by Julie Neale | May 19, 2022 | CONNECTED - Podcast Episodes, Podcast
“We need these manifestos. We need each other. And we need each other’s stories.” — Graeme Seabrook
For Season Seven, I’m excited to introduce our Throwback Thursdays segments!
In honor of Mother’s Quest turning 5 (such a great milestone!) we will be revisiting older episodes from the archives with messages that resonate more than ever. Whether you’ve heard the episode before, or its entirely new to you, I hope you find some treasures in these conversations that help you more fully live your E.P.I.C life.
This Thursday, in honor of our Mother’s Quest May Manifesto Challenge, I wanted to bring back this episode with Graeme Seabrook, known as “the Mom for Moms” which started the Challenge four years ago.
Graeme bases her approach to coaching on the belief that you need to put yourself first in order for you to thrive. Following a traumatizing birth experience and postpartum depression with anxiety and PTSD, Graeme started her healing journey by teaching mothers and women to reclaim their humanity in a world and culture that expects women to be superhuman.
Listen in as Graeme shares with us the disillusionment she experienced in her first months of motherhood, and how she reached out for support to reclaim her life, something she then paid forward by creating and holding space for other mothers. You’ll also hear us lay out the inspiration for the Manifesto Challenge which has become an annual tradition.
Unfortunately, Graeme has been ill over the last year. She’s set up a GoFundMe to help fund her medical expenses. Proceeds from the Manifesto Challenge Course this month, now a self-guided journey with Reflection Journal, will go to Graeme’s GoFundMe. After she has given so much to our community, we now have an opportunity to support her!
Not up for the Manifesto Challenge this year, or want to make an additional contribution? You can help Graeme’s healing journey by going directly to her GoFundMe: Fundraiser by Graeme Seabrook: Help Graeme Heal
This Year’s Manifesto Challenge + Live Zoom Celebration with Andrea Scher:
Join us for this year’s Manifesto Challenge!
At the Mother’s Quest MemberVault, register for the Challenge and move through a reflective process, with video recordings and a special journal to capture your thoughts. All will lead you to create a guiding framework, or manifesto, that can become an anchor for how you want to live your life.
Then celebrate with me, recent podcast guest Andrea Scher and fellow MQ community members on May 24th. Register here for the live zoom event. Visit here for the episode with Andrea
Pay from the heart proceeds benefit Graeme’s GoFundMe. Register here for self-guided experience: https://mothersquest.vipmembervault.com/…/courses/view/6
Mother’s Day has passed but it’s the right time to invest in ourselves.
Reflect. Create. Celebrate.
Topics Discussed in this Episode:
- The experiences that shaped Graeme’s childhood and conception of motherhood, including her observations of her own mother’s experience parenting, the many times her family moved, and how her home and heart landed in Charleston
- Graeme’s honest retelling of her early months of motherhood where she remembers holding her baby and feeling like there was a wall between them
- The E.P.I.C. spark moment that came when she shared her story online and received an outpouring of messages from other mothers going through the same experiences
- Graeme’s “true truths” and the concept from her current favorite author, Octavia Butler, about God
- Graeme’s description of the Ten Articles in the Mother’s Bill of Rights, how she champions and helps mothers reclaim themselves through this framework, and the support she offers in her Mom Center.
- Graeme’s E.P.I.C. Snapshot moment revealed reflections on the legacy of our matriarchs, the mothers we claim for ourselves, and how we can become the ancestor we aspire to now.
- A description of our co-created #OneMinuteMomManifesto challenge.
Full Episode Show Notes
Check out the full show notes from the original episode here: Ep 41: Reclaiming Ourselves in Motherhood ~A Mother’s Day Special~ with Graeme Seabrook
Mother’s Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life.
Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C).
Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/
by Julie Neale | May 9, 2019 | Podcast
“We need these manifestos. We need each other. And we need each other’s stories.” — Graeme Seabrook
In honor of Mother’s Day 2019, I wanted to re-release this episode I recorded a year ago with Graeme Seabrooke of The Mom Center, Self-Care Squad and recently launched podcast, Your Mom Friend.
I so appreciated this conversation and the invitation Graeme and I co-created for you called the #oneminutemommanifesto. Graeme and I are all about helping mothers claim their lives and realized we each had crafted our own manifestos that were instrumental in reclaiming ours. For her it was her Mother’s Bill of Rights which you’ll hear us talk more about, and for me, it’s The E.P.I.C. Life framework that’s become the foundation of all things Mother’s Quest. We also realize that a manifesto doesn’t have to be long or time-consuming to create, but can be something you can declare in as little as one minute.
Graeme and I have a vision one day for the creation and sharing of one million of these on social media using the hashtag #oneminutemommanifesto. This year, to support you in creating your own, I’m facilitating a Manifesto Challenge in the private Mother’s Quest Facebook Group, from May 13th to the 17th. You can join the group by visiting www.mothersquest.com/community.
Each day, I’ll share a reflective prompt to help you claim the next chapter in your life and I’ll host a different mother, including Graeme, who will share their stories and their #oneminutemommanifestos for inspiration.
I hope you’ll say “yes” to this challenge and creating your own #oneminutemommanifesto as a Mother’s Day gift to yourself. You must be a priority in your own life. And, this is an opportunity to claim it and declare it. Because as you’ll hear Graeme say in our conversation, “We need these manifestos. We need each other. And we need each other’s stories.”
Have an amazing Mother’s Day!
Much appreciation,
P.S. Check out the announcement below to join us for the #oneminutemommanifesto Challenge in the Facebook Group in honor of Mother’s Day.
P.S.S. Know someone who would love this conversation? Click forward now to pay this forward to a friend who may be interested.
This Episode is Dedicated by:
Desiree Adaway of the Adaway Group. Sign up for four weeks of reflection, discussion, and sisterhood through Desiree’s upcoming Sister Summer – a 4-week writing intensive. And learn to become a force for freedom –for your liberation and the liberation of others through the Freedom School.
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
- The experiences that shaped Graeme’s childhood and conception of motherhood, including her observations of her own mother’s experience parenting, the many times her family moved, and how her home and heart landed in Charleston.
- Graeme’s honest retelling of the challenging early months of motherhood where she remembers holding her precious baby and feeling like there was a wall between them.
- The E.P.I.C. spark moment that came when she shared her story online, received an outpouring of messages from other mothers going through the same experiences of emotional pain, depression, and anxiety and realized she needed to do something about it.
- -Graeme’s “true truths” and the concept from her current favorite author, Octavia Butler, about God. It’s so powerful and a metaphor for the reciprocal relationship between parents and their children.
- Graeme’s description of the Ten Articles in the Mother’s Bill of Rights, how she champions and helps mothers reclaim themselves through this framework and the support she offers in her Mom Center.
- Graeme’s E.P.I.C. Snapshot moment which revealed reflections on the legacy of our matriarchs, the mothers we claim for ourselves, and how we can become the ancestor we aspire to now.
- A description of our co-created #OneMinuteMomManifesto challenge.
Resources Mentioned:
This Week’s Challenge “Revisited”:
Graeme and I have a vision one day for the creation and sharing of one million of these manifestos on social media using the hashtag #oneminutemommanifesto.
Join us in the private Mother’s Quest Facebook Group, from May 13th to the 17th.
Each day, I’ll share a reflective prompt to help you claim the next chapter in your life and I’ll host a different mother, including Graeme, who will share their stories and their #oneminutemommanifestos for inspiration.
Hope to see you there!
Announcements:
Spark Your E.P.I.C. Year
Anyone else feel like they need a spring reset to their year?
A few months ago, we declared February the new January and facilitated a Mother’s Quest Workshop/Virtual Milestone Hike experience to help us all start again.
Using photos from my favorite local hike, I took a small group on a virtual journey to:
✨Reflect on our last chapter (as we ascend)
✨Decide what we want to release (using an image of a big bad bonfire!) and what we want to carry forward
✨Then, set intentions along the E.P.I.C. guideposts for our new chapter.
There’s a special planning sheet we created to guide you and help you document the whole process.
🌟Truthfully, we can start fresh any time we choose.🌟
If you decide you want to reset and begin again, today, this afternoon or this weekend, using this experience and worksheet to support you. Just sign up here.
Join me on my #100dayproject Journey
I’m doing Lindsay Jean Thomson’s #100dayproject and decided to record 100 stories about the making of Mother’s Quest on my Mother’s Quest Bite-sized Reflections on Living an E.P.I.C. Life Podcast (an unedited sister podcast to my interview show.) Releasing perfectionism, I realized a few days in, these 100 episodes won’t be consecutive, but I’ll get to 100 still! There are almost a dozen recorded now and I’d love for you to tune in!
Follow Mother’s Quest on Anchor and join the #100dayproject!
Acknowledgments:
A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support:
Julie Castro Abrams
Alexia Vernon
Brooke Markevicius
Democracy Clothing
Michael Skolnik
Helgi Maki
Kari Azuma
Tamara Sobomehin
Katie Krimitsos
Carrie Caulfield Arick
Rachel Rosen
Chandra Brooks
Jen Simon
Monisha Vasa
Celia Ward-Wallace
Vanessa Couto
Desiree Adaway
Rachel Steinman
Katie Hanus
Denise Barreto
Sage B. Hobbs
Samantha Nolan-Smith
Jody Smith
Emily Cretella
Collette Flanagan
Titilayo Tinubu Ali
Carly Magnus Hurt
Lizzy Russinko
Suzanne Brown
Mara Berns Langer
Mallory Schlabach
Katharine Earhart
Jessica Kupferman
Jen Jenkins Dohner
Genese Harris
Tonya Rineer
Liane Louie-Badua
Cristin Downs
Erin Kendall
Niko Osoteo
Erik Newton
Claire Fry
Divya Silbermann
Rachel Winter
Caren and Debbie Lieberman
Cameron Miranda
Fran and David Lieberman
Debbie and Alan Goore
The Sustainable Living Podcast
Support the Podcast
If you’d like to make a contribution to Mother’s Quest to support Season Three of the Podcast and/or help provide coaching scholarships for mothers, follow this link to make a contribution.
If you would like to “dedicate” an upcoming episode to a special mother in your life, email me at julie@mothersquest.com
Mother’s Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life.
Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C).
Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/
by Julie Neale | May 10, 2018 | Podcast
I’m so honored to bring you this special Mother’s Day edition of the Mother’s Quest Podcast with Graeme Seabrook, a woman whose recent writing on reclaiming ourselves in motherhood through a Mother’s Bill of Rights had me laughing, crying and cheering out loud. The moment I read it, I knew I wanted to have this conversation on the podcast.
Graeme is a Motherhood Life Coach, who bases her approach to coaching on the belief that you must be a priority in your own life in order to thrive. Following a traumatizing birth experience and postpartum depression, anxiety, and PTSD, Graeme began a healing journey as a mother and a woman. Believing that our global culture treats mothers as if we’re inhuman and expects us to be superhuman, she helps mothers reclaim our humanity through her work as the founder of The Mom Center, a social and coaching network for mothers, and through her speaking and writing.
In our conversation, Graeme shared generously about her life-long quest to become a mother, the disillusionment she experienced in her first months of motherhood, and how she reached out for support to reclaim her life, something she now pays forward by creating and holding space for other mothers.
We discuss the ways that living an E.P.I.C. life resonates for her, the E.P.I.C. guideposts in her life, and how the floodgates for impact opened as she crystallized everything she’s experienced and thought about into the “Mother’s Bill of Rights” with Ten Articles which I think are revelatory: a mother’s right to Personhood, Privacy, Space, Care, Voice, Respect, Name, Dreams, Desire, and Visibility.
In time for Mother’s Day, I hope this conversation inspires you to examine your own truths and that you’ll record and share with us what you uncover using the hashtag #OneMinuteMomManifesto. It’s a co-created challenge, and a Mother’s Day Gift to you, from me and Graeme…an invitation to you for nothing less than a reclamation of your whole SELF.
This episode dedicated by:
Desiree Adaway of the Adaway Group. Sign up for four weeks of reflection, discussion, and sisterhood through Desiree’s upcoming Sister Summer – a 4-week writing intensive. And learn to become a force for freedom –for your liberation and the liberation of others through the Freedom School.
Topics Discussed in this Episode:
- The experiences that shaped Graeme’s childhood and conception of motherhood, including her observations of her own mother’s experience parenting, the many times her family moved, and how her home and heart landed in Charleston.
- Graeme’s honest retelling of the challenging early months of motherhood where she remembers holding her precious baby and feeling like there was a wall between them.
- The E.P.I.C. spark moment that came when she shared her story online, received an outpouring of messages from other mothers going through the same experiences of emotional pain, depression, and anxiety and realized she needed to do something about it.
- -Graeme’s “true truths” and the concept from her current favorite author, Octavia Butler, about God. It’s so powerful and a metaphor for the reciprocal relationship between parents and their children.
