Mama Mindset® Podcast Dr. Anik Cockroft

Mama Mindset® Podcast #14: Your Garden of Growth

Video Version:

https://youtu.be/rr2J0cbhJXc

From my lei po'o (aka flower crown) to yours. Today, I am shining out wearing a lei po'o I made the other day with friends. Literally I am smiling out from the soul because my vision that illustrates the canvas and landscape of my ideal career- would be to wear a flower crown and scrubs. Healer and gardener. Nature and nurture. All of it juxtaposed. And that is exactly what adorned my physical body today.

From a spiritual place, may this episode be a nourishing space for your beautiful, vibrant, thriving, creative, colorful and innovative soul. What are the dreams that have been divinely dropped into your soul? Do you believe that now is the time to nurture them, to call upon your inner gardener and that transcending connection that you have to Mother Earth.... to all that grows and is green and inspires and gives life?!

You are safe to rise, Mama. You are safe to dream all the dreams and watch and cultivate the magic of your manifestations in the soil of your soul. The world will benefit from what you will bring to life when you tune into your Mamatuition, the momentum building within you, the courage rising, the bravery starting to peek through the soil. You are meant to thrive in this season. What if everything was always working out for your highest good? Even, and especially in the seasons of adversity?

Are you willing to be the most influential person in your life, guarding and placing protective energy over the soul that is growing and sowing the seeds of the desires of your heart? Choosing to move your body in a way that feels reverent, be a human BEING in choice moments over a human DOING (which we are DOers all the livelong day (and night)), to experience the vibrancy of all the senses that delight you in your life, to claim the intersection of your experiences, your expertise and who you are as a human/visionary/artist/woman/mother.... this vibrancy is waiting to burst forth into bloom.

I'm here to make flower crowns with you, polish them with a little water and hydration, and I'll also shine and bedazzle your crown if that is more aligned with your inner symphony as well. Turn up the volume on the song of your life and tend to that soul soil.

Let me know how it GROWS!

- Anik

Mama Mindset® Podcast #13: Sacred Spirituality

Video Version:

https://youtu.be/apE6fK3Gg8A

In this episode, I share my sense of spirituality and how it is at the core of who I am, how I show up, and how this season of surrender in my life has led to the creation of Mama Mindset®.

Spirituality is really a dimension of myself I've held sacred and kept close over the years and feels inextricably woven into my core values.

With the growing Mamamentum I feel within Mama Mindset®, it felt vulnerable and aligned with the authenticity I desire to convey to share my spirituality with you. Holding space for my own spirituality as well as yours and what is meaningful, transcending and vertically aligning for you is a concept that has always resonated with who I am as a human.

To your spirituality and mine, validating one another, holding space and meeting in the sacred spirituality that Motherhood gifts us all.

- Anik

Mama Mindset® Podcast #Episode 12: My Path to Medicine

Video Version:

https://youtu.be/7TOP0YhG7P8

Doctor's Day + Me

For Doctor's Day (March 30) this year, I take a life chat talk down memory lane at the path that led me to being a Doctor.

It was a long and arduous journey that required every bit of my resolve, focus, determination and grit. There was a lot of sacrifice and "missed" life events involved. I always adored medicine and felt like it was an eternal privilege to get to learn the language of medicine and be entrusted to care for patients.

From the time I received my acceptance letter to medical school (felt like I got my long awaited letter to Hogwarts), to graduating medical school 4 years later, Pediatric Residency 3 years after that and Sports Medicine Fellowship an additional year after that... my dream job was within my grasp.

Or was it my dream job?! Tune in to hear how I leaned in to my genius zone, summoned the courage to pursue where I really felt at home and what I really felt aligned with, how I tapped into my core values and formed Mama Mindset® out of my role as a Physician and Healer, and innate gifts as an empath, artist and visionary.

I sit here today feeling more of a Doctor than ever, more reverent of my innate gifts and how those weave together as a Doctor and Doula of Mamas- Moula as I like to say. I'm claiming the 13 years after college and the grit and grace it took to land the title of Dr. Anik Cockroft. It took until the 25th grade for me, and I'm a lifelong learner. I'm here learning beside you in life, love, Mothering, artistry, creativity and innovation. The healer in me sees the healer in you! Polishing my crown and white coat today with this wonderful reminiscent road.

Thanks for celebrating Doctor's Day with me. To all of the colleagues I had the honor of going through medical school with, persevering through Residency + Fellowship with, all of my mentors in medicine who invested in my passion to care and serve others through medicine... I am eternally grateful. To all of the Physicians serving globally, deepest gratitude for pursuing your passion to serve, heal, and cultivating your skill and empathy to make this world a more compassionate place.

