Why Motherhood Makes You Better at Business (Not Worse): Lessons on Burnout, Capacity & Building a Sustainable Life | Priya Rednam Waldo

[00:00:00]**Nikita Williams:** So you know that routine you have when you have your morning planned, the plan for which days you're gonna take certain calls or do certain things, the calendar that somehow keeps holding together throughout the childcare that you have lined up, and they just line up on the right days usually.

[00:00:22] [00:00:17] **Nikita Williams:** The way you even juggled that last flare-up in the client call in the same afternoon, and you thought, "I totally got this." You told yourself everything was working, and that's exactly how it felt. But then some nights you take a moment and you realize, "I'm totally exhausted, and I almost feel like I'm going to pass out."

[00:00:46] [00:00:35] **Nikita Williams:** And you're like, "Something is actually not working." And you're starting to think, "Did I just skate by today versus feeling like I did the thing?" And lately, you have [00:01:00] more and more of those days and nights. Things keep skating by. You're starting to realize it's not actually working, the plans, the rituals, and you just don't know how to fix it.

[00:01:13] [00:00:55] **Nikita Williams:** Our guest, Priya Rednam Waldo, was building her life in a similar [00:01:00] way, running her own therapy practice, a coaching career, helping career-driven women through motherhood while raising her own kids. She made the plans, she built the routine, and told herself, "That's just how it works. This is how you get things done." And for the most part, things held up. Nothing too bad fell through the cracks

[00:01:42] [00:01:21] **Nikita Williams:** And when they did, she patched it up and kept going until the patching stopped working. What held with one child didn't hold with two. It would've been nice if it had broken slowly, right? The plans. But it all broke [00:02:00] at once on a nursery floor at two AM. If you've ever kept something running on a thread you keep re-tying, kept tinkering with a plan that's already unraveling, you already know exactly what that moment feels like. In this episode, listen for three things. One, Why the advice to just increase your capacity was never actually true, and what to [00:02:00] do instead when you're already stretched thin.

[00:02:27] [00:02:02] **Nikita Williams:** And two, the one question Priya now asks herself and clients that tells you if something is actually working or just being tolerated. And three, what actually happened after that night on the floor, the exact shift that let her build a business and continue in her motherhood without burnout that could still hold without waiting to break again.

[00:02:52] [00:02:26] **Nikita Williams:** This one's for you if you've got something running on duct tape right now and you [00:03:00] already know that it's time to shift some things. I'm Nikita Williams, your host, and this is Business with Chronic Illness. Be sure to join us inside of our community in the show notes to further this conversation and tell us what you thought or what came up for you. All right. Stay tuned

[00:03:21] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** We do need to care for our basic needs every day, which include moving our body, eating food, drinking water, and getting rest. So we put those things on our calendar, and I myself have noticed, I'll be like, "Oh my gosh, I said yes. I over-read my calendar." And for me, I just try to be really compassionate and say, "Gosh, uh, that was a deviation, but it's a deviation that will not become the norm because I know what's, what I really need to do and I want to pl- come from a place of integrity when I'm coaching."

[00:03:53] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I wanna be able to come from a place of integrity in parenthood and say, you know, "Don't just do as I say, but like [00:04:00] I'm encouraging you to try to do as I do because I know it's helpful and healthy for you

[00:04:07] **Nikita Williams:** Are you tired of hearing business advice that completely ignores what real life looks like when you're navigating chronic illness, autoimmune disorders, flare-ups, medical appointments, and just life lifing? Business with Chronic Illness is for entrepreneurs who know they're capable of building something meaningful, but need a way to do it that actually works with their body, not against it.

[00:04:32] **Nikita Williams:** This podcast brings you honest conversations with founders, CEOs, and other bosses sharing their strategies, adaptations, and lessons they've learned while building businesses alongside chronic illness, including what worked, what didn't, and what they wish they had done differently before burnout forced the lesson.

[00:04:53] **Nikita Williams:** I'm your host, Nikita Williams, a globally ranked podcast host and entrepreneur who's built my business while navigating chronic illness [00:05:00] and helping others do the same without sacrificing themselves. I created this show to open up the conversations most business spaces avoid. The promise of Business with Chronic Illness is simple: to show you that you can build a thriving business with chronic illness and autoimmune disorders without sacrificing your health, your peace, or your profit.

