It occurred to me recently how many meals we prepare with resentment - And I do include myself in this, make no mistake. How many times are we exhausted, overworked, overstressed or simply not in the mood to prepare a meal? I’ve watched myself doing this, and others too, and have to wonder how digestible that food really is by the time we’ve poured our daily grief and resentment into it by the cupful.

I was reading about Masaru Emoto’s Peace Project on the net and if you are not familiar with his experiments, they go something like this: He takes a body of water (be that a glassful or a lakeful) and offers the water different words. The water is prayed for, or has a word written down and stuck to the glass, or shouted at it. He freezes some of the water beforehand, and some afterwards and photographs both at a high magnification so that you can see the water crystals that have formed. Those words with happy messages like “love” or “gratitude” or “peace” form the most beautiful crystals – like perfect little snowdrops. The water with negative words shouted or shown to it, things like “hate” or “you’re stupid” or “war”, form what could be called ugly crystals – they look muddy and unformed. He has even performed this experiment on huge polluted lakes, transforming the water through prayer and meditation.

Try it yourself as a fun little experiment with your kids... Take two jugs of water. Write down “love and gratitude” on a piece of paper and attach it to the one jug. Write down “I hate you” on another piece of paper and attach this to jug number two. Then take two plants – one will be watered with jug one, and the other with jug two. Before you water them, speak kindly to the water one, telling it how much love and gratitude you have and sending these “vibes” into the water. Shout at jug two, filling the water with all the hate you can muster. Keep this up for a month and see what your two plants look like.

Which brings me back to the meals. Most of what we eat, and most of what we are in fact, is made up of water. If our predominant thoughts are of negative concepts like hating what we’re doing at this particular moment, how is this affecting our food, and our health and the health of all those we’re feeding? Both the Chinese and Japanese have the concept of Qi (pronounces Chee), which says a similar thing to what Emoto is proving with his little experiments – the energy field that we have currently affects what we come into contact with. If you are kneading that dough with anger, then the Qi of anger is flowing out of your hands into your dinner.

If we are truly aiming at being conscious parents, then that consciousness needs to flow into everything we do – from playing with our kids to preparing their snacks. Try, when you’re making your next meal, to imagine that whatever emotion you are harboring while you cook is what you are serving up for din-dins.

Are you serving love or resentment for dinner tonight? It’s your choice!

Mother’s Day came and went again this year without my husband so much as making a mention of it. Our children are still too young to participate in these little events, and so we try to do something for each other to show our appreciation for our partner as a wonderful mother/father. I’m not big on needing amazing presents or trips to the theatre – a simple cup of tea in bed and a foot massage would do just fine, thanks!

But no, not a mention.

 This year, I decided that actually I am a wonderful mother and I do deserve a mention for it, and so I practiced a belated ceremony called “Appreciating Me”. I took the day off, bought myself some fantastic new pajamas, had a cup of tea in bed and even gave myself a foot massage.

I realize we can’t all take a day off every day, but I do think we could all do with an “Appreciating Me” day as often as possible. If you don’t love and approve of yourself, who else will? And if you do love and approve of yourself then you really don’t need anybody else to as well. It’s a win-win situation. And it’s something that I think mothers, in particular, should be practicing more often. Find a little something special that you can do for yourself every week – take some time off from the kids (yes, your kids will survive a morning with your husband) and do something that nurtures you – have brunch with a friend, take a walk in the park, go for a massage, spend the morning lying in the sun reading a book.

Let’s make “Appreciating Me” a standard weekly date for all mothers around the world. Trust me, by taking time out and really loving and nurturing yourself, it is not just you that benefits – you’ll come home happier, more relaxed and better able to be a wonderful mother, a fabulous wife, and I’d go as far as to say that the world in general will be a better place!

My husband’s phone rang the other day and he starts with this long whine, “Ahhh, I really don’t want to speak to him right now…”. It was the end of a long day of listening to whining kids who were now, on this rare occasion, actually asleep on schedule and I was not in the mood to have my peace interrupted. I snapped back, “Well, don’t answer it then – you’re not a slave to your phone, you know”.

A few days later there I was with a quiet afternoon of crafty activities planned for the kids and my phone rings. An hour later I’m still on it, 3 year-old hanging on my leg begging me to get on with our winter fairy crowns and I’m doing the “just five more minutes, love, I’m coming”. So I got to thinking about how much we do enslave ourselves to these mobile devices. How could I be more present with someone on the other side of the city than with my own kids in the same room?

I propose that we start a ‘Moms Minimizing Mobile Minutes’ movement – a simple pact to turn off our phones for one hour a day of pure presence with our children.

I know, I know, I’m also of the Blackberry generation where we’re practically born with speed typing machines instead of thumbs, but come on – don’t we owe it to our little ones not to let these devices get between us all the time?

I think we do.

There is nothing to sign, no-one who’ll beat you up if you don’t, but I urge you to join me in the MMMM movement and the rewards will be self-evident.