- Graeme’s description of the Ten Articles in the Mother’s Bill of Rights, how she champions and helps mothers reclaim themselves through this framework and the support she offers in her Mom Center.
- Graeme’s E.P.I.C. Snapshot moment which revealed reflections on the legacy of our matriarchs, the mothers we claim for ourselves, and how we can become the ancestor we aspire to now.
- A description of our co-created #OneMinuteMomManifesto challenge.
This Week’s Challenge:
A challenge co-created by me and Graeme in honor of Mother’s Day to invite you to create your own one-minute manifesto about what you want to claim or reclaim in your motherhood. Use video, photos, poetry or any other form of your choice to express what matters most to you and share on social media using the hashtag #OneMinuteMomManifesto. Visitwww.facebook.com/MothersQuest for more information and inspiration. Help us reach our goal to inspire the creation of one million of these Mom Manifestos!
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Announcements:
Dedicate an Episode of the Mother’s Quest Podcast
On this special Mother’s Day edition of the podcast, I want to honor my own mother Fran Lieberman, my mother in law Anne Neale, and the matriarchal ancestors that came before us, both biological and those as my guest Graeme Seabrook says we claim for ourselves.
I invite you to take a moment in honor of Mother’s Day to think about the mothers who have impacted you. And if there’s someone special you’d like to dedicate an upcoming podcast episode to, send an email tojulie@mothersquest.com. I’d love to hear your story and share how you can tell it on the podcast.
Spring into Your E.P.I.C. Life Clarity Coaching Package
Spring is an amazing time to more fully seed the E.P.I.C. Guideposts in your life. I’m opening a limited number of one-on-one coaching spaces for a 90 day coaching package that includes bi-weekly hour-long coaching sessions where I will help you mindfully close the chapter of the last season, identify your vision for what’s ahead, set strategic action steps for moving forward, and provide inspiration and accountability along the way. Email me at julie@mothersquest.com to set up a free discovery call and learn more.
Virtual Mother’s Quest Circle Pilot
I’m excited to announce that the first founding Mother’s Quest Virtual Circle has been filled. If you’re interested in a future circle, and want to receive notice when the applications open again, please add your name to this wait list. julie@mothersquest.com
Help us Grow the Mother’s Quest Community
If you’re finding value from the Mother’s Quest Podcast and would like to get more involved, please join us in the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group, help us find more like-minded mothers on a quest by spreading the word and sharing your favorite episodes, and make a donation or apply to dedicate an episode. You can also share your story on the Mother’s Quest Blog.
Acknowledgements:
A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support:
- Desiree Adaway
- Rachel Steinman
- Katie Hanus
- Denise Barreto
- Sage B. Hobbs
- Samantha Nolan-Smith
- Jody Smith
- Emily Cretella
- Collette Flanagan
- Titilayo Tinubu Ali
- Carly Magnus Hurt
- Lizzy Russinko
- Suzanne Brown
- Mara Berns Langer
- Mallory Schlabach
- Katharine Earhart
- Jessica Kupferman
- Jen Jenkins Dohner
- Genese Harris
- Tonya Rineer
- Liane Louie-Badua
- Cristin Downs
- Erin Kendall
- Niko Osoteo
- Erik Newton
- Claire Fry
- Divya Silbermann
- Rachel Winter
- Caren and Debbie Lieberman
- Cameron Miranda
- Fran and David Lieberman
- Debbie and Alan Goore
- The Sustainable Living Podcast
Support the Podcast
If you’d like to make a contribution to Mother’s Quest to support Season Three of the Podcast and/or help provide coaching scholarships for mothers, follow this link to make a contribution.
If you would like to “dedicate” an upcoming episode to a special mother in your life, email me at julie@mothersquest.com
by Julie Neale | Mar 8, 2023 | INVESTED - Podcast Episodes, Podcast
Welcome to this special Season Seven finale episode of the Mother’s Quest Podcast, released on International Women’s Day 2023. It feels like just right timing to bring this conversation to you, but the seeds for this episode have been germinating since last spring,...
by Julie Neale | Jan 19, 2023 | INVESTED - Podcast Episodes, Podcast
In 2016, on a leap of faith, I signed up for something called a Power Circle and was guided through a six month process by this amazing facilitator Jamie Greenwood. In the space that Jamie held for a small group of us, I said out loud my dreams for Mother’s Quest for the first time, and at Jamie’s urging, started a Facebook Group for the community I hoped to grow in my journey.
