She had the two kids, the giant house, and her college sweetheart. What more could a girl ask for? I talk with Heidi Esther about what it felt like to have this perfectly successful life but yet feel like it was a perfect façade.
Heidi’s idea of success was to be the "typical" stay-at-home mom who loved sewing. and lived in the suburbs with her successful husband.
Her idea of success came down like a wrecking ball when she realized she was in an emotionally unsafe marriage, hated sewing, and was definitely not perfect. Oh yeah…and that she was gay.
In this episode, Heidi and I talk about trusting your intuition, listening and honoring your voice within. We discuss the harmful results of dismissing your emotions and the importance of embracing your raw feelings with authenticity and courage.
Heidi and I discuss her journey of acceptance, self-compassion, empathy, depression, people-pleasing, and co-dependency.
She opens up on the struggle with experiencing and living in shame when she realized she was gay. She explains that her biggest hurdle was accepting that she didn’t know the deepest and intimate parts of herself and the shame that came with it.
And we explore the Shame Parfait...
“We are all this parfait and we’re constantly consciously and unconsciously putting layers in. And the hard part is, at some point, it gets really unruly. And the more you accept, you kind of adjust like I accept that, you know I’m going to be a divorced person. All right, I’m going to eat that layer of having that divorce label. And the more you accept, the more that you can kind of enjoy your life.”
Today, Heidi is building a community called the Mom-Munity where she starts a weekly conversation around a true story, poem, and reflection. Her mission is to assist moms in building self-awareness, joy, and acceptance in their lives.
Heidi also has a book coming out this summer called Mom’s Sanity, The Wake-Up Call.
You can find more out about Heidi at the links below: