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Putting the Pieces of My Life Together: Discovering How to Choose Joy

In the years following my birth family reunion, I read a book called, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. It’s now one of my favorite books. This book completely changed my life and allowed me to connect with my feelings in a profound way — all through tidying up! This book encourages readers to hold each item they own in a systematic program, called the KonMari Method, and ask if the item sparks joy. If the item doesn’t spark joy, the readers are encouraged to let it go. Marie Kondo outlines which category of items to attend to first (clothes) and then provides a systematic order for which category to attend to next until you’ve organized all of your belongings.

Her method recommends grouping all items by category for each owner within the home. So, for instance, all my shoes belong together in one place and all my husband’s shoes belong together in one place. It makes it easier to find because you know where your designated shoe location is. It also makes it easier to see exactly how many shoes you really own because they aren’t dispersed in many different places. If you tend to keep your shoes in the foyer, that can be their spot. While your spouse may keep his or her shoes in the bedroom closet. The point is that all like items are grouped together by owner. I really loved this because I tend to love systems and efficiency. It makes me happy to feel like I know where all of my shoes are. And having a spot for everything makes me feel like I’m wasting less time looking for things when I need them. This method also helps me to feel distinctly differentiated from my husband. With all the meshing of stuff between spouses, it’s nice to have your own spot for your things and a separate spot for your spouse’s things. It provided a sense of ownership and order.

I started writing about what this book meant to me in a previous blog post. And I noticed that there were certain themes that arose that I wanted to explore. Each theme centered on a change in the way that I thought. So, I created a list of the ways that my thinking changed. In other words, myths that were busted. Here’s the list that evolved:

MYTH BUSTED: I don’t need confidence

Having a system like this gave me confidence in myself and confidence that I could take control of my possessions and my life. It broke the huge task of organizing my house into smaller component parts. It gave me a layout of what to do first, second, third and so on. I’m realizing that confidence is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal. I used to believe that I didn’t need confidence. I believed that I just needed to “push through” and not think about things or even to feel things to get them done. But now being more attached to my feelings, I definitely see what a powerful tool that confidence is. Breaking up the huge task of organizing my belongings into manageable parts helped me to feel confident that I could perform each part. This helped to jump-start my endeavors. Then, after completing each portion of the project, my confidence grew. This newfound confidence was not only invigorating, it actually fueled my efforts to do even more and to be even more productive.

MYTH BUSTED: Possessions need to be expensive to be valuable

The idea of joy in this process wasn’t associated with how expensive my possessions were, or even what others thought of them. It was about how I connected with the items and what they meant to me.

MYTH BUSTED: Aesthetics Don’t Matter

Again, it wasn’t about how expensive the item was. It wasn’t just about the superficial appearance of an item. It was about what the items meant to me personally. It was about what they meant in my life. We deserve to do more than kill ourselves working. We deserve to care about beauty. And even more importantly, we are allowed to enjoy beautiful things. Aesthetics speak to our joy and add a sense of peace and wonder to our lives. It takes us to the next level from just surviving to thriving. Each of us deserves to find happiness, joy, and beauty in our lives. We are allowed to care about that. And we are allowed to shine. We are allowed to love things, people, experiences, and moments. And, for a brighter, happier, kinder world; it’s imperative that we do.

MYTH BUSTED: A home-base doesn’t matter

I was exploring the idea of living everywhere but nowhere. But the idea of home matters. The idea of stability matters. The idea of reliability matters. The ideas of routines and habits matter. They allow us to forget about the mundane steps involved in everyday tasks like making your morning coffee and gathering your belongings to head out the door so that you can focus your attention and energy on a fresh day ahead of you. Having free brain-space means that you have the available cognitive power to notice moments of beauty and peace throughout your day, which makes life enjoyable and meaningful. And having free brainpower allows more energy for creative problem-solving during the inevitable challenges of your day as well as more energy for innovation in your work and home. Not to mention that it gives you a sense of settledness.   

Feeling like you belong somewhere matters. Feeling like this is your space makes a huge difference. I recently began a new job, and I wasn’t sure if they were going to have space for me because office space is complicated there. Being a busy environment, I also wasn’t sure if they’d be ready for my arrival. To my surprise, they had a desk and an office space ready for me with my name printed on the door. It meant the world to me. I felt like I had arrived. It speaks to our soul to belong. There’s something innately important about a sense of belonging to our human spirit. Not to mention the power and confidence that comes in knowing that you are meant to be exactly where you are.

