Tag: health

Friday Exhale: Unraveling the Map and Adapting as I Go

by Mothersense, posted in Mental Health Recovery, Reclamation

If you’ve been following along, you know this past week has required a lot of listening to my body—stepping back, treading water, and letting go of the need to do it all at once.

For a long time, when my body threw out warning lights—fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath—it was easy to assume it was just one thing. We tell ourselves, “I’m just tired,” or “My iron must be low again,” and we keep pushing.

But real health transitions happen when you stop guessing and start digging.

What the Map Is Showing Me

Over the last few months, I’ve been working closely with my care team—specialists across different areas who are helping me piece together a puzzle that’s been building for a while.

Instead of a single isolated issue, the tests and conversations are showing a web of connected signals: heart health, blood sugar, oxygen levels, and metabolic balance. Receiving clear news—like where my A1C stands or how my body is handling stress and nutrition—can feel heavy at first.

It’s scary to realize your body is raising its hand and saying, “We can’t keep doing things the old way.”

At the same time, clarity is a gift. You can’t fix what you refuse to name. Having actual data from my doctors means I no longer have to wander in the dark guessing why I feel drained.

How I Am Adapting

Finding out what’s going on under the hood isn’t a dead end—it’s the start of a redesign. Here is how I’m turning those clinical answers into daily action:

  1. Fueling for Function, Not Just Convenience: My kitchen is transforming. I am pivoting toward a heart-healthy, low-sodium, and blood-sugar-mindful way of eating. It means trading quick, processed fixes for whole foods, lean proteins, and meals that protect my heart while keeping my iron and energy steady.
  2. Protecting My Lungs: Part of this adaptation means ending my reliance on nicotine for good. Moving away from cigarettes was step one; letting go of the vape to give my lungs the clean air they need to heal is the necessary final step.
  3. Pacing Over Pushing: I am learning to treat rest as a non-negotiable medical instruction, not a luxury I earn after I’m exhausted.
  4. Building the Support Network: Leaning on my family, my doctors, and clear accountability so I don’t try to navigate this massive shift alone.

The Exhale

If you are fighting your own quiet health battles or trying to make sense of a new diagnosis, know that it’s okay if the answers take time to sort out. You don’t have to have the entire journey mapped on day one.

You just need to listen to what your body is asking for today, trust the professionals in your corner, and make the next right choice for your health.

As we roll into the weekend, take a deep breath, give yourself some grace, and let your body rest.

T is for Transitions, Truth, and Treading Water

by Mothersense, posted in Mental Health Recovery, Reclamation

If you noticed the quiet here on Friday, thank you for your grace. My body called a hard timeout, and honoring that pause wasn’t optional—it was necessary.

When you’re running a series like this, missing a beat can make you feel like you’ve fallen behind. But as we step into T, it feels right on time. Today, T stands for three things that are currently intertwined in my life: Transitions, Truth-Telling, and Treading Water.

The Reality of Treading Water

When we talk about life changes, the world loves to highlight the “before” and “after.” We talk about making strides, taking big leaps, and celebrating clean breaks.

What people rarely talk about is the awkward, exhausting space in between—the season where you are simply treading water.

Treading water gets a bad rap because it looks like standing still from the surface. But underneath? Your legs are moving constantly just to keep your head up. It takes real energy to hold your ground while your body and mind adapt to change. If all you did today was keep your head above water while navigate a hard shift, that wasn’t a wasted day. That was survival.

Facing the Hard Truths

You can’t navigate a transition successfully on half-truths or wishful thinking. Real growth requires a serious period of Truth-Seeking and Truth-Telling—starting with the person in the mirror.

That means looking squarely at what we are putting into our bodies, our minds, and our daily routines, and asking: Is this actually serving me, or is it just a crutch?

For me, that truth-telling hits close to home right now:

  • The Habit Swap: Back in January, I made the big decision to quit smoking. That was a huge win, but to keep the edge off, I picked up vaping. It cut down the harm, but the truth caught up with me: my lungs are letting me know in no uncertain terms that vaping has to go, too. Moving from one crutch to another isn’t the final destination; it was just a stepping stone on the way to full clarity.
  • Fuel vs. Filling Space: I’m in a season where I have to be intensely mindful of every single thing I eat. It can no longer be about convenience or quick fixes. I am actively learning to seek high nutritional value and genuine flavor, shifting how I view food entirely.
  • Adding & Subtracting: Transitions aren’t just about cutting things out—they’re about replacing old, harmful patterns with nourishing ones. It’s an ongoing audit of habits, routines, and inputs.

Bringing Your Circle Into the Fold

The hardest part of truth-telling is doing it out loud with the people who love you.

It is terrifying to admit to the people close to us that we are struggling, or that a habit we thought we had under control is actually holding us back. But hiding our struggles only isolates us.

When we tell the truth to our family, friends, and support system:

  1. We drop the mask: Pretending “everything is fine” takes twice as much energy as actually dealing with the problem.
  2. We invite accountability: The people who love us can’t help us keep our balance if they don’t know we’re tipping over.
  3. We build a safer bridge: Letting others see our raw transitions allows them to support us in practical, meaningful ways.

Finding the New Normal

Learning a whole new set of life skills—whether it’s stepping away from nicotine entirely, restructuring your diet, or managing physical boundaries—feels heavy when you’re doing it all at once.

If you are currently in a transition of your own, give yourself permission to tread water for a minute. Be honest about where it hurts, stop pretending you have it all figured out, and let the people who care about you help hold you steady while you build your new normal.