[00:05:20] **Nikita Williams:** You're not behind. You're building differently, and you're in the right place. I'm really excited to have Priya on the show because we get to talk about a topic I feel like we talk about around motherhood and being a mom and living with chronic illness, but we don't talk about it as much, like, head-on, on what does that look like as being a caregiver while living with chronic illness, also the ebbs and flows of what that looks like.

[00:05:47] **Nikita Williams:** And when we connected in EntrepreNista, I thought, "This is the perfect person to talk about this," when we had our chat. So please tell us a little bit who you are, where you're from, so we can kinda dive [00:06:00] a little bit into this.

[00:06:02] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here, and always love to talk about this topic because it is so near and dear to my heart.

[00:06:10] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I am Priya Rednam Waldo. I'm a licensed maternal therapist, a coach, and a CEO of a private mental health practice here in Detroit, Michigan, where I have, I guess I'm calling it my hometown now for the better part of a decade. Um, I was born and raised in St. Louis, but I also wanna add that I'm the proud daughter of Indian immigrants, and my culture, both here in the US as well as through my parents from India, is very much a part of who I am, and I bring all of that to the work that I do.

[00:06:41] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I specifically coach high-achieving and career-driven women who are navigating the really transformative journey from pregnancy through postpartum and somewhat beyond. And I help them to move through that evolution with health and joy and fulfillment, [00:07:00] both personally in their role as a mother, but also professionally wherever their ambitions lie.

[00:07:04] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I bring all of myself, again, to my work to include my own experience of raising four beautiful children, three who I welcomed through birth, and my oldest we welcomed through adoption. I'm very much in a multicultural, multiracial, multi-faith, multi-ethnic family. So I have a lot of unique perspectives on creating a loving and supportive space in that, and bring all of my therapeutic expertise.

[00:07:31] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And then I myself have been in, um, have had really the privilege of leadership positions in the US Army, in nonprofit and hospital settings, as well as, of course, in running my own private practice.

[00:07:45] **Nikita Williams:** Look at you. I, I, I think... I mean, it's just, there's so many... We were talking a little bit before we jumped on, and you're like, we were...

[00:07:53] **Nikita Williams:** I was saying there's just so many gems I'm sure you have, even though there are so many different variables that are [00:08:00] happening in life, and I'm sure it's brought lots of different challenges and learnings and unlearnings and all of those things in the different roles that you have been. But let's lean into your own personal story real quick, um, into what is living with chronic illness or having chronic illness, how does that look like in your life or has it looked like in your life through all of these different phases?

[00:08:24] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I loved connecting with you because it kind of forced me to really sit with what chronic illness has looked like in my greater story. Because even prior to making my journey into motherhood, as I said, I had held leadership positions in the US Army, and so I really held a lot of chronic challenges from that experience.

[00:08:48] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I am a proud West Point graduate. It's a high-stress, high-demand situation. And when you're in your 18 through 20, uh, early 20s, you carry large loads. You [00:09:00] really put your body through the wringer. Um, so all of that military training. And then later, soon after, I deployed to combat operations, and all of the kind of intensities that are in that, um, environment.

[00:09:14] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I really came back with what I still live with today, which is chronic pain, chronic trauma responses, as well as chronic fatigue, um, some autoimmune issues. I really... You know, when you're young, you just kind of say, "Well, everybody's got this going on," and you have that energy of your 20s, and so you just kinda power on, and you keep grinding, and you keep moving towards your goals, which is a great thing, but you really don't have to sit and think as much.

[00:09:44] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** At least in my experience, I didn't have to sit and think as much about, like, what this means for the long term of my life, my professional ambitions, as well as my personal wellness. It was really only after I was so humbled moving inth- [00:10:00] into motherhood where I really had to confront all of these chronic conditions and what they meant for me now that it wasn't just me I was taking care of, but I was also taking care of tiny human being, um, at first, and now human beings.

[00:10:14] **Nikita Williams:** It is interesting. Yeah, the 20s. I think about my 20s, and I think, yeah, I don't know what I was thinking about, what I was experiencing as far as, like, chronic situations, chronic health. At the time, didn't even know they were, like, chronic in the context of, like, I'm gonna be living with this forever. I'm gonna have to make some bigger decisions, but...

[00:10:34] **Nikita Williams:** About, like, my future and children and womanhood and all those different kind of things. But at the same time, that naiveté of being young and just like, "Oh, eh, you know, we'll get through it. Anything's possible," you know?

[00:10:48] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah, I'll figure that out someday.

[00:10:49] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah. Right? So when I hear you say that and thinking about, okay, now going into taking care of little people, little humans.