MYTH BUSTED: My possessions don’t matter

My possessions matter because they matter to me. Your possessions mean something because they mean something to you. I matter. You matter. Period. Having a sense of pride in your life, including the life that you’ve built in your home, your belongings, your clothes, your routine, and your work, makes a difference. When I don’t feel a sense of pride in something, I can definitely feel my confidence, my motivation, and my inspiration waning. With those down, I am not as productive or efficient. Not to mention that a lack of pride (e.g. shame) can wear on your mental energy, draining from the reservoir of cognitive and emotional capacity to make decisions wisely and to think creatively and constructively.

MYTH BUSTED: Having a system doesn’t matter. 

Having a system helps keep your mind and your belongings organized. Our brains are wired for organization. The tasks that we do are organized not only spatially but sequentially. So, timing and order matter. The more things are organized in a meaningful way, the more efficient you can be. The more that systems make sense, the more powerful and accurate your decisions become. The better your outcomes are, the more confidence and success build upon one another. The more reasons you have for doing things, the more meaningful your life becomes. Meaning, connection, successful outcomes, and true confidence build not only successful and happy careers, but happier, more motivated and more productive people.

MYTH BUSTED: Having a plan doesn’t matter or help.

I used to believe that I did my best work when I was acting on a whim, when I had no set plans or when I was acting in a mad fury to get things done under the final pressure of an impending deadline. But I’ve come to realize that I love planning ahead! I love setting plans and building on them. Not to mention— it’s nice to know what to expect.

MYTH BUSTED: What you do doesn’t matter.

In the past, I felt like my house didn’t need to be organized because I was living ‘just fine’ despite the fact that I couldn’t organize everything I wanted to. But, I took this mentality to an extreme, where I began believing that since I couldn’t do everything I wanted, that none of the tasks I did mattered. But, what you do matters. In fact, it seems that this is one of the biggest predictors of happiness. Studies found that doing something and learning a skill contributed to increased happiness and confidence in children. You are bound to get better at what you work on. What you do leads to learning new skills and getting things done, which both add to your sense of accomplishment and sense of confidence in yourself. And these boost your happiness.

MYTH BUSTED: Enjoying things and connecting with your heart is for sissies, or is silly, trivial, and insignificant.

It seems like a silly task and it seems even silly for me to say. But, going through this method changed me. Growing up in a typical working-class east-Baltimore family, I was taught to be tough. You keep your head down, nose to the grind, and just keep going, like a workhorse. The focus was never on my feelings or my thoughts. It was on just getting things done, and working hard. It didn’t matter if you didn’t like something, or didn’t want to do something; you just did it. And when you didn’t like to do something or didn’t want to do something, it was even more imperative that you push through to get it done. I wasn’t shown how to connect with my heart. Yes, my feelings mattered to an extent, but what I cared about didn’t really matter when it came head-to-head with tradition, work, or duty. Those “should be” ways of living always overrode my feelings. As if my desires and my feelings were second-rate citizens. Or as if they were trivial and insignificant. I think this is how I became such a dutiful workaholic who grew up feeling guilty whenever I couldn’t get something done. This translated to my early adult life when I had difficulty asking for help or saying that I couldn’t finish something.

What you care about matters tremendously. It affects you, your life, your motivation, your outlook, and therefore your performance and productivity. This, in turn, affects the people around you.

It was a wonderful exercise of self-growth for me to take each of my possessions in hand and to search my heart for if it brought me joy. I was able to connect with my heart in a deeper way and to know myself in a deeper way than I ever thought I could. 

During the time following my birth family reunion, my identity felt nebulous, hazy and ill-defined. I felt like I was grasping at my identity like someone trying to grab the wind. I felt like a blank slate. I didn’t know who I was. I was grappling with the idea that I could’ve become someone else if the events in my life were different. I was wondering what elements of my personality were inherent and which were fluid and learned. Of those that were learned, what was shaped by the family who raised me. Of those that were inherited, what did that mean? Did that mean that I was destined to have those traits? Could I choose who I wanted to be? Did I have a say in the life I wanted to lead going forward? Could I still just be me? And if so, who was that?

