Of the many exercises moms are asked to complete at the Mindful Mom Re-Treat, there is one which almost always leaves them a bit flustered. It’s an easy exercise actually, and the moms are asked to complete it in just five minutes. Some moms zoom through the exercise like students who prepared for the exam the night before. Most moms, however, hem and haw before finishing it. Last Saturday, moms decided to take some time off from their regular programming at the Mindful Mom Re-Treat which took place at Earth Kitchen in Bonifacio Global City. The offline version of Mommy Mundo’s award-winning Mom Manifesto campaign, the Mindful Mom Re-Treat was facilitated by Registered Family Psychologist Ichel Alignay. The retreat hopes to refresh, re-energize, and re-center moms towards lives of mindfulness.

So what question has got all these moms in a tizzy? Simply enough, they were asked to list down the things they are good at on one column and the things they are not good at on another. Faced with such an exercise, most moms quickly fill out the bad part, but take a much longer time answering the good part.

This is but natural. Most women aren’t too comfortable at beating their breasts, preferring to get the job done than shouting wildly at how good they are. Nevertheless, it was an eye-opener.

Looking at the list, the natural reaction would be to analyze the bad part, and work on improving those. But Alignay introduced another concept which floored the moms. She talked to them about strength spotting, a conscious decision to look at their skills and abilities and harness those to lead better, fuller lives.

So moms, for instance, who aren’t good at cooking need not cry out in frustration. They only need to accept that they aren’t good in cooking and delegate this task to some other person who’s actually great at it. It can be another member of the family, a house helper, or even a food takeout service. They need not force themselves to do something they’re not good at, and instead focus on their talents, whether it’s tutoring their kids, planning family events, or keeping their home clean and organized.

This is but one of the many insights which moms garnered last Saturday. Here, a peek at what transpired during the re-treat: