In January 2020, I was living a life that felt deeply misaligned with who I wanted to be. I was an overwhelmed mother, making choices with my 2 year old daughter that made me feel ashamed and guilty - giving her too much screen time, feeding her processed foods and struggling to do even the simplest task like brushing her teeth if she resisted. I had no energy to cook, and my family's food habits fell into disarray - I would Uber eats more often than not at the end of a long, difficult day.
I didn't exercise at all. I didn't practice mindfulness at all. I felt anxious and fearful a lot of the time, and my work - which had always felt purposeful to me - started to feel difficult and often joyless. I had a feeling that I had veered off my path somewhere along the way, but I had no idea how to find it again. I felt very trapped by my circumstances - two business partners who relied on me, a team of twelve to lead, a husband I supported to start his own business and a child to raise. More than just raise - a child I wanted to raise mindfully and intentionally.
I felt like I had no choice but to continue on my path and convinced myself that things would get better ONE day. When we had more money in the business, we could afford to hire a managing director to take over my role. When I had more time to be a better parent and do more than just give my daughter the iPad before bedtime. When I prioritised exercise again, and finally started that meditation practice that I knew would help me so much.
When I was less overwhelmed, I could tackle simple tasks like cooking again. One day it would all fall into place, I keep telling myself. But each day I limped to the finish line, resignedly picking up my phone to order Uber eats - Thai or Italian?
Telling myself that tomorrow I would go for a walk. I felt stuck. And for that reason, I also felt like a fraud because, on the outside, I was pretending that I had it all together. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that I had convinced myself that I had it all together and that you have to work hard when you have a business, or when you're a mother, or indeed when you're just trying to survive in a society that has removed the 'community' from our lives and forced us into tiny family units. This is just how it is, I told myself. But ONE day, it will all fall into place, and I won't feel like this anymore. One day.
What I truly wanted to accomplish was to have it all. I wanted to have a successful career, feel good doing it and have my personal and family life feeling deeply values aligned. I wanted to feel proud of myself in all the areas of my life and make decisions that aligned with who I knew I could be. I wanted to stop saying - "I should exercise". I wanted to meditate and have meditation be an automatic no-brainer. I didn't want to feel guilty for not doing a list of arbitrary things I thought I should be doing. I lived in guilt. I wanted to be a better mother. I'd read somewhere that if you want your child to be something, you need to be that and lead by example. Well, I was working hard, but I was not looking after myself or my relationships outside of that.