We don’t have to swim laps today. We just have to keep reaching for the truth, one breath at a time.

The Exhale Is a Scream (And a Glass of Cold Tea)

by Mothersense, posted in This Life

Friday, September 4

I sat down to write a normal Friday post, but I can’t pretend things are normal. I can’t write a neat little wrap-up about finding peace when everything around us feels like it’s fraying at the edges.

Look at the news on any given day. People tearing each other apart online for sport. Road rage taking lives over a momentary inconvenience. Healthcare systems treating human suffering like an expense sheet. Three children lose their lives and the system runs with the easiest, fastest theory instead of asking the terrifying, necessary questions.

And then, as if the daily weight of the world wasn’t heavy enough, we lose the light-keepers. In a single week, voices like Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, Peter Cullen, and Samuel Monroe Jr. are gone. The anchors feel like they’re snapping.

What the hell are we supposed to do with all this grief?

Because here’s the absurd part: the world keeps spinning. The bills still come. The laundry still sits in the basket. We still have to show up, do the work, and figure out how to live a beautiful life without letting the weight of everything else crush us to dust.

So how do we do it?

Do we lay it at the cross? Do we dance, dream, and persevere anyway? Do we hold tight to our daily rituals and thank God for every quiet moment of mercy?

Maybe it’s all of the above. And maybe today, it’s stepping away from the screens, stepping outside—even if it is air-fryer hot—touching the grass, and taking a sip of ice-cold tea.

Maybe it’s letting yourself have a good, ugly cry. As Steel Magnolias reminded us, laughter through tears is the best emotion. You’re allowed to scream into a pillow, feel the rage, mourn the losses, and still choose to bake, build, love, and keep going.

The exhale isn’t always neat. Today, it’s a scream, a prayer, a cry, and a deep breath. You aren’t crazy for feeling the weight of it all. Just don’t forget to take your step back.

Roots, Wings, and the Songwriting Journey

by Mothersense, posted in Musical Musings, This Life



We are breaking away from our standard alphabet schedule today because something beautiful happens when you are forced to pause your physical momentum: your creative spirit finally gets the room it needs to stretch its wings.
For me, that creative space belongs to storytelling, music, and a concept I hold close to my heart: Roots and Wings.
Every song starts the exact same way—with just a few raw, honest lyrics scratched out on a piece of paper. It starts with a feeling, a memory, or a heavy truth that needs a place to go. Years ago, when I first started planting those lyrical seeds, I didn’t know what kind of garden they would grow into. I just knew I had to write them down.
Take these lines, for instance, from a piece called Blackland Ink:
There’s a heavy kind of truth in the turning of the soil
A legacy written in the sweat and the toil
You can bury the past in the deep, dark clay
But the roots hold tight till the rain clears the way.
Today, those scattered pages have grown into a full, versatile catalog of over a hundred songs. They are rooted in the grit and honesty of Americana, Red Dirt, and Country music—genres that don’t shy away from real life, hard truths, or unexpected grief.
And right now, behind the scenes, a major shift is happening. I am currently prepping this entire master catalog to be published through Broken Fence Publishing.
But the goal isn’t to just throw these songs out into the void of the massive commercial music industry. The goal is connection. I am preparing to pitch these pieces directly to independent, niche boutique producers.
Why boutique producers? Because music isn’t a one-size-fits-all product. These songs carry specific messages, deep roots, and unique wings. By working with independent producers who value the craft, I can ensure that each song finds its way into the hands of just the right singing artist—the one whose voice and heart match the story the song was born to tell.
It is a massive milestone in a journey that started with a single pen and a blank notebook. It’s a reminder that even when our physical bodies force us to slow down, the work of our hearts never truly stops. It just waits for the right season to fly.

Happy Friday y’all, just breathe!

The Forced Exhale

by Mothersense, posted in Mental Health Recovery, Reclamation



We are stepping away from the alphabet today. No letters, no structured frameworks, and no systems to analyze. Just a collective, heavy sigh before we head into the weekend.
I’ve spent a lot of time recently talking about the necessity of a pause, but if I’m being completely honest, I didn’t gracefully choose this quiet space. I was dragged into it. For anyone built with a “full steam ahead” default setting, resting feels a lot like quitting. We tell ourselves, “Just one more project,” “Just through this next week,” or “I’ll rest when everything is in order.”
But here is the brutal truth I’ve had to face lately: if you do not choose a time to rest, your body will eventually pick a time for you. And its choice is never convenient.
When you ignore the subtle warning signs—the creeping fatigue, the physical aches, the mental fog—your body eventually pulls the emergency brake. That’s where I’ve found myself, dealing with health issues that completely sidelined my best-laid plans. It turns out, you can’t negotiate with an exhausted nervous system or an ailing physical frame. It doesn’t care about your deadlines, your blog schedule, or the life you thought you’d be effortlessly managing at 50.
So this weekend isn’t just a casual break for me; it’s a necessary, forced evacuation from my own ambition.
Getting your life in order doesn’t always look like organizing a space or checking off a goal. Sometimes, getting yourself in order means surrendering to the couch. It means admitting that you are human, that your energy is finite, and that the world will not stop turning if you step away from the wheel for a few days.
If you are currently running on fumes, trying to outrun your own physical limits or the heavy grief that crops up when you finally slow down, please don’t wait for the crash. Don’t wait for your body to force your hand.
Let this Friday be your choice. Drop your shoulders. Unclench your jaw. Leave the unfinished projects exactly where they are—they will survive without you until Monday.
Take the breath now, on your own terms. Let’s exhale.