Blogs & Insights From Mama Gold
Taming The Monster
It was a cold, rainy weekend. The soft fingers of rain drummed on the roof as I cocooned myself into reading Kim's remarkable book. I sensed it was going to be profoundly moving, but I did not realize that her courage would evoke my courage to tell my raw truth.
The timing of the release of Kim Vermaak' s remarkable book, "Taming the Monster of Postpartum Depression", could not have been more poignantly surreal, nor more agonizingly relevant.
Passages And Pages
When approval becomes an addiction, we remain enmeshed in a constant need to prove ourselves.
And it is never enough.
Never.
It becomes another self-fulfilling prophecy.
Significance lies somewhere deeper. It's raw and honest and deeply confronting.
Peace is the path I am choosing now. It requires a different form of courage.
My Experiment With Visibility
After this Easter period of deep reflection, I have chosen to retreat into a period of thought leadership and writing, focusing on my mental health journey. Being active and in quiet reflection creates a gentle way forward. I am trying to create a road map of learning as I navigate this complex life in my 60s. The visibility this past year for me has been excruciating – being too exposed.
The Vulnerability Hangover
Well, what we often find as speakers is that we give it our all and sometimes when we do deep and vulnerable storytelling, we really pour out a part of our souls that is a part of our deep story, our deep past. It takes an awful lot of emotional energy to bring that pain, that shame, that anguish to the surface so that we can verbalize it in an articulate way.
The Tale of Two Launches
In the blue eyes of my own truth- telling, I had found the oceans of my healing. Finally confronting the sea of my memories buried deep in the ocean floor for so long. And so I surfaced from the ocean and I stepped into the light of the shore. Looking up at the majesty of Table Mountain - an iconic symbol of the world.
Coming Out
At the age of 29
I had wanted to end it all
Driving weekend after weekend
Along Chapman’s Peak Drive
Wanting to drown my shame
In the cauldron of foam below
That frothed and eddied
Like a crazed dance
Against the ebony rocks below
