Does Mother’s Day leave you feeling anxious, unseen, or exhausted? You’re not alone. In this powerful episode, Melodi Kitzmiller discusses how legalistic church culture turned Mother’s Day into a day of pressure and performance instead of peace and rest. From early morning routines to impossible standards of the “Proverbs 31 woman,” Melodi reflects on how religious expectations can leave women emotionally and physically depleted.

You’ll also learn how the limbic system reacts to stress, why your body might be carrying old religious trauma, and how to begin healing. Through breathing techniques, body awareness, and a compassionate view of Jesus, this episode offers a new way to approach Mother's Day—with grace.

Whether you're processing spiritual abuse or trying to untangle faith from fear, this episode will help you reclaim your peace, reconnect with your body, and move toward healing.

👉 Visit MelodiKitzmiller.com for tools, journaling prompts, and support.

Partial Transcript

Episode 7 Does Mother's Day Have You Stressed? Learn About a Legalistic Mother's Day, The Limbic System and Finding Healing
I looked down into my phone and I saw Mother's Day in five days. It still sends panic through my soul. My family would make Mother's Day wonderful for me, but church was almost always full of the to do lists of motherhood. When I was my legalistic church today, I'd like to share with you a way to process old mothers days. If you have experienced something like I have. to Wind Church Herts, the podcast where we break free from fear, rebuild faith and peace. I'm Melody Kitzmiller and I'm so glad you're here. Have you ever felt crushed by legalism? I have. Have you felt controlled by church leadership or struggled with religious guilt? I've struggled with those, too. And I want you to know you're not alone. beginning to question or if you're in a spiritually abusive environment. Don't worry. Together, we will learn about what makes a church leader abusive or determine if it's just simply a difficult church, which isn't simple at all. Either way, welcome to my podcast. Let's get started. when we all sat eagerly scribbling down find the things that we were doing wrong. Every mother in the notes about how we could find and raise our children to love him. No mistakes could be kids would suffer, maybe they even end up in heaven with us. Mother's day was Day In counseling, we call that living in the mind because in two different directions. So as I as I what was happening my body and I want to talk to you a little bit about happening in your body. See, there was a therapist who that he had that noticed what was as therapy was progressing got better than who didn't notice. I want you to notice what's happening in your that our body is in stress. We can make changes to what's happening bodies are So if during this podcast you find yourself and your body feeling tense, take a few minutes and breathe. I typing out what I I inhaled for one, two, and then I for one, two, three, four. And then I exhaled to the count of four. And then I held my breath to the count of four. And then I did it all Hold your Exhale. breath. is much lighter. Sometimes I'm still surprised at how much I am troubled by the things that occurred regularly in my legalistic world. It is no wonder that I suffered with debilitating headaches during that time. I was sick with a headache 3 to 5 days every week of my life. They were go to bed and hope that it goes away. Kinds of headaches. But since I left in 2012, I have not had any weeks with And now I rarely get Our bodies in that church as we worked hard to please those at church. But you know who? We never work to please ourselves. In fact, even Day a day take care of I who had three They were all age of four. One was a newborn, me one time that she would wake up every morning. Now think She has a Newborns don't sleep. So that meant this mom wasn't sleeping. But she still got up. At 5 a.m., she would make a cup of tea a