The Mala Stories highlight women that use motherhood as a catalyst for personal growth, strength, and connection.

Showing that Motherhood isn’t something that robs you of your time and identity, but rather is something that brings to the surface a deeper connection to yourself, your community and the universe.

That motherhood can be a time when you shed your insecurities, and self-doubt to step fully into the woman you are meant to be.

I am thrilled to have Arianna share her second instalment of the Mala Stories. In this story she talks about how her mala beads have helped her honour her darkness and illuminate her light. 

For myself personally, the mala has always been a piece of intentional jewelry that has been symbolic to the consciousness. Mindful awareness in how and who we choose to surround our forward expanding energy.

This year, and after an emotionally difficult birth of our seventh child, my attention to when I would reach for my mala began to shift.

Or perhaps I just hadn’t taken proper notice before. I also found myself curious of the stories behind the malas worn by others. What waves they were riding, wounds they were tending and intentions they were setting. It's all so deeply beautiful. All so much more than just a necklace.

Before my seventh birth my mala was a tool of gentleness. A reminder to step back into peaceful presence, to slow the hustle and listen to inner guidance.

Since my daughter’s birth, and as I’ve made my way through the foggy postpartum, my mama mala has also become in many ways a powerful light source.

Helping not only to illuminate areas that call for my attention but also in a way of revealing the shadows.

This light of awareness doesn’t get rid of our shadow but it does thin the veil, allowing ourselves to peek in and remove the sabotaging blockages that create separation and dis-alignment within.

Shadow work isn’t really something we see shared as often or as openly. It’s easier to sit with the light and all things love.

Carl Jung said it so perfectly when he referred to shadow work as, “the path of the heart warrior”. It takes courage to walk through and revisit the aches, pains and bruises. Through the areas we’ve shoved from consciousness to our unconscious. Our shadows are all the emotions ego has labeled as “negative” or taboo.

It is the self-sabotaging form of filing away in ways of “this is the good and these are the bad” parts of self. It’s the resistant vibrations to our purest truth and ultimate wholeness.

When we take time to practice the potent magic of shadow work, we begin to regain the abilities to identify and understand what we have been repressing and in turn we begin to bring light back into those area of blackness.

We allow the shadow to step into momentary power. We should honor it, connect to it, and learn to dance with it so we can then rise above it and reclaim missing pieces of self.

By sitting with our shadow, we rebuild the lost and broken. We begin to truly know what it is and means to love ourselves fully and wholly again.

It's learning to embrace the past as lessons, not shackles and with that comes the gift of freedom and belonging. We all as humans crave this.

When we pour into our imperfect, we are meeting the deepest belonging possible. We begin living open with self-acceptance and self-accountability.

The beads that hug my neck and hang at my heart are a reminder to celebrate and practice the dance between our inner light and dark.

To celebrate and love myself entirely; as a Mother there are very few things I can think of equally as great of a gift that I can offer myself and in turn my children.