Our Quill Awards Milestone

So this happened last May and it is still all so surreal. While I was on our family vacation in Canada when Mommy Mundo garnered recognition at the Philippine Quill Awards 2015 for our campaign the #MomManifesto : A Journey to Mindful Motherhood. Sharing these photos taken by my friend and content head of Mommy Mundo Jing Lejano who was there to accept the award.Backtrack a bit to 2015, I thought of creating a campaign to teach moms about the importance of mindfulness, and intentional living and parenting. I was noticing how, moms, myself included, were becoming busier, striving to fulfill multiple roles in our life. We try our best to do everything while striving for balance, but in the end, we sometimes get overwhelmed, engrossed in caring for our families, we must admit, we sometimes end up losing sight of the root and reason of our personal existence.I was aware of the concept of "mindfulness" and "intentional living" and tried as much as I could to practice it in my own life. With all that I do, and want to do, being aware of my own capabilities, knowing what is TRULY important to me, and taking pockets of time for myself during even the busiest days keeps me sane, happy and productive. So these three things, I've tried to remember and practice:- To always remember my priorities and what I value most and make that the guidng basis of my actions and decisions.- To know my passion and purpose and take it to heart, because this is what fuels me to keep going, keep working, stay fulfilled- To practice mindfulness throughout the day- little actions like pausing and observing how the sky is a beautiful blue today, or indulging in my fave comfort food and eating slowly while savoring the flavors in my mouth, or just looking at my kids’ faces intently as I catch up with them at the end of the day.I wondered how I can share these with my fellow moms, who, for sure, lead the same busy life I lead, more or less, so I wanted to create a workshop module to bring them through a step-by-step process, from self-awareness to mindfulness.I wanted it to be based on sound psychological principles, because our minds go through certain processes, and a person's thoughts and emotions must be dealt with utmost care. So, I called on my friend Michele Alignay, counselor, psychologist, and to me, her most important title, mother. She would be perfect for my passion project! I met with her and was so happy she believed in my project and took it on in a snap! She was the perfect partner for this, being a mom of two young kids herself, working as a teacher while studying for her PhD while being a sought-after speaker, she knows firsthand what moms have to juggle and deal with on a daily basis.After we plotted out the steps and designed each session, we had to decide on the medium. While It would be ideal to have live sessions regularly, I felt it might hamper participation because moms are so busy. So we decided to make it an online workshop, one step per week for 6 weeks and as we counted down, the final step allowed us to culminate at Expo Mom in May in Glorietta. Perfect.Once we completed the steps, we needed someone to put things down into words, and we knew our friend Jing would be the perfect person to do this. She enthusiastically joined us in the work, and kept each step real, relatable, easy to understand. Then we had Sam, our graphic artist at Creative Juice design the pages. Out came our Mom Manifesto workshop—we would see participants post their realizations and learning’s on social media, and it was amazing to see how they learned about themselves and how they can practice mindfulness, just through our six step process.Photo by Cat Juan:)We had a special brunch with some of our mom blogger friends to tell them about this latest project of oursand they seemed to also believe in what we were trying to do. They gave their all out support in helping spread the wordWith Monica, Thammie, Kaye, Cai, Eliza, Tin, Mish and Jane, front row, Kitty, Carla, myself and IchelWe started seeing posts of moms who joined our online workshop and it was wonderful reading about their realizations and reflections.Rina's post on her Mom Manifesto journey- read hereRookie mom's Mom Manifesto - http://www.rookiemommy.ph/2015/05/my-mommanifesto-2015-by-mommy-mundo.htmlBy Expo Mom, our biggest annual event which was scheduled to happen in Glorietta, Makati,we asked moms to write down their mom manifesto statements downa dn post it on our wall.our good friend, celebrity mama of Philip, Rica Peralejo-BonifacioWe had segments on stage to talk about each step of the mom manifesto workshop towards mindfulness...Say Alonzo and Bianca Lapus sharing their motherhood stories and mindful mom journey with Expo Mom host Cathy Eigenmannand moms who had joined us in our online workshops, mom bloggers and celebrity mom friends came a celebrated with us, along with the more than 10,000 who came to the event.China Cojuangco-GonzalesDimples Romana supporting not only me but my own kidpreneur, Reese!Mom blogger friends, Chessy and CaiMommy FleurConciTeam Noah! Neva and her boysour ever supportive friend and business partner, Rj and his sonWell known OB-gyn, Dr. Rebecca Singson and our partners at Cordlife. (Trivia: Dr. Becky was someone who helped me with my first business Mommy Matters and MommyPages when I was just starting and I'd visit her in her clinic in Makati Med!)Dr. Xavier Dimalanta was also part of our expo! Such a treat since he is always very busy. Thanks Dr. D!Dr. D with Marga Estrella and myselfour super charming and warm event host, Cathy Bordalba-Eigenmann.Her bestie, Chal Lontoc-del Rosario. who also hosts our events, had just given birth but still visited us at the Expo. Thank you, Chal!And after this experience, due to requests, we have since spun off to actual live workshops, called the Mindful Mom Re-Treats, which continues to serve and inspire moms to live with intent and mindfulness. (Read more in Mindful Mom re-treats here)We are so thankful that the Philippine Quill recognized our efforts and work. We were up against big brands, with millions of pesos in budget and access to media, and humongous reach.A snapshot of the big names we are up against for the top award in our categoryBut they chose us: "To win a Philippine Quill means being recognized as achieving the highest Global standard for business communication practices.." That's what the email said. For me, as a practicing events and communications professional, this is another feather in our cap! But even more than that, as a parenting advocate and community builder the past 16 years, and a mom the past 19 years, this is yet another validation of the importance of the role that we moms play and how, more and more, the VALUE OF NURTURING THE NURTURERS is being recognized.Here's an even bigger surprise. We were there to receive an award for Excellence in Communication Skills, which automatically put us in the running for the TOP AWARD in Communication Skills...We were expecting one trophy, an award for excellence, as we did not expect to win the Top Award in the Communications Skills category knowing we were up against big corporations with big budgets, full teams or agencies. As fate would have it, WE DID WIN and now I can truly say that pure passion, coupled with a clear purpose plus hard work can bring you places, like the stage of the Philippine Quill awards👊🏽I still cannot wrap my head around this, even when I see Jing’s pictures, that beaming smile, her face glowing, arms full of our trophies, rewards of our work and collaboration!As I posted on instagram that evening from another time zone, I’d like to say this again here--First to my dearest Jing and Ichel who shared in the vision and rolled up their sleeves (with pens and paper in hand) to help plot out the manifesto and put it into words.To the Creative Juice team who takes charge of all the logistical elements I dream of and transforms words and ideas into visual graphics, actual events and printed work.To Gary and my children who provide me with endless inspiration and motivation. To my fellow moms and the moms who join us online and in our events to make us feel we are doing relevant work, thank you for allowing us to serve you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, all. ❤️🙏🏽Moms represent!To God be all the glory. Amdg🙏🏽---To know more about our award winning (woot!) Mom Manifesto campaign , click here.More info on the Philippine Quill Awards 2015.Jing was also interviewed by TJ Manotoc on ANC- watch her guesting here.