[00:10:57] **Nikita Williams:** In that process of being like, okay, [00:11:00] before these little humans come into my life fully, what did you realize you needed to shift? What were some of the things you realized, "Oh, man, I guess those things did matter," you know? What did that look like for you?

[00:11:14] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I'll be honest, I didn't realize it until after I brought them into this world, at least my first one, that I would need to make really significant changes, at least into my mindset about how I kind of strategically move through life so that I could both be well as an individual and also bring the best of myself to my child, to my family.

[00:11:39] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So I really went into pregnancy with that naivete that you, um, described. And it really came, too, though, from a reflection that I had been through really hard things in my life. I had military training. I was a paratrooper. I had jumped out of airplanes. I had done the [00:12:00] hardest things seemingly that I could do.

[00:12:02] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And so I came in, maybe it was more of an uninformed confidence that I was actually experiencing. I thought, "How hard could this little baby be?" People have been growing children forever. Like, how hard could that be? And really, really quickly on, I was humbled by what really is a chronic condition for me that extended through each of my pregnancies, which was pretty severe hyperemesis.

[00:12:30] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And people may be aware of it, but it is far beyond kind of the morning sickness that is typically described. It is vomiting in excess of 20 times a day, really not able to keep anything down. I had to receive hospital IV fluids, um, more than a handful of times during my pregnancies. Wow. And I was still, again, in the mindset of, "Well, I've done hard things.

[00:12:53] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I'll just keep going, I'll keep going." And then I ended up having a really traumatic birth experience with... [00:13:00] in and of itself was very difficult, but I didn't realize until after how much it touched on my trauma from the military, and the echoes of powerlessness or lack of control that so many people with chronic conditions can feel.

[00:13:14] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And it resulted in postpartum anxiety, um, and post-traumatic stress after that birth experience, and I really kind of suffered through it. I didn't get to enjoy this little person that I brought into the world. I didn't get to really truly heal and recover. Um, I think I was still in a state of denial about the intensity of what I was experiencing.

[00:13:39] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And truly, it took me until after my second child, my daughter was born, to say, "Oh, I think I need to make some enormous shifts in my life." I had made some of the, I guess, logistical shifts of, okay, well, I guess I'm supposed to sleep some. I'm supposed to make time to nurse my child, do all of those things.

[00:13:59] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** But [00:14:00] really, the enormous mindset shifts didn't happen after her, because there's only so long you can juggle glass balls in the air before one of them will drop and will feel like, even if there's, it's not grounded in fact, it will feel like things are shattering, the failure. And I, with the support of my awesome husband, was just like, "I need to do something different."

[00:14:22] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** It took me, unfortunately, quite some time to find a specialist who, in perinatal mental health. I had met with some therapists prior who were either not helpful or, um, like more neutral, or actually were quite harmful because they didn't have that expertise. And then finally, when I did engage in care and was able to, one, value my own wellness, my own health, while also being a caregiver, and then spend some time and energy and space healing, then I made a really radical mindset shift.

[00:14:55] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And what that really resulted in was figuring out what my actual [00:15:00] values are, whether it is professionally or personally, which for me is quite integrated anyway. But figuring out what my actual values are, and then kind of restarting by building my life around those values, creating a picture that was new.

[00:15:15] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** It was not the conventional, you know, do this, then get this promotion, then do this thing, and just grind and grind until you're, I don't know, at the top of whatever manufactured Yes ... idea of a mountain is.

[00:15:26] **Nikita Williams:** Yes.

[00:15:27] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Um, I had to s- really take back ownership of my life and put myself back in the driver's seat.

[00:15:32] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And when I did, then I was able to really build something beautiful where I could honor the, the natural rhythms of what I was going through, both with motherhood, my own individual chronic conditions, as well as kind of the bigger piece of what I wanted life to be like.

[00:15:49] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah. What a journey. It sounds like a journey of un- learning and awareness and putting those pieces together.

[00:15:57] **Nikita Williams:** I really appreciate you sharing it because [00:16:00] I think when we hear about some of these challenges, even like in TV shows or movies or even on certain podcast episodes, you know, we kinda hear this journey of like, "I found out I was experienced post-traumatic stress or anxiety, and then now I'm better." Like, and it, it is like, it is like this like, "Oh, I, I learned that I have this, and now I'm fixed," versus-

[00:16:23] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Right

[00:16:24] **Nikita Williams:** no, this took several layers of like, one, awarenesses to come, it sounds like for you, and then integration of like what does that mean? How do I process that? You know, those kind of things is what I'm hearing.

[00:16:39] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah, we often hear stories or see stories in a very linear way, and for me it was anything but.

[00:16:46] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And I think for most people in this world with chronic conditions, it is. It's a back and forth of what will work for my life, what are my actual goals, and trying to find some balance with it at [00:17:00] all. And 100% with every high-achieving woman I've had the privilege of supporting and coaching, it is this unlearning of kind of the traditional, for lack of better way of saying it, of ways to advance in your career, these traditional ways of being a mom, and unlearning that while also learning that there are infinite right ways to do those things while caring for yourself.

[00:17:27] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Mm. Which is not a message we, we really ever get in this world. Unless we are telling it to each other or ourselves, the world is not going to tell that to us, that we absolutely should honor our own ambitions, our health, our fulfillment. Instead, we're really continuing to hear messages, self-sacrifice, what it means to be a good mom, or what it means to be an ambitious professional.

[00:17:53] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** They really want to put people in a box of like this one way to be, and I love breaking that [00:18:00] down. I, I... It was my own really aha moment in my own journey to do it for myself, but now I get to do that with my clients. Yeah. And it's so fulfilling to see when they have their aha moment of like, "Oh, I don't have to just follow whatever guidelines have been passed down for the last 500 years or whatever for maternity leave.

[00:18:19] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I can actually advocate for myself." Right. Or if they are living with layers of chronic conditions, I actually, before I have a child- Mm ... I can make preparations so that I'm completely supported by meaningful, a meaningful village, rather than just wait in a reactive space.

[00:18:36] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah. I'm curious to know what was that aha moment for you?

[00:18:40] **Nikita Williams:** Because- I mean, just in your story, to me, just as listening to it, I'm like, I felt like the... I even assumed like the aha moment was the first child, and you're like, "Nope, it didn't really kick in until the second." And so I'm curious, was there a question? Was there a moment where you were like, "I really [00:19:00] do need to reset.

[00:19:01] **Nikita Williams:** Like, this really has to happen"? Where was that moment for you?

[00:19:05] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah, so for me, when you have one child and you have a really equitable partner, you can find a way to find space for yourself in theory, right? Like, maybe it's not enough, but it's enou- It's

[00:19:20] **Nikita Williams:** something.

[00:19:21] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** It's something, exactly. But when you have a second child, you know, it's man-to-man defense, right?

[00:19:27] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And for me, I really enjoyed nursing. It was something that I found really in line with how I wanted to move mother- through motherhood. And now I can't clone myself, and I had a two-year-old and a newborn at the same time. So I just knew I shouldn't be feeling this way. I do remember actually quite vividly having an experience of nursing my daughter, and my son was just tears, puddle of tears, and he, 'cause he couldn't...

[00:19:57] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** It was time for his bedtime. And I [00:20:00] just started crying. And then later that night, I thought, "Okay, well, I've got it together," and I went to wake up to feed my daughter, and I actually missed the rocker. I had her in my arms, I sat back, as we might, and I missed the rocker. Thankfully, she was fine. Gosh. But I landed on the ground with a thud.

[00:20:20] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Oh my gosh. And my husband called out, "Are you okay?" And I just remember saying, "No."

[00:20:25] **Nikita Williams:** Hmm.

[00:20:25] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So I unfortunately hit a breaking point, and that is a theme I have with all of my clie- or see with all of my clients as well. When you are used to being high-achieving, you're used to powering through, figuring out a way to manage, even in spite of chronic health conditions, as well as, like, having little people that need you.

[00:20:45] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** You wait until you have fallen on the ground at 2:00 AM in a nursery to say, "I'm not okay." You kind of wait till you're in that hole. And most of my clients, they will say, like, "I waited because I thought [00:21:00] mine wasn't as bad."

[00:21:01] **Nikita Williams:** Hmm.

[00:21:01] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Or, "I waited because other people do this so easily."

[00:21:05] **Nikita Williams:** Hmm.

[00:21:05] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And they're really diminishing themselves in the same way that we get messages from society that self-sacrifice or not meeting your basic needs is okay.

[00:21:17] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And really, I built my therapy practice to respond to those moms that were struggling at the bottom of the hole, that I was too. But then my coaching, I, I really built up in these last few years- So that we can try to be proactive and say, "Gosh, you don't have to wait till your aha moment, um, in that way."

[00:21:36] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah. Instead, you can have a really joyful aha moment- Mm-hmm ... of like, wow, okay, yeah, I really do want... I have all the information and knowledge, and I've been able to like, be guided through kind of building the life that I want well before I, yeah, I'm crying in the middle of the night. We all deserve better than that.

