We were lucky to catch up with Sami Garrett recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sami, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Our mission is to help support mothers through all chapters of motherhood because we believe if you can help support the moms, they can show up as their best selves and raise the next generation with more intention, clarity, and emotional resilience. We can help change the world if we can help support the moms.

This all stemmed from years of researching parenting and child psychology/development and then my own postpartum journey suffering from postpartum rage. I wanted a place were moms could come together and be raw and real knowing there was no judgement; a place where they could heal their nervous system and in turn help their children develop regulated nervous systems; a place where we could laugh, cry, question, grow, all the things, together and learn from and support each other; a place where we could find resources during very specific times of motherhood, like pregnancy, postpartum, dealing with a difficult diagnosis, etc; a place that gives moms the tools they need to feel good, have fun, and make the best decisions for their families.

I also wanted a huge chunk to be returned to the community. So 50% of our profit gets put into the Kari Fund(named after my mom who had to be extremely resourceful while she was a single parent) and that gets poured back into mamas to help support them in a variety of ways! If they want a afternoon pick me up of coffee or therapy, maybe Pelvic floor PT or need help sending their child to soccer camp- nothing is off the table.

We don’t have the village we use to and there are some extreme demands on mothers these days leading to wrecked nervous systems and living in states of depletion, overwhelm, anxiety, overstimulation, etc. These don’t allow us as moms to think clearly and show up as our best selves when we aren’t regulated, leading to lots of mom guilt. So GEM was created to help with this. Imagine being able to feel confident in handling whatever happens during the day, knowing you are supported and have resources to figure the things out. We can then pour into our children from our overflow and also show them how they too can grow up with a regulated nervous system and handle lives obstacles.

Each mothering journey is entirely unique to her and there is power in community. That is the quick story behind GEM’s Mission.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

GEM (Good Enough Matrescence) is an online Resource Library/CO-op that supports mothers through motherhood. It is a growing online community that offers support and resources for pregnancy, birth, 4th trimester, beyond the 4th trimester and things relating to children and parenting in general. We take a Mind, Body, Soul Approach when it comes to these resources, so there are many things from courses, PDFs, cheatsheets, audios, classes, virtual and in person meet ups, etc to help provide the most useful information.

There is a community aspect where we get together and chat/ask questions about various topics such as neurodiversity, clean living, breastfeeding, weaning, back to work, etc. We also have meet-ups and mother circles to connect a little deeper.

Our goal is to first help mothers heal and regulate their nervous system- the rest of the resources are just the cherries on top. With a regulated nervous system comes clarity and calmness that allows us to show up as our best selves and have the space to think clearly before responding. Then all the additional resources let us learn, inform, educate ourselves on whatever it is, and make the best decision for us and our families.

We started when I, Sami, was in my second Postpartum and navigating the crazy world of postpartum rage and needed support and nervous system regulation tools. In this process, I thought it would be cool to have a one stop shop for motherhood where we could all learn from each other and support each other through different and similar stages of motherhood without being part of 500 different specific topic groups.

I partner with other professionals to bring evidence informed resources together that help moms live a healthier happier life. Motherhood is hard enough as it is and it can also be fun when we have the tools, support, and resources we need.

GEM helps moms save time by having vetted resources inside, helps moms show up as their best selves by having tools for nervous system regulation, and helps make motherhood fun with soul nourishing connections.

Some of the specific things you can find inside are 8 different modalities for nervous system regulation (from somatic and vagal body work, EFT, Releasing Trapped Emotions, IFS, and more), Yoga (including pre and postnatal yoga too), meditations and mindfulness, Functional Movement classes that focus on pelvic floor function, guides to reducing environmental toxins, infant massage for tongue ties, planning/prepping healthy pregnancy, birth, postpartum, tools and resources for when you are out of the 4th trimester like health and wellness, delegation, book recommendations etc, and there is also a child section that includes topics such as parenting help, allergy resources, baby and toddler clothing and other items, activity guides, handling tantrums, supplements, etc. We have live masterclasses with guest experts (recording are saved) on a number of different topics like, art therapy, somatic dance, menstrual health, mom brain, shifts in motherhood, nuerodiversity, infant emergencies, Navigating NICU, Child and Infant food reactivity, Marriage after babies, pregnancy and infant loss, postpartum fitness, and so many more.

This is really what sets us apart. We are a library for motherhood where the members can participate as much or as little as they want or need to. They can come in for specific resources or bond in our community with other members or find more tailored help. I am most proud of the the fact it’s completely geared and growing around our community members and what they need. We find the most useful resources for them. and I love that we are all here to learn, grow, reparent ourselves, question, find the answers, trust our intuition, and really show up as our best selves and enjoy motherhood.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had the pleasure ofUnlearning that there is one right way to do anything! (including Mothering) There is no one right way! There’s a lot of information out there that “this is the only way” and really it’s just one way.

Before I started a family, I took a deep dive into all the education I could around parenting and children. I learned all about prepping for pregnancy and birth (I am a bit of a health nut) and through this journey learned that having all this information really showed me that there are so many different roads you can take and it’s really about turning inward and doing what feels right, no matter what mainstream society is telling you.

This played out in my second postpartum experience too when I was healing from postpartum rage and figuring out how to support myself and turning inward to address my triggers and inner child. Again, having different tools allowed me to figure out which ones worked for me instead of trying to force one that everyone believes is the only way.

I got to learn how powerful we are and that choice should be available for everyone. I think too often we just follow along with what is working for someone else (which can work sometimes) instead of what works for us. and I think we do this in many aspects of our life. So really breaking away from that belief has made me want other mothers to feel their inner power and intuition and break away from what they think they need to do and instead do what feels good to them and their family!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Well, when I had this idea for GEM, I got a TON of eye rolls and “who do you think you are” type comments, a lot of “that’s not going to work, there is nothing like that, why would people want that, I don’t understand what your trying to do, you need to niche down” type stuff…. while It did stop me in my tracks a little bit and had me questioning if my idea was possible, the pull to create it was much stronger and I got it up and running in 4 months! It is still growing and the traction is incredible and the members inside are just amazing human beings. It is truly attracting the most inspiring mothers and amazing professionals who see the value in being less triggerable and resourced af. I am so glad I didn’t listen. It is still in the early stages and I can tell you the amount of love I’ve received from other professionals saying this is so needed in the motherhood space and who want to partner with GEM is just incredible. All of this came on the back of feeling like I was failing as a mom and needed to get my rage under control for myself and my kids. I was in a deep survival period for a while, to then be told by some family and friends that my idea is silly, to now having a steady growing business that supports moms and helps them not feel alone, depleted, drowning, isolated, and needing to survive motherhood- it’s just amazing.

I also had some amazing supportive people in my life that truly encouraged and helped me get GEM up and running.

So I would say to anyone that has a spark of an idea to just go for it! You never know what can happen and especially go for it if you feel it deep in your gut and are getting pushback, just keep going!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://goodenoughmatrescence.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/goodenoughmatrescence
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/goodenoughmatrescence