Healing motherhood begins when a woman chooses to return to herself with presence, compassion, and awareness.
My name is Heba Elsahragty. I am a mother of two beautiful children who fill my heart with joy. Currently, I am a mindfulness and expressive arts guide based in Egypt. I support people, especially women and mothers, in reconnecting with their true essence and authentic selves in safe spaces filled with love, creativity, and presence. My work includes meditation, breathwork, journaling, and expressive arts and crafts.
I officially started this journey, “Soul Tour with Heba,” in 2024. However, in truth, it was the natural outcome of a lifelong relationship with mindfulness, creativity, and intuition long before I had words for it.
Longing for Home Before Motherhood
I always knew I wanted to be a mother. Even as a child, I played with my dolls, imagining myself caring for them.
I grew up living a nomadic life across different countries and cultures due to my father’s diplomatic work. This upbringing gave me rich experiences and exposure. However, it also came with instability and inner conflict. I often longed for emotional safety and a place to pour all the love in my heart into.
I believed motherhood would be that answer.
When the Body Speaks Before the Mind
During my teenage years, my body began speaking before my mind fully understood. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. At the time, it felt like a condition I simply had to live with. Much later, I realized how closely it mirrored my inner world. I was a sensitive teenager constantly adapting, often silencing my needs and my voice in order to cope.
Self-expression was my anchor. Expressive art came intuitively. I crafted, painted, wrote, collected meaningful objects, and filled my walls with symbols of who I was becoming. I journaled endlessly, using my diary as a safe place to process emotions I could not always articulate.
Looking back, I see that mindfulness and self-expression were already shaping me long before they became practices I consciously guided.
Breaking Patterns with Awareness
As I grew older, like many mothers, I carried unresolved childhood patterns into adulthood without realizing it. My choices in relationships, career, and even how I defined safety and stability were influenced by those early experiences.
Our generation often refers to them casually as mommy issues or daddy issues. However, my intention was never to stay trapped in the past. I searched for understanding. I studied human behavior and explored why people develop certain narcissistic traits or patterns.
My journey became about clarity rather than blame. Awareness rather than attachment to old stories.
Choosing Healing Through Motherhood
Over time, the cost of suppressing myself became heavy. I grew emotionally exhausted and eventually fell into depression. I sought therapy, which offered insight. Yet the deeper realization was this: healing required my participation. I had to take responsibility for my choices. I had to show up for myself.
Slowly, I began to understand something essential. Much of what I was seeking outside myself was care, reassurance, and love. So I started learning how to give myself what I had longed for as a child.
I slowed down, listened inwardly, and practiced gentleness. Furthermore, I offered myself the emotional safety and inner comfort I had been missing.
I learned how to mother myself.
When I did, everything shifted. I stopped living from depletion. I realized filling my own cup was not selfish. It was necessary.
Motherhood intensified this awareness. Like many mothers in our region, I placed my needs last, believing endurance and self-sacrifice were signs of strength. Yet with time, I realized I was paying with my health, energy, and emotional presence.
So I asked myself a simple but powerful question: What do my children truly need?
The answer was love.
Children do not need a perfect mother. They need a present one. They need to feel safe, seen, and emotionally connected. I understood that I could not offer that if I was disconnected from myself. Healing through motherhood meant returning to myself first.
My focus shifted to the “here and now”. I chose to live more mindfully, express myself honestly, and rebuild my sense of self-worth without being defined by the past.
Returning to Myself with Intention
Mindfulness and meditation, which had been part of my early life in Japan, naturally resurfaced. I returned to them with intention.
I remember a meditation where I saw myself walking in nature with my children and a loving partner. We were calm, joyful, and free. That vision became my compass. It reminded me of who I truly was beneath all the roles.
At the time, my children were still very young. Nevertheless, I made the courageous decisions needed to bring my soul back to life. I ended my toxic marriage, set healthy boundaries, left my corporate career, and began creating a life aligned with my values.
I traveled locally on a modest budget, offering my children presence, meaningful experiences, and emotional safety rather than material certainty alone. Along the way, I explored different paths, from wedding planning to catering to teaching online.
My children grew up surrounded by love, creativity, and openness. Eventually, my journey led me to a loving partner, and I remarried with clarity and peace.
Creating Safe Spaces for Other Mothers
At the end of 2024, I joined a retreat in Luxor with my husband. There, I felt a clear inner call to begin sharing my journey. I returned and hosted my first circle at Wadi Degla Protectorate. The response affirmed what I had always known intuitively.
Simple practices of mindfulness, presence, and self-expression are deeply transformative, yet often overlooked.
Today, I create soulful gatherings and safe spaces for those who wish to reconnect with themselves, their voice, and their inner wisdom. I hold a special place in my heart for mothers who feel depleted, unheard, or lost within their roles. I know that place well.
My message is simple. Healing does not require perfection. It begins with presence, compassion, and the courage to trust your intuition and love yourself now.
When a mother chooses presence, self-expression, and self-compassion, she gives her children the greatest gift of all: a whole and emotionally available parent.
Have advice for moms or a personal story to tell? We’d love to feature your voice on our blog! Share your experiences with us here! We’re always excited to welcome new perspectives and stories from moms like you!