[00:21:55] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah. You know, it is something you... That's a really good point, Priya, [00:22:00] that many of us, I don't know about you, but I'll speak for myself, that's what I grew up seeing, is multiple moments of people that were older than me who had these breaking points. And what's unfortunate and sad is that, for me, that when I look back in my life, those same people, they just got back up and kept doing exactly the same.

[00:22:18] **Nikita Williams:** They didn't shift anything, and it was just kind of perceived to me like, well, that's how you do it. You just keep going until you break down, and then you break down, and then you get back up, and you keep going and doing it. You just do that over and over again. And as much as you perceive that in your world, you think, "Oh, that's not a great thing to see.

[00:22:37] **Nikita Williams:** That's not a great thing to connect with." And you're like, man, I, I don't wanna have that in my life. But at the same time, we end up perpetuating that reality. So did you see that in your journey? Is this a part of the history of being like, yeah, I've seen women wee- we know how to do the thing, and then like break down and then be like, "Let's keep going," you know?

[00:22:56] **Nikita Williams:** Was that part of your realization as well, of being like, this is [00:23:00] a habit I'm seeing my whole life?

[00:23:01] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah. That resonates deeply with me, that, oh, I just, I come from a long line of incredibly amazing and strong women.

[00:23:10] **Nikita Williams:** Yes.

[00:23:11] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And what I had to realize through my own experience is they were s- absolutely, like, worthy of being described that way, and they were also struggling through a lot of that.

[00:23:23] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And they really kind of ascribed to this idea that to be a parent, to have ambitions in the world, like, it must require struggle. And, and really kind of a constant idea of struggle. And, you know, I do think in families, in communities, we have to decide at some point if we wanna do things differently.

[00:23:45] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah.

[00:23:45] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** 'Cause really what we're describing, right, is a cy- cycle of burnout. If you get to a place of burnout, take a... Like, necessary, because your body, your brain, something has, like, lit- flared up and said, "We have to stop," but you return to the [00:24:00] exact same thing, you're also gonna return to the same, exact same outcome.

[00:24:04] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And for me, and what I work through certainly, like, this is a foundation with each of my clients, is what would you wanna teach this child that you brought into the world? And when you really sit with that, that's your true value, what you really believe. And if it doesn't match the behaviors that you're doing, well, then there's an opportunity for change, to break the cycles.

[00:24:27] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So for me, I would never teach my daughter that she should suffer- Mm ... and stress and feel high anxiety after she moved mountains to bring her baby into the world- Oh ... if that's what she chooses to do. I would want her to feel that she can enjoy it, that she can receive people taking care of her, and that doesn't just stop at one year postpartum.

[00:24:49] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** That's throughout the journey of parenthood. So that's really where my true values lie, and so if I want her to grow up and really believe that, my words of saying it, I've got to do [00:25:00] something different in my actions. And I find with most moms that I connect with, actually, I'll say all moms that I connect with, that resonates deeply with them- Yes

[00:25:08] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** too. When they can see it through the eyes of their child, they're able to really lock into, oh, these are my true values, and I'm able to start living them now. I don't need to wait till my daughter grows up to start supporting those values.

[00:25:24] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah. I love that question. I love questions, and I think the question that ultimately that sounds like is, like, what place of integrity do you wanna be coming from?

[00:25:35] **Nikita Williams:** Like, where are you living with the value that's important to you? I don't have children, but I sure do have lots of little babies in my life that are my family friends that I consider my, my children in a way, and I don't want the way I'm living my life to give them the idea or the space of being like, oh, it's okay to sacrifice yourself to nothing and not be [00:26:00] able to stand your ground or have boundaries or to state what's hurting you or state your feeling, whatever the things are.

[00:26:07] **Nikita Williams:** So I have to kinda live that as well. Children are not, right? Like, what do I wanna create in the world beyond even within my ecosystem of me? Um, it's a really important question. So are there questions that you have found that are really important ones that have kind of, I wanna say, like, realigned, okay, this is where I need to start implementing some things in my life?

[00:26:32] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah, for my own life, I, I really do ask myself, I'm not exaggerating, almost on the daily, like, what would I want my children to believe as true? What would I want them to witness me doing so that they believed that what I'm teaching them is true? And then professionally, it's the same. Like, what would I want the individuals who I lead to believe is true about caring for their own [00:27:00] health and wellness?

