My growth journey kicked off in 2010, when I became a first-time mom. I remember holding my newborn son, looking into his tiny face, feeling the gravity of becoming responsible for a human life. I wondered to myself, "What do I need to teach this kid so he can grow into a happy, healthy, functional individual?" And a voice inside me said, "You need to be a shining example of that."

It was in those moments that I felt myself begin to awaken. I began to take stock of my life. Despite having reached the prescribed benchmarks of success - college degrees, career, house, car, dog, husband, baby - I knew there was something missing.

It turned out that something was ME!

In focusing my attention on the prescribed markers of success, I was overriding what I actually wanted for my life, and behaving in the ways that were expected of me. I wasn't honoring my authentic self.

Little by little, I began chiseling off the layers of pretense that I had unknowingly built up during my first 30 years of life and chose to show my organic self to the world. I started becoming the self, the mother, the friend, the lover, the creator, the messy, sweet, feisty, tender human I was always meant to be, and there's not a single day that goes by where I regret making those changes. I am exactly who I'm meant to be, and I continue to learn and grow and evolve all the time.