Six plus years, almost a 100 podcast episodes, and over a thousand FB Group members later in my journey, Jamie has become a mother herself, and has evolved her coaching practice into one that teaches big-dreaming, high-achieving women, many of them mothers, how to set boundaries and find home within ourselves, without an ounce of guilt.
Jamie is also the host of The Path Home, a podcast that explores the many facets of home, how we find home in ourselves and how we create a sense of home in our work, our relationships, our communities and in the future we want to see.
When we arrived to this interview as 2022 was coming to a close, Jamie and I were both in the midst of juggling health and wellness challenges with our children. The conversation that unfolded was the reminder we both needed of the power of self-care, of how grateful we are for the flexibility to reorganize things to care for our children when needed, and of finding and communicating our boundaries. Jamie has found a definition she loves…”boundaries are the safe distance at which I can love you and I can love myself.”
I loved this intimate conversation with the coach that helped me find my way at the start of Mother’s Quest. In listening, I hope you are reminded, as I was, to slow down, to pay attention to what our bodies are telling us, to trust ourselves to set boundaries, to connect to what we’re hungry for and to be brave enough to say it out loud. I hope this episode helps you come home to yourself.
This Episode’s Challenge:
Part of coming home to ourselves is about bravery. Reach out to people for connection, and you might be surprised that you can build an instant community. Know that If you have a hunger for something, others likely have that hunger too. Ask yourself, “what kind of connection am I hungry for in my relationships and in my own community?” Then reach out.
About Jamie Greenwood:
Jamie Greenwood is a self care and leadership coach and the founder of Homecoming, a 6 month group coaching program that teaches big-dreaming, high-achieving women how to set boundaries and find home in themselves, without an ounce of guilt. With over 15 years experience, Jamie specializes in helping women get really clear on who they are, how they want to live and then actually doing it on their own terms.
Jamie is also the host of The Path Home, a podcast that explores the many facets of home, how we find home in ourselves and how we create a sense of home in our work, our relationships, our communities and in the future we want to see.
When Jamie’s not coaching, speaking, or podcasting, you can find her running after her 14 year old, 6 year old and 4 year old daughters and wondering what’s for dinner.
Connect with Jamie:
Topics Discussed in this Episode:
- Navigating disappointment and that feeling of taking one step forward two steps back when challenges come up with our children
- How Jamie takes care of her children’s needs without compromising her own
- What Jamie says to her children at breakfast that demonstrates to them that she matters too
- Jamie’s favorite definition of “boundaries”…it’s so beautiful!
- The importance of speaking our truth and why we should not use a “gratitude bypass” to obscure it.
- Jamie’s experience on Instagram and why she stopped using it
- Making space to be quiet and to connect with our own wisdom
- Being brave and reaching out others
Resources Mentioned:
This Episode is Dedicated by Maria Ross
Maria Ross is a speaker, facilitator, author, and empathy advocate who believes cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive. She’s spent decades helping forward-thinking leaders and teams connect and engage through empathy to accelerate growth and impact. Maria has authored multiple books, including her most recent title, The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success and also hosts The Empathy Edge podcast.
Maria has appeared in many prominent media outlets, including MSNBC, NPR, Wisdom from the Top with Guy Raz (NPR), Forbes.com, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global. She has spoken to audiences ranging from TEDx audiences to Salesforce to The 3% Conference and has conducted empathy workshops for leading organizations such as TBWA, CHRISTUS Health and New York Life. Her thought leadership writing has appeared in multiple publications including Entrepreneur.com, Newsweek, and Huffington Post. Maria lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and young son and serves clients worldwide.
Maria’s Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariajross/
Instagram: @redslicemaria // https://www.instagram.com/redslicemaria/
Twitter: @redslice // https://www.twitter.com/redslice
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redslice
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/mariajross
The Spark Your E.P.I.C. Year Workshop: A Virtual Milestone Hike Is Coming February 11th!
I want to invite you to one of my favorite new year traditions. It’s a Spark Your E.P.I.C. Year Workshop, in the form of a reflective Virtual Milestone Hike that will help us pack up the learning from the year that has ended and set intentions for the one ahead. No sweating required since we’ll be in the comfort of our own home. To learn more and sign up, visit www.tinyurl.com/sparkyourepicyear23. Spaces are limited and I hope you will claim one.
Mother’s Quest is a podcast and community for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life.
Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C).
Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest
