Reclaiming my identity after birth
It’s been a funny couple of years. My husband and I moved back from New York just three months before the pandemic really took its grip on the world.
From the end of 2019 to the end of 2020, we lived in and out of temporary accommodation (finally buying and moving into our new house at the end of 2020), I co-founded two businesses and landed a corporate job at one of the biggest companies in the world and I found out I was pregnant with our first child. I’m not saying any of this to brag, only to paint a picture that life has been a little full on and wild since we moved back to London.
Before 2019, when I thought about my life, it resembled somewhat of a simple bell curve on a graph, now it seems like several squiggly wiggly lines going in all sorts of directions.
So, I guess really, it’s no surprise that reclaiming my identity after I gave birth to my gorgeous son (even if I do say so myself) has been somewhat of a challenge. Adapting so often in the last couple of years means that I’m not really sure what identity I’m going back to…
My idea of a successful career woman looks totally different to what it did, nowadays I prefer to have one or two projects and to spend my time on the skills I’m really good at (instead of taking endless trainings on trying to improve those I’m not so good at – presentations, finance, etc). Before, my focus was to climb the corporate ladder as much as possible, earn a high (but stable) salary and one day end up with a corner office.
Now I want to have my hands in a couple of different pies, add value wherever I can, understand that money ebbs and flows and bring my office (my laptop and phone) around the world working in between living a life of variety and experiences.
So, my ideas around my career have changed, what about my ideas around social life? That’s definitely changed, I’m not sure if it’s the baby or the pandemic that changed my idea of enjoyment the most but all I know is that a nice meal or drinks out once or twice a month is more than enough for me. I love to have friends over, have a nice lunch at the pub or most of the time just to relax on the sofa with my little family.
In terms of reclaiming my body or the way I look; this has been one of the things that has shocked me the most. I’ve always been quite petite and slim but during my pregnancy I put on over half of my original body weight. I was so uncomfortable and heavy, and I remember thinking to myself that as long as I felt comfortable and mobile after the baby then I really wouldn’t worry about an extra couple of pounds here and there. It’s really rung true! Of course, like everyone else I sometimes look at people on Instagram and wish I was skinnier but most of the time I really am happy as I am and on good days, I would even say I am proud of my body, how it looks and what it’s done.
So all of this to say, I’m not sure how to reclaim my identity now that my baby is six months old and my life is returning to normality. I’ve changed so much and I know that I will keep changing. I’m happy with my life even if the direction isn’t as clear as it once was, I’ll keep check on the things that make me happy and try to incorporate them as much as possible into my daily life. For now, that looks like…
· Time with family and close friends
· Time with myself practising self-care
· Sunday Luxe business wins
· Sunday Luxe products that I genuinely love to wear every day
· My little slice of London aka my house
· New experiences and places
I’ll keep coming back to our Sunday Luxe values which are so closely interlinked with my own personal values; working hard to achieve my own version of success and working on personal relationships.
And most of all I’ll keep working on the element of surprise; surprising others with how far I can go but most of all surprising myself.