By: Margot Walsh

The power of hearing a woman share her story and realizing it’s exactly how you feel too. 

Permission. I wish I could say it wasn’t something that I said I needed. But, to be honest, I needed it badly. I needed permission to feel the way I was feeling. The place I found it? Gathering with women. Here’s the scene: It was 2020, I was completely burnt out from my 10 year career as a social worker and I had made the brutally difficult decision to become a stay at home mom because I truly didn’t know what else to do. I thought it would light me up and bring my back into feeling some sort of purpose. There was a lot that was beautiful and magical about my time at home, there was a lot that I loved, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of being both bored and overwhelmed all at the same time. I felt SO guilty for feeling this way so I kept it to myself and slapped on a happy face and told myself I should be grateful. So add that to the mix, feelings of guilt and isolation on top of boredom and overwhelm. It was heavy.

One day while gathering with a group of friends and our kids, a friend of mine said something that completely lightened the load. This was a friend who has always been the kindest, heart centered, most generous of spirit. She has a moral compass like an arrow and I always respect her insight on things. She shared that she loves the time she gets at home with her daughter but it was so hard to not be around adults more and she gets bored. She shared that she was so grateful that she had work to go to two days a week to get out of the house and have something that was just hers. BOOM. Just like that I felt seen, validated, and my load was lightened. She was feeling the same way I was feeling and to be able to say “me too!” felt SO GOOD. I felt less alone, less guilty, and finally like I had a place to really talk about how I was feeling rather than sticking to only the good things and pretending like everything was ok.

I have so many stories of this, times that women named what they were going through or how they felt and it gave words to exactly how I was feeling. Every time it was the same thing, I felt lighter. I had room to breathe. I had a space to talk honestly, be held, witnessed, supported and validated in that honesty. And even though it didn’t change anything on the outside, its changed my whole internal experience and how I felt. It made everything feel more manageable and little by little helped me move forward and come back to life.

Margot is the Co-founder of Femnest and serves as the Director of Growth & Connection. She is a life coach and the creator of Beyond: Discover Who You Are Beyond the Stress, a group coaching program that helps women move past overwhelm and into clarity, calm, and confidence. To learn more about working with her or to join the next round of Beyond, send her a message!