I came to realize that no matter what inherent traits we were born with and no matter what we were taught by our families or by our environment, we all have the ability to choose the people we are. And that’s a lot of power. In fact, it could be the difference between a life filled with peace, contentedness and joy and a life filled with emptiness, unsettledness, and depression. We have some agency over our lives. We can’t control what we were born with or what happens to us. But, we can definitely change elements of who we are. We can shift our own viewpoints and modify our own perspective. We can be creative thinkers. We can be dynamic problem-solvers and innovators. We can build the life we want, beginning with our own thoughts and ideas.

During this time when I felt devoid of personality that was my own and devoid of an identity that was mine, I found the KonMarie method to be a wonderfully transformative process. As I connected with my own thoughts and feelings about each of my possessions, my experience and outlook of the items within my house transformed. And therefore, my life experience changed. I disregarded the opinions of others during the process and connected with thoughts and feelings that were uniquely mine.

And I found that I could not only know what I was feeling, but I also connected with my heart: who I was at my core. And this is something that people need to do more. Doctors and healthcare professionals, business people, law enforcement, artists, anyone and everyone can lead happier lives by paying attention to what sparks joy for them. And when we are doing what we love, it shows. When we are motivated and inspired, breakthroughs happen. And we do more. We have more endurance to do more over the long-term. We have more resilience to bounce back after challenges, setbacks, and distractions. And this, in turn, can help us to be a more creative, innovative, and productive society.

How Marie Kondo Changed My Life: Finding Joy in the Mess of Life

A few years ago I read Marie Kondo’s book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” It encouraged people to hold each item in their hands and ask if it sparked joy for them. If it did, they were instructed to keep the item, then ask it where it wants to go, and create a special place for it. It was amazing to think that such a small, unassuming book about organizing could change a person’s life. But, it did. It did something, indeed magical, in my life. So much so that I’m still processing all of what it did, how it worked, and why.

I’ve wanted to write about what this book meant to me as a way of processing my thoughts and feelings about the book: to not only pay homage to this incredible collection of thoughts and words, but also to place words to the overarching principles that I learned from the book that I can apply to other areas of my life. Since the book brought so much joy to me in the areas of my possessions, I knew that the principles could be applied and sprinkle happiness on other areas of my life too.

One of the things this book allowed me to do was to recognize the sensation and the beauty of joy. Growing up in a tough, blue collar working-class family, I was taught that hard work was not only paramount; next to family, it was everything. I was never given deep instruction on how to interact with joy, nor was I given a strong model for embracing joy by those around me. My family and those around me were very loving people. But, joy just wasn’t on their radar. Family made you happy. But, apart from that, speaking about joy was almost obsolete. I don’t remember hearing people ask or comment about emotional feelings amongst one another at all. I remember people showing signs of stress, but I don’t remember anyone ever talking about how stress was affecting them. I can’t say that I ever heard, “Do what inspires you” or “What speaks to you?” or “What sparks joy for you?” I heard plenty of, “Just keep going” with the idea of just get it done. Prior to reading Marie Kondo’s book, I don’t think I even knew how to really allow myself to embrace my joy. Without being able to acknowledge and value it, I couldn’t really navigate the space of that emotional state let alone to lean into it and cherish it.

I was raised to be tough, hard-working, respectful of others to the point of many times silencing my own thoughts and feelings, incredibly pragmatic to where I buried anything lighthearted and frivolous deep beneath my sense of duty, and responsible to an extreme. Desires were discussed as dreams or fantasies, not reality. Sometimes desires were even viewed as selfish.

This book allowed me to go easier on myself. It took the enormous and overwhelming task of tidying an entire house and broke it down into manageable component tasks. It allowed me to say that making the steps smaller and manageable was okay. It gave me a game plan so that I had a fighting chance in the form of somewhere to start, and a reliable, organized system that I felt good about. It allowed me to take each item in hand piece-by-piece and make a decision on it. And it allowed me to feel more comfortable following my own intuition. It allowed me to feel the confidence that I could make decisions and do something really daunting and typically-overwhelming if I had a system and just started.

It helped me to see that I could pick and choose my life based on my own thoughts and feelings. And rather than focus on worry, negative emotion, negative feelings, and fear, it opened me up to the magical perspective of basing the decisions in my life on joy. That was a profoundly powerful shift in my thinking. And I will be forever grateful. Marie Kondo helped me to go from a mindset of negativity, with a proclivity towards being depressed, worried, anxious, and fearful, to a positive, more meaningful and more productive mindset. She elevated my energetic frequency. She prompted me to live an inspired life: the life I wanted to live instead of the life I thought I should live or the life I had to live.