[00:27:01] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Okay, now what are the behaviors they're seeing me do or policies that are in place that support that as well? So it isn't exclusive. I think you make an excellent point. It's not exclusive to children. If there's just an ease of saying, "Well, what would you want this little tiny baby to know?" I feel like that breaks down some of the, um, kind of status quo that we might see, but it's so true, and I do a lot...

[00:27:24] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I have the privilege of doing a lot of keynote speaking for, let's say, organizations that are really wanting to support women in the workplace, really wanting to support parents in the workplace. And I ask that same question, "Well, how would you mentor a colleague? Would you tell them that you really want them to grind until they burn out and then need to take a sabbatical and then come back?"

[00:27:46] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I would say maybe not 100% with that group, but let's say 80% would say, "No. No, I actually want them to be healthy at work because they're gonna do their best work when they, when they feel good. I actually want them to be able to [00:28:00] focus because we have policies in, in place that support anywhere from being able to pump at work through picking up your kids at school through saving for their college," right?

[00:28:10] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Like, I want it to be comprehensive. So when we get really down to, I love the word you used, integrity of who we are as human beings, we can create something for ourselves, but we can also create something culturally, whether it's in our neighborhoods, our workplace, or beyond.

[00:28:26] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah. It's interesting too because when we think about taking care of ourselves, right, taking care of our health and our wellness, to me, they're foundational pieces to how we take care of everyone else, right?

[00:28:40] **Nikita Williams:** It's a reflection at times. And sometimes I think it's a lot easier to care for someone else than it is to care for ourselves. And to that point of an integrity, I always like to ask the question here of like, taking care of little ones, taking care of teams, taking care of business, taking care of clients.

[00:28:59] **Nikita Williams:** [00:29:00] In that work of doing the caregiving, are there places that you have found that you're looking at it being like, "

[00:29:08] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Hmm,

[00:29:09] **Nikita Williams:** I'm literally giving this advice. I've done this myself coaching a client," and being like, "I gotta get off this call and do it myself," right? Like, "I gotta go and do this thing and, like, reintegrate where I have gone off course."

[00:29:22] **Nikita Williams:** What has that looked like for you in your, in your work?

[00:29:26] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah, I'm perfectly imperfect, right? Yes. So I will have moments where I am sharing my values, right, with a client or with my child, a colleague, and then, yeah, I'll... In the back of my mind, a little thing will pop up of like, "Oh, I think I might need to work on that too."

[00:29:44] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I think where it comes up in the biggest way is I love to say yes to work that I love, and I love all of, uh, the work that I do. So I have had to be really thoughtful and mindful of how I use my [00:30:00] time and energy, and that may result in saying no sometimes. And one way that really works with my brain, I also have ADHD, so with that neurodivergence, structure is, like, my best friend, and I thrive on it.

[00:30:14] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And a lot of my clients actually have ADHD as well, and so we'll talk about how do you create in your calendar space for what you need, whether it is mental rest, whether it is... Like, for me, I have my morning workout on my work calendar, and it is just as precious as meeting with a client because that time allows me to show up for that client.

[00:30:37] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** They're all connected. So I'm really big about not just saying, "Oh, I'm gonna do self-care" or be reactive with chronic conditions. Like, if my lupus flares up, then I'll take time off. Instead, we talk about building in really healthy routines. We do not have to go for an hour workout and hit the weights and hit a, a, a [00:31:00] heart rate.

[00:31:00] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** We don't have... need to do all of that, but we do need to care for our basic needs every day, which include moving our body, eating food, drinking water, and getting rest. So we put those things on our calendar, and I myself have noticed, 'cause I'll look at my calendar for the next day each evening, and I'll be like, "Oh, my gosh, I said yes.

[00:31:20] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I overread my calendar." And for me, I just try to be really compassionate and say, "Gosh, uh, that was a deviation," but it's a deviation that will not become the norm because I know what's... what I really need to do, and I want to pl- come from a place of integrity when I'm coaching. I wanna be able to come from a place of integrity in parenthood and say, you know, "Don't just do as I say, but, like, I'm encouraging you to try to do as I do because I know it's helpful and healthy for you."

[00:31:48] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah, I love the structure. I'm a huge... I love the structure conversation about putting what you know. I always think that we think structure is- unflexible. We also think that the [00:32:00] unexpected is so unexpected, and I feel like when you live with chronic illness and you have children, you have a mate, there are some things that you know are though unexpected as far as, like, you don't want it to happen in this timeframe, but they will happen.

