When Soul-Aligned Motherhood Doesn't Feel So Aligned

To be perfectly honest, soul-aligned motherhood at times feels less than soul-aligned. It's in those moments when you're falling back into old patterns—and this has absolutely been me over the last week or so.

I've been really hard on myself lately. The day starts off funky, and by 10am I'm beating myself up for not living up to my expectations in a whole slew of ways.

What's different now, as I walk this soul-aligned journey, is when I get in this headspace I immediately recognize this self-sabotage for what it is… not true. This is big for me! However, last week I needed to prove to myself that I'm doing a ton and doing pretty damn well.

So on a whim, last Thursday, I posted snapshots from my day on Instagram Stories. My daughter had randomly snapped a photo as I was getting ready for our morning walk, and then I snagged a selfie with my girls and pup after a fun time at the dog park. Voila… I said to myself, "I'm going to prove to myself just how much I do by posting my day to stories."

I'm not one for pulling out my phone every hour to post or scroll social media, but I had a hunch that by doing this, I would be able to look back at all the stories and I would FEEL accomplished—and the battle dragging my mood down for days would ease.

Well, it worked! I posted 15 moments from my day. And at the same time, I also know how much I didn't post… like the math meltdown and the dinner chaos. But the deeper result was something more unexpected.

The Expectations Trap in Soul-Aligned Motherhood

I had been getting caught up in my expectations…

• For how our RV journey was supposed to be going vs. how it's actually going

• For how far along my daughter should be in math vs. where she actually is

• For how I imagined balancing work and homeschool vs. how it actually looks

• For the business my husband has started vs. what I had envisioned him doing

  
  

And you know what expectations do? They send you spiraling into your not-reality. Because expectations are just thoughts and ideas predominantly influenced by culture and societal norms, but they often don't have a whole lot to do with your actual reality.

In fact, staying in the headspace of what you expected and trying to force your days to look more like those expectations is one of the quickest ways to experience complete burnout, anxiety, and depression. It's a slippery slope and one that is the default for so many of us.

But what I now know is that living to fulfill expectations robs you of the beauty of now. It kills flow. It zaps gratitude. It distracts you, numbing your actual experiences.

The Real Lesson

The moral of this story? Even when you choose to walk down and live out a soul-aligned motherhood, there will be times when you are pulled back into your old ways. AND THAT IS OK!

Because when you are living soul-aligned motherhood, you remain curious, reflective, and become better and better at navigating this chaotic modern life with deep awareness. It is with that awareness that you can pull yourself out of the ditch and get back to living soul-aligned, taking the lesson learned along with you.

Sometimes the most soul-aligned thing you can do is give yourself permission to be human. To have funky days. To recognize when you're in a pattern that isn't serving you. And to gently redirect yourself back to what is.

That's the real work of soul-aligned motherhood—not perfection, but presence. Not meeting expectations, but meeting yourself where you are.