep renovation. We may be physically in pain, emotionally up and down, spiritually needy and all over the place. This is so normal for being in the postpartum season, a season I like to call a “survival season.” It will not last forever, it is not your new normal, you are in transition. It’s ok to survive moment by moment, day by day. You will find your way!
Our bodies speak to us. Laughter, tears, moans. Our bodies are deeply a part of our lived experience. Our society can be so mind focused that we can be detached from our bodies experiences.
Do you know the language of your body? In my experience, it is a language to learn with tenderness and curiosity especially if we’ve been disconnected from our bodies.
The language of the body is initially interpreted through sensation.
What is sensation?
“A physical feeling or perception resulting from something that happens to or comes into contact with the body.”
Tense, tingly, tight, open, soft, warm, cold, empty, full. There are so many different sensations!
Try this to connect to sensation in your body.
Imagine your happy place (a beach, your grandparents table - these are mine!) and now notice as you imagine this happy place what sensations are stirred in your body. See if you can name them. Do they feel pleasant, neutral or uncomfortable?
This is the language of your body & it is truly a resource for us and a way to connect to ourselves.
I’ve been studying and training to be a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for 5 years and I help people get out of their heads and into their bodies. I help people learn the language of their body so they can be whole & well to be the parent & human they want to be.
Painting: Open doors by my dear friend @rhodyjetton of @wildflowersandflamingos
What open doors stand before you? Are you willing to walk through them? What do you need to do it?
I had a dream awhile back that said about me that I helped people open doors. A friend later confirmed separately as an encouragement to me as well. I had never seen myself like that but I’ve been letting it simmer and unfold within me.
What does that mean to help people open doors?
You know the thing you are trying to birth into this world (an actual baby or maybe it’s your work or a dream you have)? I help you bring that forward. I see it in my work often. Someone feels a calling towards something new and they must pass through the threshold of the open door and I stand with them as a coach, doula, group facilitator, etc to help support this transition. From the old to the new & from the known to the unknown. To bring the new thing forward it often takes a new YOU. Crossing into new spaces & new ways of being is often very courageous & disorienting. It takes a leap of faith!
I help people take this leap of faith even when they feel terrified or unsure of what is calling them. I help people see these open doors & their own unique gifts in having what it already takes to step into this new space.
I have a few more spots open for 1-1 coaching. If there is a door you need to walk through but you are stuck avoiding it, or need some extra support to take the steps or if you don’t believe you deserve to walk through that door, I’d love to support you! I’d love to cheer you on in a life of intention, courage, & YOUR vision, whatever it may be. DM me for a free consultation to see if my work could help you.
Coaching changed my life!
This pic is me celebrating becoming a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) with Coaches Training Institute (CTII- the gold standard in coaching) in June 2017. It was a long road of training, practice, supervision and courage. It was also a blast! I met some of the best people & learned so much. I find coaching to be so expansive, empowering and inspiring.
I decided to become a coach after hiring my first coach @sarah_sherwood. She helped me connect in a deeper way to my value of transformation & from there I took the leap despite all the unknowns and fear.
Through my coach training process, @mamabloomaustin was birthed.
I got my college degree in Social Work and had considered going down the route of becoming a counselor but something kept stopping me.
Later, I realized I felt like coaching had an air of accessibility, innovation and connection to goodness in the client that felt so powerful & unique.
I’ve been coaching now for over 8 years and still LOVE it. I regularly get off calls with my clients still saying, “I love coaching!”
I spent Valentine’s at a birth as a doula!
I certified as a birth doula in 2009 and attended my very first birth in 2008 as I was training. I’ve attended 120+ births through the years as a volunteer doula, independent doula & spent some time on a collective. I stopped taking birth clients in 2018 as I was more focused on leading Mama Bloom and 1-1 coaching and raising my 4 kids!Occasionally, I’ll still work with family or close friends. Some VERY special family invited me into their birth.
Being there yesterday reminded me what a sacred role it is. I treasure every birth I’ve been too and am always so honored when someone lets me into one of the most significant and vulnerable times in their lives. Witnessing the strength and power of a birthing mom (in all the beautiful & difficult ways birth goes) never ceases to amaze me.