Before this book, I thought I procrastinated on big projects because I was afraid of doing all the work. But going through this process actually made me realize that I enjoyed doing all the tidying. I wasn’t afraid of hard work. I realized that I was actually just afraid of not being able to do the project (to finish it, or to do it well) or not knowing how to do it or where to start. It’s the unknown of it and the lack of confidence that actually paralyzed me and rendered me unproductive in the past. Going through this program actually helped to build my confidence, because I learned and mastered a skill. I did it! And it felt amazing to feel that sense of accomplishment. Learning and mastering a skill has actually been shown to be really important in the development of confidence in children. And I can see why.

But I think one of the most important things this book did was to demonstrate that I have agency over the way I live my life. What I keep in my life and what I discard of, I get to choose. That’s been a powerful revelation. And it’s something that contributes to happiness. Because we feel happy when we have control over our own lives. It drains our energy when we feel powerless, out of control, or hopeless. I can create a home that I love. And I deserve that. And it doesn’t take a lot of flashy or expensive things for me to be happy. I actually don’t need a lot of material things to be happy. I don’t even need to be wealthy to be happy. I get to choose. And to me, that is a core source of happiness: the freedom and the opportunity to choose the things I love and cherish.

Marie Kondo’s kindness and proclivity toward mindfulness, positivity, and gratitude also gave me permission to be in the moment, to connect with others, and to be seen. To be seen without fear of judgment. To be seen without fear of not being enough. It helped me to see that we are all in a process. But let’s be kind and acknowledge the good that things (and people) have done for us and thank them for it. Because it’s those things that have shaped us into who we are today.

The book gave me permission to be in the present moment long enough to feel gratitude, joy, contentedness and peace. I enjoyed it. I experienced a ton of joy while undergoing the process. At the completion of the program, it allowed me the moment to say, I’m finished. I often take too long getting things prepared for a project that I often don’t get started. Or, once I get started, I tend to take too long on all the details that I never get to the end. But going through the tidying process made me realize that having a distinct ending helps. Liking what you’ve done is rewarding and meaningful. This process helped me get to a place in my life processes where I could say, I’ve done everything I set out to do and to say, I am enough.

Thank you, MK.

-R

Let’s Ask Oprah Anything

I recently read a magazine article entitled, 100 Most Successful Women. It listed Oprah Winfrey as #1. I definitely agree: I admire her for the stories that she shares and the kind way she connects with the people she’s interviewing and with her audience. And she seems to take everything in stride. She never seems to get ruffled. Her personal brand has grown to a leading international success, and it’s all based on stories that inspire a greater sense of connection and wonder in the world. Her program Super Soul Sunday is definitely a favorite show of mine. I sometimes wish I had more access to spiritual gurus and life teachers so that I could learn from them. I definitely enjoy learning. I made a list of things that I wanted to ask Oprah if I get the chance to meet her. I figured this chance was a long shot. Then I realized that I could actually make the list and then answer each question how I believe she would answer– at least until I get to meet her 😁

Here’s my list:

  1. How do you balance work and home life?
  2. What are the secrets to your success?
  3. What makes you happy?
  4. How do you make decisions?
  5. Any advice for someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
  6. Have you made mistakes? How do you move forward following them?
  7. What are your favorite memories?
  8. Any daily routines or habits that would be helpful for most people to do?
  9. How do you navigate balancing between striving and being content?
  10. What motivates and inspires you?
  11. Tell me about your journey.

What do you think she’d say to each? 👆

Xoxo

-Rachel

Life Goals – Work in Progress

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I like to create life goals for each new year. And this year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the person who I want to be not only for next year – but for the rest of my life. I’ve been thinking about the way I want to lead my life, the person I want to be, and how I want to be remembered by those who knew me.

I want to have a handle on my emotions. I want to be able to say that I can maintain emotional equilibrium in the face of difficult, awkward, uncomfortable, and sensitive situations. I want to maintain my cool when pressed for time, or stressed, or under pressure. I want to be known for this.

I want to connect with others. I realized recently that I have difficulty connecting with my daughter in the day-to-day moments. I’m much better at staying busy than actually being settled and sitting down and being present with her and others. But, I want to let my guard down more and more. I want to allow myself to be truly open and present with her.  I want to allow myself to be present in the day-to-day moments and experiences and to enjoy them– to savor them even.

I want to be a person who brings out the best in others– starting with my husband, my daughter and my family. But I want to do this with my friends, acquaintances and others, too. I have that capacity. And I want to tap into that superpower. If we all did that, the world would be such a better place.

I want to know how to navigate human connection, emotion, and conversation well. I want to study this and get better at it myself. And then I want to show others how to do this. I never want to relish in unhealthy and lower-frequency behaviors. I want to demonstrate and facilitate kindness, generosity, gratitude and love.

I want to operate on an energy level of love and gratitude whenever and wherever possible. I want to maintain my focus despite others around me who are simultaneously and very apparently not displaying the same behaviors.

I want to always hope and remain strong in my faith in myself and in others.

I want to make the world a better place. One where people love more deeply and where people connect with hope on a regular basis.

It’s a work in progress.

Letting Go of Perfectionism and Becoming a New Person after my Reunion

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When I was a little girl, I watched a movie called Pollyanna. In the movie, the children string up crystals in the sunlight and watch the crystals split the light into it’s component colors and form prisms on a nearby wall. My birth family reunion was like a crystal. It split my life into component parts and allowed me to see different parts of myself that I didn’t even realize were there. It allowed me to examine each part of my life in a new way. And the beauty of it was that I was the one who could decide what to do with each part. I did a lot of personal work. I thought about the person who I was. I decided what kind of person that I wanted to be going forward.

One thing that I came to terms with is the idea that there was no such thing as perfection. Perfection was an illusion. I used to think that things should be perfect, and I worked tirelessly at that ideal. But I realized that in that perfectionist mentality, I was missing out on the gratifyingly beautiful times where I was just settled in the present– content not only with myself at the present moment but with what others could give me at that time too. 

It’s taken me a long time to get to this place, and I still have a long way to go. But it’s been incredibly powerful just to let go and be happy with the person I am right now. To be content with myself and to accept the fact that I can’t do everything. To accept the fact that things aren’t perfect. And that life circumstances are never perfect. That my friends and family are not perfect. And I can’t make my daughter’s life perfect. If I spend my life trying to chase that ideal, I’ll miss out on the here and now. And she’s growing up so fast! I don’t want to miss these moments in her life. And I don’t want to miss these moments of my life, either.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a bit of an overachiever and a perfectionist. I’m sure this was some sort of defense mechanism I created out of the wounds of being adopted. For me, letting go and living more in the present is still like navigating wild and uncharted territory. But it’s so worth it. I realized in the few years following my reunion that even though I was high-achieving, I wasn’t usually happy. It wasn’t until I moved away, simplified my life, worked on processing my stuff, and worked on my relationships that I began to realize that I didn’t necessarily need all that extra “stuff” anyways. And when I actually let go of those “perfect” ideals, life was a lot more enjoyable and more manageable. And I was happier.

Moving away to a smaller coastal town helped, but I think moving away from my hometown mainly allowed me to shift my perspective from the way things “were always done” because it was merely a different time and place. It allowed me to take a step back and evaluate the person I was, the things that I felt, and the way I was living. It was a simpler, smaller scale. Everyone knew everything about everyone. So, things didn’t fall through the cracks at the same scale as in a larger city. I knew my goals. They were manageable and for once, actually achievable. I wasn’t always feeling like I was under the gun for some deadline of getting an impossible to do list done for an unknown (but large) quantity of people. This contentedness was refreshingly satisfying. And such a welcome respite.

Coincidentally, the timeframe of my living out of state coincided with my birth family reunion. About a year and a half following my move, I embarked on one of the biggest adventures of my entire life– searching for my birth family. And remarkably, my search was not only successful, it was incredibly fast!

After meeting my birth family in May 2014, my head was spinning. I questioned everything about my life and the person who I was. I was also 29 years old, and apparently that’s when a person’s brain finishes developing. Along with this neurological growth spurt, comes a newfound questioning outlook and a deeper ability to see things from another person’s perspective. So my entire outlook shifted. I wasn’t sure about anything. I wasn’t sure if I was the person I was meant to be. I wasn’t sure if I was in the career I was supposed to be in. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be married. I wasn’t sure if I would’ve made the same life choices or felt the same way about things if I wasn’t raised in my adoptive family or if I was raised in a different way.

I felt like my personality was split into segments like a pie chart. One part of me was fun-loving and adventurous, carefree, and fearless. Another part of me was studious, serious, and professional. Another part of me was dedicated, diligent, and responsible. Another part of me was spontaneous and free-spirited. I felt like my body and mind were being pulled in each of these different directions. It took me over a year to examine each segment of this pie chart frame by frame, sorting out the things that I wanted to keep in my life, and the things I wanted to discard. It took time to process through what each part of my personality meant to me and what that part of my life looked like in real life application. After all this processing, I eventually worked on reintegrating them into the whole person I wanted to be. My husband was a counselor who worked with individuals with Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder). Following trauma, in effort to protect itself from the trauma, the brain can sometimes split off different parts of a person to the point of having multiple personas that may not even know one another. Although the parts of my personality were not fragmented to the point of being clinically disassociated, following my reunion, I could relate.

Thankfully on the other side of the few years following my birth family reunion, I am happy to say that I survived. I survived. I wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t always sane. But I survived.

And I’m a different person for it. The ordeal was somewhat traumatic (or maybe just stripped the paint off of an old trauma from my infanthood). Either way, I felt wounded, cut open like my cesarean. And even though this experience figuratively birthed something quite magical in my life, my life needed to mend. I never realized how much a person could change in the course of her life. But I can say that I am such a different person after the experiences surrounding the few years following my reunion.

And that’s not such a bad thing.

I used to hold such a stigma about a person changing. I grew up being taught that change was a bad thing by a group of people who were really stuck in their ways. They didn’t value self-growth or change. Anything new was considered blasphemous and they pined for “the good old days” of the American 50’s. When sadly there was a lot that was lacking in those days! And in the environment where I grew up, there were popular stigmas associated with both growing old and becoming a mom (physically and socially speaking). I heard it all.

Some time after giving birth, I asked my midwife if I could get back into exercising because before I became pregnant, I deeply loved “hardcore” yoga and aerial silks. She said “Yes, just ease into it and listen to your body. Because you are a different person now.”

As she said the last part, I felt shame creep over me as my gaze went to the floor. I regretfully said, “Yeah” as I thought of all the things I wasn’t sure that I could physically do anymore. I’ll never forget what she said to me in her next breath before I could even say anything further. She looked me in the eyes and said definitively, “You’re not the same person–you’re better.”

 

Xoxo

–R

Becoming a Mom and Processing my Own Adoption

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Ever since I found out that I was pregnant in late February 2016, I wasn’t able to write as much for my book or my blog like I loved to do. Between the pregnancy nausea and the business of planning for a new baby and then raising a new baby, I was at a loss for the time, energy, and physical ability to write a single blog post. And now, I look back and over a year has passed! Where did the time go? The past year and a half flew by! Now I’m on the other side of motherhood, living in a different state, and I am a completely different person. My perspective has completely changed. I have such a deeper respect for parenthood now that I know firsthand how difficult it really is. Sometimes I pass young parents with their children in the grocery store and I wanna just say, “YOU ARE A ROCKSTAR!” as I fist-bump them in solidarity. I usually restrain myself, flash them a smile, and say, “Hi.” But seriously, being a new parent is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done!

I’m much more compassionate with my patients since becoming a mom. Recently, I lifted a patient from her bed. Holding her helpless body in my arms, for a split second, I flashed back to how it felt to hold my baby in my arms. Both were so defenseless and dependent, looking up to me for loving care. Since returning to work, I’ve also examined countless patients’ mouth strength and movement for speech and language skills. When my elderly patients flash me their best edentulous grins, I can’t help but think of my adorable toothless little one at home. Everything reminds me of her!

My work days and home projects are now carefully scheduled around a grueling nursing and pumping schedule. My mental energy is spent largely researching baby related topics and worrying. Oh the worrying is real. As a first time parent I worry about everything. (And I think that’s totally normal!) I mean, this little life is totally dependent on you! And your daughter is being formed by the choices you make. My biggest fear was of “messing her up” or ruining her somehow. I know firsthand what trauma can do to a child. And even though I turned out semi-normal, the last thing I’d ever wish for my child would be to bear unnecessary hardship that would somehow turn her into some hardened soul or a traumatized individual.

For a while I was struggling to find my voice again. I remember wanting to blog, but feeling mentally and verbally tongue-tied. During that time, I was processing through my thoughts and coming to terms with what being a mother meant to me. I was learning how to navigate my new role as a mom and coming to terms with things that I had to process as an adoptee in this new role.

