The Soft Ground
Welcome to The Soft Ground. It’s a blog where you’ll find reflections, practices, and stories that honour the messy, beautiful, and often tender journey of being a mother but firstly a human.
Can AI Replace Human Connection When I’m Struggling?
This blog explores why more mothers are turning to AI tools like ChatGPT for emotional support, and what this reach may be pointing to beneath the surface, including loneliness, shame, and a lack of relational care. While acknowledging the comfort and accessibility AI can offer in moments of overwhelm, this piece gently names the limits of technology when it comes to deep healing. Through a somatic and nervous-system-informed lens, it explains why our deepest wounds are formed in relationship and therefore need to heal in relationship too, highlighting the essential role of embodied presence, co-regulation, and human connection, particularly in motherhood.
“Why do I struggle to implement parenting advice? Shame, silence and the nervous system in motherhood”
So many mothers quietly carry this question, especially when they lose their temper or can’t live up to the “gentle” or “conscious” parenting ideals. This blog explores how shame and silence after hard moments keep your nervous system in survival mode, and how societal pressure, lack of support and old wounds all play a role. Instead of perfection, you’ll be invited into something softer: connection, nervous system awareness, and the courage to tell the truth and repair.