[00:32:15] **Nikita Williams:** Like, they will happen. A flare-up will happen. Somebody's gonna need to be picked up from school. Like, all these little things. Hubby's gonna call me like, "Hey, I'm getting off early. You wanna do something real quick?" Like, like, l- there's gonna be things that come up that you know are part of your life. It is often that I find when I'm talking with folks who have competing priorities along with all of those things that are happening that find it so difficult to find the compassion of being like, it's okay if you don't do it perfectly.

[00:32:48] **Nikita Williams:** It's okay if it looks a little messy. What would you say that you have found that's really helpful for you or your clients in the space of, like, there's gonna be competing things. There are gonna be things that are still [00:33:00] important. How do you find the capacity to flow in and out and that compassion to be like, it sometimes is not all gonna fit.

[00:33:07] **Nikita Williams:** It's just not

[00:33:08] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah, I really start from a place of dispelling the myth that it can ever be perfect. Because high achievers, as much as we tell ourselves or tell other people, "Oh yeah, there's no such thing as perfect," we secretly think there is. And in motherhood, that's times, like exponentially more because we're inundated with these, like really two-dimensional, whether it's through social media or a mom group or something, with these ideas of perfection.

[00:33:35] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** We're getting a snapshot. We didn't see all of the, the imperfection around it. So I first really work on dispelling that myth, and I'm really open with my clients of like, "Here are all my imperfections." Because especially as coaches or as a therapist, right, we can be put on this pedestal of like, "Oh, you have it, the secret to, to it all," and there is no secret.

[00:33:57] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And, and I would say, right, like [00:34:00] we as women are often taught to deny our intuition, especially when it comes to our health and wellness, but we then we apply it to other things as well. So that, "Ooh, should I do A or should I do B?" Our intuition will likely say, "Oh, it feels like I should do A," but then we're really taught to sit and question that and say like, "Is it really A or is B better?"

[00:34:24] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And then we either become in this, like analysis paralysis of like one is, you know, the right answer, one is clearly the wrong answer. So we either get stuck, or we live in picking one of the options. And then what I s- hear so much of is like, especially with moms, is guilt. Guilt that I failed in one area, but I succeeded in another.

[00:34:46] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I said yes to hanging out with my husband, but I said no to reading hour at my kid's school. Or I said yes to this client, and I said no to a date that I had kinda put on the calendar with a girlfriend to hang out, [00:35:00] right? And so we can't even enjoy the times that we do choose because we're really often just like always focused on the deficit.

[00:35:10] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So after dispelling the idea of perfection, I really break down what mom guilt is and why it doesn't serve anyone. We've gotten to a better place of, I think, normalizing the conversation, but we've done it to such a degree that we've normalized it and said, "Oh yeah, you're supposed to feel this all the time."

[00:35:30] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Or let's say you need extra rest, which I, with the chronic conditions I have, I do need that. So my kids are in latchkey, and I'm often done with work around 3:00, 3:30, but I don't go pick 'em up. Because I love them so much and I love myself so much that I need to create that space for rest. And I do that without guilt because I know the intention behind it.

[00:35:55] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I understand the intention. A lot of times, again, [00:36:00] moms don't get the opportunity, or women don't get the opportunity to really sit in and break apart, like, "Why do I feel this way?" Instead, they're constantly trying to avoid the feeling, and then they stay in that burnout cycle that we kind of discussed. So to trust your gut is so empowering, and then to know that there is not just one right answer.

[00:36:24] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** There are infinite right answers as long as you center yourself in your picture of life, right? If you're saying, "I'm doing this intentionally because it feels right for me," then that's the right answer.

[00:36:35] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah. I think it's such a powerful thing to know what your purpose and your intentions are, you know?

[00:36:43] **Nikita Williams:** For me, when I think about clients and when I think, when I talk to all the, all the women I get to talk to, it's like the intention and the intuition are often tied by your purpose of your overall goal in your life. Like, your overall drive, purpose, wherever you're going with what it [00:37:00] is that you're doing is that those two places, those two things matter, your intention- And your motivation behind doing it can help you find a lot more ease around the things you're saying no to, or saying not right now.

[00:37:13] **Nikita Williams:** I- I've been using a lot more in my own personal journey the word not right now. Just not today. It doesn't mean never, right? Um, I struggle myself personally as well. Um, my therapist says, you know, "You're never gonna win in this situation. The way you think about this right now, you're never gonna win. No one's winning.

