13/06/2026
I was wrong thinking I had a big family.
In reality, it got reduced to my mom and dad.
I have two brothers and a sister who haven’t called me once in eight years. I have called them, but the connection was only one season returned.
When you become an expat, as many know, you become a foreigner in both countries. Yet, thanks to the courage of stepping into the unknown and searching for a better life, we built one. And we made it the best we could.
The price, however, is not what most people think.
It can be lonely as hell.
Especially motherhood without family, without familiar faces around you. Those people with whom your hair can be a mess, your house can be a mess, and that’s perfectly okay.
I had to reinvent my own rites of passage into motherhood without my mother around, without any mothers around. There were no abuelas I could run to for guidance, wisdom, or reassurance.
So I searched for them inside my own soul.
That is why I wrote Mothering From Within (link in bio). Not only to express my deepest feelings, but to reconnect with my own ancestral wisdom and inner knowing.
And in that soul-searching journey, not everything was beautiful or magical.
There was darkness too.
Family loyalties I had to release.
Roots I had to cut.
Stories I could no longer carry.
Again and again, I had to return to the only truth I could trust:
How I wanted to mother my children.
Instead of weeping my soul away over the lack of mirrors around me, I learned to look into the one mirror that was always there — my own reflection.
Over and over, I entered the steam and heat of the Sweat Lodge. I sang my heart out. I prayed. I shed skins. I recreated myself again and again until only my essence remained.
If motherhood with family and support is difficult, imagine doing it without.
I proved to myself that I could do it because my children’s childhood depended on it.
And so my husband and I continued to grow, evolve, and return to the love we have for each other.
Then one night, while sleeping, I heard my mother’s voice as clearly as if she were standing in the next room:
“Laura María… Laura María…”
I woke up and called her immediately.
Three months later, Laura María Somatic Bodywork was born.
A space for mothers carrying babies the way I once did — feeling alone, misunderstood, overwhelmed, confused, or simply longing to be heard.
Today, I honor my mother through my name: Laura María.
I honor her through the way I care for my children, just as she cared for me.
My mother was one of those women whose bravery looked like staying home to raise her children. She put aside her dreams of becoming a fashion designer and artist while we were little.
Later, she returned to them.
Not for fame.
Not for recognition.
Simply for herself.
And yes, there was sacrifice.
But through my own journey of reinventing motherhood within a spiritual way of life, I realized something:
Sacrifice and resentment cannot coexist with conscious motherhood.
What can exist is conscious choice.
And presence.
Presence with our children.
Presence with ourselves.
Presence with our families.
Matrescence (link in bio) is not a new term, although it may be new to social media. It is a reality many doulas, birth workers, and mothers are helping bring into the medical system and public conversation.
Because becoming a mother changes everything.
And perhaps it’s time we stop expecting women to act as if a truck hasn’t just run over them.
Motherhood transforms us.
It breaks us open.
And then, if we allow it, it shows us who we truly are.
Let’s Talk (link in Bio) schedule your discovery 30 min free call.
“To every mother doing it without the village she dreamed of— I see you. ❤️”
Laura Ma.
