Nourishment Beyond Food
We grow up learning that nourishment comes from a plate: leafy greens, protein, healthy fats, colourful fruit. We count nutrients, time our meals, and teach our children about “sometimes foods” and “everyday foods.” And yet, as adults, many of us are walking around emotionally and energetically underfed; not because of what’s on our plate, but because of everything that isn’t.
In motherhood, our physical hunger is often the easiest one to recognise. The others, the quieter hungers, are easy to overlook. But they matter just as much. Sometimes even more.
Today, we’re talking about the nourishment that happens beyond food: the rest that restores us, the creativity that lights us up, and the connections that remind us we’re human.
The Nourishment of Rest: Reclaiming the Pause
Modern motherhood doesn’t leave much space for stillness. We survive on quick showers, half-finished coffees, and sleep that comes in fragments. Rest becomes something we “earn,” rather than something we inherently deserve.
But here’s the truth: Rest is nourishment.
It’s not lazy.
It’s not optional.
And it’s not something reserved for a mythical future where the to-do list is finally empty.
Rest is your body’s deepest form of integration, where healing happens, where creativity stirs, where your nervous system gets to exhale. Even tiny moments count: the pause before you respond, three deep breaths in the pantry, choosing to sit instead of scroll.
Rest is not just sleep.
It’s space.
It’s softness.
It's slow.
It’s allowing your body to whisper instead of forcing it to shout.
The Nourishment of Creativity: Feeding the Spark
Motherhood stretches us in every direction, but one of the deepest losses many women quietly feel is the loss of play. Of imagination. Of making something with no outcome attached.
We forget that creativity isn’t a luxury, it’s a vitamin. It doesn’t have to be dramatic or time-consuming:
Doodling while your child paints
Rearranging a corner of your home
Snapping a photo of the sky
Journaling for three minutes
Singing in the car
Trying a new recipe
Making a voice note of an idea
Picking up a project you abandoned months ago
Creativity doesn’t ask you to be good.
It simply asks you to begin.
And when you do, you nourish a part of yourself that has been patiently waiting,the part that remembers you are more than a caretaker, more than a scheduler, more than the keeper of all things.
You are a maker, too.
The Nourishment of Connection: Being Seen, Not Just Needed
Motherhood can be profoundly connecting, and oftentimes profoundly lonely. It can be both within the same existence.
We spend our days surrounded by tiny humans, yet often feel like no one sees us. No one asks how we are. No one notices the emotional juggling act behind our calm voice and soft smile.
Connection; real, tangible, energetic, connection nourishes the parts of us that ache to be witnessed.
It’s in:
A text that says, “Thinking of you.”
A conversation that goes deeper than logistics.
A partner who sees the invisible labour you carry.
A friend who lets you be unfiltered.
A moment of shared laughter with someone who gets it.
Nourishment through connection reminds us that we weren’t meant to mother alone. That we are allowed to lean, to soften, to be supported. And most importantly, that we matter, too.
The Beautiful Truth: You Are Allowed to Need More Than Food
You are allowed to need rest.
You are allowed to need creativity.
You are allowed to need connection.
These needs are not indulgent, they are human.
When we honour these forms of nourishment, we mother from a different place. A steadier, softer place.
And we show our children what it looks like to tend to the whole self not just the part that keeps everyone alive and fed, but the part that keeps us feeling alive, too.