- Dr. Anik

Mama Mindset® Podcast Episode #11: Tuning into Your "Too Much"

Video Version: https://youtu.be/Dy_32J9-mGY

In this episode of Mama Mindset, we hit the spiritual gym (as per always) for some serious reps of:

- Tuning into the "too much" statements that you've likely heard in your life

- Too assertive, too passive, too loud, too quiet, too sensitive, too dramatic, too big, too small, too bossy, too nice... -

- What have we allowed these statements to mean?

- For me, I've often allowed them to mean that part of me was to be muted or minimized, or it was dangerous to display. The people pleaser inherent in me as a little girl-teenager- young woman was eager to stay within the lanes of what was socially acceptable and so these words often hit me and I allowed them to carry significant weight.

- What if your "too much" was actually an invitation into your superpower, your intuition, what makes you a strong and uniquely thriving human?

- What would happen if you explored these "too much" aspects of yourself, and you validated them?

- In this episode, I offer some ways to cultivate radical compassion for yourself and those who have uttered these statements to you. You can likely recall where/when/whom uttered them as they usually have a significant impact on your life.

- What if you were always safe within the container of your own emotional neutrality? At the base of your own tree and feminine energy with those divine roots that ground you and support you and are immovable and unshakable. And you not only believed but chose to freely live into your desire to express your "too much!"?

- That living in flow and fascination, getting curious about your "too much" is your ticket forward, your vulnerability and your inner artist waiting to be unleashed!

- You are safe to live into your "too much" and I'm so excited to see this version of yourself flourish and thrive.

- Our collective "too much" is an empowering, empathic, healing force that allows us to remain suspended in this spiritual gym and sacred sisterhood.

- I'm so glad you chose yourself today/tonight when and wherever this is landing upon your soul.... and it is my sincere desire that this choice to look into the pond of self reflection has given you the Mamamentum to validate all aspects of you who were, who you are, and who you are aligning with in future versions of yourself.

- You are in harmony, you are in your element and you are safe to rise!

- More of your "too much" please!

- Turn up the volume on the soundtrack of your life to the tune of your "too much!" There is MUSIC + MAGIC in there.... I feel compelled to offer that!

- Aloha Mama!

- And yes, for whatever reasons the spiritual gym movement medicine workout in me felt like typing this out in bulleted form was most honoring.

- I'm owning my "too sensitive" and "too complex" and "too nice" and "too studious" and "too selfish" comments that have landed and now are songs on repeat at my spiritual gym. I've got the volume turned up and I am belting out in song and letting my voice be heard.... even if it is a solo concert for one!

- Anik

Mama Mindset® Podcast Episode #10: Releasing the To-Do List

Video Version:

 https://youtu.be/rE62uiy7fro

Whoo- that was fun!  I was on my Mama PULPIT today 👏Here she blows! 🐳 🎙

Aloha Mama! Today in full disclosure, I came on to our life chat fatigued and feeling physically tired. I've been pouring a lot of energy into creating and medical pursuits lately. I've chosen them and although it's fulfilling and something that I'm passionate about, I've been trading sleep as medicine for these sacred pockets of productivity lately.

In this life chat, I share some raw thoughts on how we can protect our energy, lovingly challenge the way we tend to measure our worth through to-do lists, and the seductive and yet unfulfilling path we often take of being "busy" which we allow to dominate the landscape of our lives.

What if you started playing around with deleting your to-do list? With having FAITH that you can choose not to force things, that you will accomplish whatever it is you decide is honoring of your time and energy. With radical compassion, can you evaluate the various spheres of your life: physical, emotional/mental, spiritual, intellectual/occupational, relational/social, financial to see where you feel fatigued?

You are not one thing, but many. Woman. Mama. Creative. Visionary. Healer in your own home. Artist. Dreamer. You are not "too much." You are not "too emotional." You do not have "one role." You are a lot. And you are in good company here. I'll polish your crown and place it right back on your capable head. You have the capacity to move from your zone of genius into your zone of excellence. These concepts of Zone of Excellence and Zone of Genius are based on the book The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks.

I share how former versions of me felt when confronted with the comment, "You look tired today." For me it was a such a deflating statement, and ultimately one I allowed to mean I had failed in some way of showing up poised and polished, no matter how I might have been feeling. Ultimately, I didn't feel emotionally safe at the time to allow someone else into the fatigue I was feeling, because I wasn't even validating it for myself during that chapter. During my time in rigorous clinical medicine working 90 hour workweeks and 28 hour shifts without sleep, I did not allow fatigue. I felt this was dangerous and wanted to give my patients and their families every ounce of my intellect, compassion and calling to serve within medicine. While this is honorable on some levels and I certainly can claim that I practiced medicine in a high level way and delivered exceptional care, this was not a sustainable way for me to live. And while it allowed me to perform clinically, for me it suppressed my inner artist and creative. Because I wasn't carving out space to validate myself in a meaningful, vulnerable way. This version of me was all about her to-do lists and the grind and accomplishing whatever was in front of me next.

I've now pivoted and offer for all of you to do this in your own reverent way, from this expansive space within Mama Mindset®. The current version of myself would have compassion and expansive space for however I'm feeling, and own it, and if faced with the "You look tired" comment, would come from a completely different stratosphere of neutrality and curiosity and fascination. I wouldn't make it mean anything more than a comment floated to me and one I could examine for myself in my own pond of self reflection.

So today, I am feeling tired. I claim that. And it's okay. I know how I've been spending my energy. I've chosen the various creative pursuits in writing, creating Mama Mindset® content, playing with my babies, reading, moving my body, and dreaming (day dreaming as well as some super interesting night time dreaming as well haha). Curious, do you keep a dream journal? I have intermittently done that, but not lately. Based on the caliber and colors of my dreams lately, these are worth

Mama Mindset® Podcast Episode #9: Daughter, Water, Trees

Video Version:

https://youtu.be/Lxzho2w6wRY

Daughter. Born with divine feminine energy. Water. Refreshing and life giving. Trees. Majestic and a place of simultaneous strength and solace.

In this special and sacred episode of the Mama Mindset® podcast, I got emotional in the most nourishing way honoring a book that touched the soil of my soul. It nurtured me in a serendipitous moment, and it is my prayer that it splashes you with the honor it is to celebrate you, fellow daughter.

I feel this story is a beautiful depiction of one man's courage to change the narrative of a small village in India. To pivot from the silence, shame and fear that often met families when they welcomed a daughter.... to a place of celebration, strength and connection with nature.

The book is called 111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl by Rina Singh and gorgeously illustrated by Marianne Ferrer. These two women brought to life the story of a boy named Sundar... who grew up to become a man of prominence in his village, elected as sarpanch, or village head. Sundar Paliwal who chose to lean into the love and connection he had with two significant women in his life- his mother and daughter, both of whom he had tragically lost.... and to channel that love and grief into life and nurturing and ultimately honoring and allowing for new life to thrive.

Trees reminded him of his mother and walks he had with her to the well to get water as a young boy. He cherished this time alone with her, and was filled with awe watching her grace in balancing the water pot on her head and later filled with grief when she died after being bitten by a poisonous snake. When his daughter tragically died of dehydration, after his initial period of acute mourning, he planted trees in her honor.

And then, looking at 3 parallel lines he had written on the ground with a stick for 3 things that stood out in his mind: daughter, water, trees- he saw the number 111.

As the sarpach or village head, he proposed and planted the idea that honoring girls was the way forward. That for every daughter born to the village, 111 trees be planted in her honor. This thought was radical at the time and resistance was strong in the beginning. But as the idea began to take root, the families began planting 111 for every new daughter. The trees grew as did the girls. The once barren, arid and devoid landscape in this village began to flourish and thrive. Water was more abundant. Poverty and hunger improved. Women of the village tended to aloe vera plants which served as a natural termite repellent to ensure the health of the trees. From this and their natural innovation, they made products out of aloe vera and established a livelihood of their own for the first time.

The villagers committed to raising their daughters with the opportunity to get an education and not to be married before age 18. The girls and women of the village tie prayer and sacred threads to the trees at the end of every summer as a sacred act of the symbolism of their bond and their mutual ability to grow, prosper and thrive.

Today, the village still honors the birth of a daughter with the planting of 111 trees. In 2007, the Indian government honored the village of Piplantri with the President's Award for being a model village.

I imagine a visit to this village one day- to see the mango, papaya, neem, sheesham and amla trees along the roads and plentiful on the hillsides. Their beauty evident. Their brilliance and wisdom a source of life and restoration for the village and family. Their strength celebrated. Their life giving abilities on display. Just like the daughters who inspired them. May their roots grow ever deeper. May their brilliance and beauty be ever on display. Celebrated. Honored. A gift. A life giving gift. Born to thrive.

This profoundly powerful story moved me to the roots of my own soul.

Daughter. Water. Trees.

This Ind