Doulas exist to stand with their clients in some of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows- being a compassionate witness no matter what, a hand to hold, a voice to ground into, and a part of the support that holds the family in the unknowns of their story. It’s a role I hold with great reverence & for every birth doula, your work is so important. ππ½
Here’s me with my 4th baby starting my 4th postpartum in 2018. Look at these sweet kids, look at my sweet reaction to my oldest. It’s always good for me to see pics like this because it helps me anchor into what a good mother I am and have been despite my many many failings and struggles. Sometimes the struggles and failings loom large.
I knew so much more about what I wanted and needed the fourth time around but it didn’t make it not tender, raw or vulnerable.
Mamas of subsequent babies have other needs unique to juggling multiple kids.
My work as a postpartum coach and as the founder & facilitator of Mama Bloom is deeply rooted in my own shocking experience of postpartum (particularly with my 1st). No one had warned me! Or maybe they did and I had no way to really grasp the huge transformation coming my way.
I LOVE this time of transformation, this tender and sacred threshold of becoming, letting go of the old and finding yourself in the new.
It can feel terrifying to embrace the unknown, it can feel so disorienting to not know what will come and in many many ways we may feel far from who we were before we added a baby to our lives. The postpartum time is one of deep catharsis if we surrender to the journey.
Gather your allies, those who have gone before you, those who inspire you in your own becoming & trust your process! It will be worth it.
I am going to spend some of this month talking about my story/ my journey/ my work/ my training unique to working with people during their postpartum time. I am excited to talk about these topics I’ve been obsessed with for 15 years! β¨
What’s unique about you? What do you love? What gets you fired up? Or what drives you crazy? What makes you feel alive?
These questions and your discovery of your answers are important!
The power of coaching is the connection to our own brilliance, knowing, creativity and resource.
One way coaching does that is through knowing, owning and expressing our values. Our values are unique to us and dynamic.
They help us live intentionally, from the inside out versus reacting to all that’s around us.
If you’re a parent, having access to a steady & aligned place like this is what we desire to give to our kids. The best of us. So often we find ourselves in times going, “I don’t like this version of me. Who is this?” It can be hard in the stress of parenting to find these parts of us that are in flow, alignment & resource.
If you are a leader, our values are what our inspired & most creative work comes out of. It helps us filter out all the noise, all the possibilities and all the fear.
Want more!?
Come join my values workshop on Tuesday, Jan 30th from 12-2. $30.
If you can’t come then but are interested DM me to get on a waitlist for a future one or get set up with me to do it 1-1.
Link in bio.
Do you know your values?
Exploring, owning & expressing my values completely changed my world. If you are feeling frustrated, unfulfilled, stuck or lacking clarity on moving forward in 2024, exploring your values may open things up for you. OR if you feel inspired but scattered values can help filter your choices in your inspiration! Come explore with me. β¨
I’m hosting an online workshop at the end of this month & would love to see you there. DM me with questions! Link in my bio.
What’s the secret behind great coaching?
You are naturally creative, resourceful & whole. β¨
Coaching is centered on calling forth your genius, your resources, your knowing.
Coaching is NOT about me telling you what to do, making you be like me, or putting my solutions on you.
Our systems are wired for resilience. I believe life is imbued with healing and we have beauty and resource within in. What spaces help us tap into that? What people invoke those parts of us to come forward?
That’s why I love coaching. That’s why I coach and that’s why I have a coach. π
Welcome! I’m Nicole McCharen, I’m a Somatic (body based) Coach for Parents and Leaders focused on leading with their whole selves (body, mind, heart, + spirit).π₯°
This is my new IG experiment for 2023!
This is a place to talk about coaching and all the other themes I love, letting myself be seen, which for me is a deeply courageous and intentional choice. To be honest, letting myself be seen requires courage because it can be so vulnerable- to which I often resist or squirm about. π But here I am!
So that’s my intention right now- to be courageous and vulnerable here.
So here we go!
I’m so glad you are here. β€οΈ More soon!
What’s one courageous thing you are doing for 2023?
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