One thing that really astounded me was how much my daughter craved to be with me. Which really caught me by surprise. Both the fact that she needed me so much and the fact that I didn’t realize how much babies needed their moms. Of course I knew that babies needed their moms and someone to raise them. But let me illustrate what I mean. After a long day of work, I came home to my daughter. She glanced up at me coming through the front door and flashed me a huge smile! She squealed with delight. It was one of the most heartwarming things I’ve ever seen. I was her mom. And she was waiting all day to see me. She was much more settled since I was home. I greeted her and held her close. I played with her on the floor and read her a story. I nursed her and change her diaper. After a while I sat her down so that I could have a bite to eat for dinner. And she often cried because she wanted me to hold her even longer. She’s missed me so much all day. And she wanted to spend more time with me. She also had a difficult time being held by new people, even to the point where it was difficult for me to find a babysitter to allow for me to leave the house without her. She had major separation anxiety. And she just loved being with me so much! She cried in her bassinet seemingly inconsolably. She was instantly soothed when I picked her up and held her close. She fell asleep again. She sat up in her crib and cried. I placed my hand on her back and she immediately fell back asleep at the gentlest touch to let her know I was there.

This was par for the course for how her almost entire first year of life has been. It actually surprised me. How deeply my baby craved to be near me  and how much my presence soothed her. I’m not sure if it was being separated from my biological mother when she passed away when I was four months old, or my own insecurities. But one thing that I’ve struggled with since becoming a mom is realizing how completely normal this connection of a baby to her mom is. A part of me feels like these are new concepts; that 1) My baby can’t live without her mom, 2) she craves spending time with her mom and 3) this mother-daughter connection is indeed very special.

I’ve had a special bond with my adoptive mom. And I’m really grateful for that! But how do I live with the fact that my biological daughter needs me, when I never got the chance to grow up and develop a connection to my own biological mom. It’s seems almost paradoxical. Like how, after losing my own biological mother at 4 months old, am I “okay”? Especially after seeing how much my own baby cries for me when I’m gone for even a day? Am I really okay after all?

During this time of soul-searching, I wasn’t sure if I was okay. I was hurt. I was mad. I questioned the reason for losing my birth mom. I asked God why he allowed me to undergo such hardships which then catapulted me into such a different and somewhat difficult life as a child.

I am thankful for my adoptive mom. She is the prime reason I am who I am today. I love that she is my mom. I love that she accepted me as her own daughter and never treated me differently because I was adopted. Through her I learned what motherhood was.
But now, where do I go from here? What does all this mean for me? For my daughter?

In the past ten months of being a mom, I processed a lot. I’ve realized a few things:

I can enjoy my relationship with my daughter for what it is and what we have. Her experiences will be different from mine. My experiences were different from hers. But we are both okay. We are both deeply loved and cherished. We both have moms who love us. We are blessed because we had someone to hold us, to care for us, to feed us, and to nurture us! We are okay because we were not alone. And we aren’t alone now.

My daughter and I have a biological connection. And that is something I am grateful for. But biology is not the only thing that makes a family. I was part of a loving family even though we had no genetic ties. And that’s OK.

My daughter and I have a biological relationship. I carried her in my womb and delivered her into this world. I was there on her birth day. I witnessed her first cry. And I’ve been with her every day since. I brought her home from the hospital. I’ve been able to watch her grow and develop. I taught her how to drink milk and stand up on her two little feet. I rocked her to sleep every night since she’s been born. And that’s a wonderful blessing. Not everyone can say that they’ve had that growing up– including me. However, even though I didn’t get to enjoy the unbroken mother-daughter relationship from birth through life that most children have, I am allowed to cherish the fact that I can have that with my own daughter. It’s not too good to be true, because this is my reality. I don’t have to be afraid that this beautiful relationship is going to be taken away from me at any moment. Oddly enough acceptance of this fact is still a work in progress.

I’m not sure if other adoptees go through this too. It’s almost like I’m relearning what “normal” is. And what happened to me as a baby wasn’t normal. It was actually traumatic. And in realizing this fact, I’ve had to come to terms with what actually happened to me as a baby. My biological mother died. But, in spite of this tumultuous beginning, I’m okay. I’m safe. I’m loved. I’m not alone.

Counselors say that what happens after trauma is what matters most. If a person is soothed and safe after the trauma, they can recover and move forward. They can process the trauma and find restoration and healing. I’m so grateful that my adoptive family, namely my mom and her family, did that for me! But through becoming a mom myself, I’m facing the deep questions of what makes a mom. Like, what kind of mom do I want to be? Why is a mother-child relationship so strong? What do I do to foster this little child and grow our relationship? I’m wondering how in the world do I do it. And most of all, I’m questioning if, after all I’ve been through, and for all that I am–after what I’ve been through, do I have what it takes? 🤷🏻‍♀️

To all my friends out there processing their own stuff: I’m sending hardcore mommy-love your way tonight.

Xoxo.

-rm

Ready to Say What I Want

 

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I turned 29 this week!!! I celebrated my birthday by taking time for myself and doing a couple of my favorite things: yoga, massage, a therapy session, lunch with my hubby, and wings and beer with friends. My therapist said that many people would be reluctant to come to therapy on their birthday. But, I always felt like therapy was a treat– a massage for my insides. After I leave our sessions, I always feel like shouting, “Therapy is my favorite thing, ever!!!!” But I restrain myself, and just leave with a smile and the newfound weightlessness that I usually have after a good session.

I started going to counseling after reconnecting with my bio family to help me process all of the intense emotions involved in that experience. At the outset, I didn’t feel like I needed to address the issues I had from growing up with an adoptive father who had a lot of anger issues– but this past session a few things came to the surface. I started the session talking about how I get really anxious talking in social situations–even about benign stuff like saying what kind of music I like, or my opinion on just about anything. I was scared to reveal too much to show my true self and to show how I was really feeling.

So, I used the EFT* tapping technique during the session to work through the stress I felt when talking to people. As I was working through this technique, I realized that I was afraid to talk to people because I was afraid that people would judge me or think I was a terrible person. During the tapping sequence, an old memory came to the surface of when I was little. My adoptive dad yelled a lot when I was little. Upon recalling this memory and making the association between my past experiences and my current state, I actually started crying. And amazingly, my tears brought an incredible release. I immediately felt a breakthrough. It was cathartic to realize why I became so anxious in social conversational situations. And I felt an amazing sense of peace and clarity in realizing where my anxiety stemmed from. After this amazing realization, I felt like I could really embrace the fact that I could say what I want to say–when I want to say it. And no one can stop me!

My new mantra is this: I am free to say what I want to say. I have a voice. And I need to use my voice. I need to be free to show my true self to the world. If I am not myself, who will be able to be me to the world? I want to leave my thumbprint on the world. If I don’t, no one else will be able to. No one else can make the difference that I am supposed to make in the world. Because no one else can be who I am meant to be. At 29 years old, I am ready to live, breathe, and speak my true self like I never have before. I am no longer content just being muted and subdued because that’s not really who I am. I’m ready to say what I want to say.

 

*If you would like more information on the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) you can check out www.thetappingsolution.com. It’s been an invaluable resource for me in processing all of these new emotions and reducing overall stress.

“Somewhere Between”

Recently I saw a documentary entitled, “Somewhere Between” which told the stories of four Chinese girls who were adopted by white American families. I was so touched by their stories. I could relate to being somewhere between two cultures. Growing up I felt more German-Polish American than I felt Korean-American. I didn’t know the first thing about Korean culture, Korean food, or Korean people. The ironic thing was that I looked 100% Korean. And it seemed like every Korean person we met on the street knew it because they all assumed I spoke Korean. It was always a little awkward for me to explain why I didn’t speak Korean because I was always met with a look of disappointment or pain in their eyes. Looking back, I think these people were probably just sad to hear my story. However, in that moment I always felt ashamed that I didn’t know Korean. Like I had let these Korean people down somehow. There was definitely no reason for me to feel ashamed, and most of the time I knew that. The other hard scenario as a kid was responding to that disgruntled older Korean American adult about how “[I] should’ve really learned Korean growing up from my parents,” and “that it was a shame that kids don’t these days.” They usually stopped in their tracks as soon as I told them I was adopted by a white family.

Growing up, I’ve had a few Korean classmates in school, but I never really felt like I truly fit in with them. I didn’t know Korean. I didn’t know anything about being Korean. And I never got the memo about how being a Korean girl meant you were quiet, and soft-spoken, and when you laughed, you were supposed to cover your mouth with your hand as if that was more lady-like. Crazy enough at the same time, by the looks of me, no one could deny I was Korean. But I wasn’t really Korean. But I wasn’t really white. I was just somewhere in-between.

Check out the documentary that totally rocked my world at http://www.somewherebetweenmovie.com/