Empowering You to Empower Yourself to Empower Your Children

What if feelings and emotions are not a design error?

This was an article published at The Natural Parent Magazine (published January 22, 2025)

The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?

I care about how we, as a culture, raise our children. The cultural seeds of tomorrow live and grow in them, and these seeds are nurtured by us, the adults. I am passionate about working in this sector, to midwife a different culture from the ground up.

When my daughter, Evelyn, was born in March 2022, the shock of first-time motherhood and my experience of the pain of modern culture parenting, i.e. isolation in a house with my baby while my partner was out working, became fuel for me to start sharing, having conversations and trying different ways of living.

My own capacity and presence directly influence how I hold space for Evelyn, and therefore how she unfolds herself. This inspires me to do my own inner work, keep creating community around us and to use my facilitation skills to hold space for others too.

I empower you to empower yourself to empower your children.

The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?

I wanted to change the results that I was creating in my own life.

In 2020, I attended ‘Expand the Box’ with Ana Norambuena, the initiatory training within the Possibility Management framework. There I witnessed many puzzle pieces of my own life come together, the cornerstone being the link between the global meta-crisis and the numbness of the population to their feelings.

The liberating and terrifying experience of opening to feel my long-repressed feelings and emotions is an ongoing experience that is leading me to magical discoveries about how I want to navigate my life. And this is still only the beginning!

This is also what I want to offer, inspire and empower in you.

Feedback I receive, such as one mother feeling empowered to explore diverse ways of responding to her infant instead of having to ‘know’ how it goes, is gold and inspires me to continue.

The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?

This! Signing a contract with The Natural Parent Magazine is so far the scariest and boldest step. It means making myself more visible, consistently, to the audience I want to work with: you parents. I am learning to lean into what is scary instead of running away from it, because there is usually a lot of valuable information in my fear. I also had the full support of Evelyn’s father, Elliot, who encouraged me to be even bolder!

Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?

The balance is something I’m experimenting with, and I can’t say that I have the recipe yet, it is ever-changing!

One of the main things I am learning to do is to negotiate, and to be radically honest about my own needs and wants so that I can live with more clarity and simplicity.

Every moment in which I ask for what I want or give an authentic yes or no, my capacity for presence grows and then as a result Evelyn can unfold further into her aliveness.

Evelyn has many adults and children around her that she enjoys spending time with, so this is also a big part of the balance. Now, I am taking a stand to create more time for myself so that I can give more to my work.

The drive: What challenges have you overcome?

One of the biggest challenges for me has been to learn to ask for help and for what I want. Through that, I have created a network of people around myself and my family. I cannot assume that others know I need help or what to help with, or what I want. I must go first by being vulnerable and asking, and also be prepared to receive a no, which was one of the scariest parts of asking in the beginning.

Another piece that I am still learning to overcome is keeping self-doubt out of my space. I am learning how to reorient my focus onto what is working and away from what isn’t.

For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?

The flexible working hours are both a pro and a con for me. At the same time as being able to work whenever I want to, it is up to me to create the space for myself to do all the work I need to do. That means negotiating! And… letting go of my perfectionist tendency is still a challenge!

Being aligned with what I offer, instead of adapting to the values of an employer is the biggest pro for me.

Hopes and dreams: What next?

To keep coaching and holding events, one of which is called ‘The Joys and Challenges of Parenting’.

We cannot hope to achieve different results by continuing to numb our feelings. Without our feelings, we cannot feel the pain of the consequences of our actions. Pain is the fuel for creating something different. No-one knows what will happen with the overshoot of the planetary boundaries that have so far contributed to a stable operating space for life on earth as we know it. By opening ourselves to feeling and holding space for our children to feel instead of numb or dissociate, we can offer them the possibility of creating a different future.

The ultimate dream is to co-create a multigenerational, regenerative village where those at the beginning and the end of the life cycle are collectively held.

One of the next steps for me is to start a playgroup space where the children are held by all adults and where adults also have space to explore parenting topics.

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Hannah Abouzahrah is a mother, possibility coach and cultural midwife, consciously raising her daughter and holding space for parents and children to do the same. She wants to help you break the cycle of generations: to heal stuck emotions, upgrade your communication skills, and hold space for feelings in yourself and your family. She believes that by opening ourselves up to feeling, and holding space for our children to feel instead of dissociating or being numb, we can offer them the possibility of creating a different future, while forming deep and nurturing connections within the family. She will empower you to empower yourself to empower your children. Here Hannah talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind what she does, and her hopes and dreams for the future.