[00:37:32] **Nikita Williams:** They're not winning. You're not winning. Nobody's winning." Yeah. "So this is not helpful." You know? And so I have found for myself, giving myself permission to be like, "Well, what is the purpose behind this decision? My intuition is leading me this way for a reason. There's a purpose behind it. There's a reason behind that, and am I tuning in, listening to it, and am I allowing myself to be okay with that?"

[00:37:54] **Nikita Williams:** Because that's half the battle, right? And so I appreciate you sharing that, because we are getting constant [00:38:00] messages telling us, especially women, "No, you're wrong."

[00:38:04] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah.

[00:38:05] **Nikita Williams:** Just that. Just, "No, you're wrong. You can't be right." Like, this is not about n- no. No, you're wrong.

[00:38:10] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Or you're not supposed to win. You're- Oh, yeah

[00:38:12] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** regardless of what you decide in this world, you are failing somebody else, and therefore it's a failure. And people are gonna have emotions, right? My kids are gonna have emotions if I don't pick them up earlier than they think I should. You know, my clients can have emotions, my husband can ha- I can, we...

[00:38:31] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** That doesn't have to be an indication that we're doing something wrong. And the more practice we can to, like, really being in tune with what our bodies and our minds need, and acting on that need without guilt, the easier it gets. Like, I didn't start with, like, "Oh, I don't feel guilty about anything." No, I had to really practice it and rewire the way that my brain works in order to say, "No, there's, there is a purpose behind this."

[00:38:59] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And it [00:39:00] doesn't have to be in service of others to be worthy. It can just be in service of me. You know, I'm a big believer if, if I glow, everybody gets to bask in that. And so the more I can be well, the more moms in general can be well. That's the greatest gift we can give to our children and everyone that we love.

[00:39:19] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Every environment we care about is our own health and wellness.

[00:39:23] **Nikita Williams:** You know, you, you were saying that, and I als- couldn't help but think about how capacity looks in this. Like, we talk about, I don't know, I'm sure you hear this a lot, but I hear this a lot as a coach, and I'm sure as a therapist and a coach you probably hear this a ton, which is, like, "I just need to increase my capacity."

[00:39:41] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Mm-hmm.

[00:39:42] **Nikita Williams:** Right? And we also hear that messaging often, "Oh, you just need to increase your capacity in order to handle or deal with or push through or whatever." What comes up for you when you hear me even saying that? "Oh, you just need to increase your capacity," what comes up for you?

[00:39:58] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Well, one, I agree that I hear that a [00:40:00] lot.

[00:40:00] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** You know, if I could just have, be able to do more. And then also I'll add to that, if I just had more time in the day, right? Those two things. I'm always compassionate but honest with clients, and I say, one, capacity is a finite thing. We're human beings, we aren't robots.

[00:40:20] **Nikita Williams:** Mm-mm.

[00:40:21] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And similarly, when they're talking about, like, "Why won't my baby sleep?

[00:40:24] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Why can't they just get this skill?" I'm like, "They also are not robots," right? They only have baby capacity.

[00:40:29] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah.

[00:40:29] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So it's a finite thing, and we get to, in our lives, decide how we distribute that capacity, making sure that that distribution includes caring for ourselves and what, not just our, like, basic needs, but, like, what brings us happiness in life, the fun stuff, too.

[00:40:48] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And similarly with time, nobody can create more minutes in the day. We can create space, but that will mean that we're taking away space from something else. And so, kind [00:41:00] of reconnecting to what we were just talking about, purpose, as long as you know why you're doing that, even if somebody is disappointed, that doesn't mean it's wrong.

[00:41:09] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** It actually might be- very much be the right answer, especially in early motherhood, pregnancy through postpartum. Because it's such a common thing for people to become pregnant and have a baby, we really have diminished the amount of capacity that it actually takes. From the moment you see two lines on a pregnancy test, there's an emotional and mental capacity that's taken, as well as the physical journey that starts So much is happening, and just because people have been having babies forever doesn't mean that the amount of capacity that is needed, or the amount of that total 100% that's needed, has changed.

[00:41:55] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** It still very much is there, and how we can help [00:42:00] ourselves in that season of life is absolutely adding other people in to the mix. So a huge part of what I do is really creating tailored approaches to building a true village. Not just the word village, or, "Oh, well, I get together with a friend every once a month," but how from day one you have meaningful layers of support.

[00:42:23] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So we can't increase our capacity, but we can increase our workforce, I guess, to use that analogy from a workplace.

[00:42:30] **Nikita Williams:** Yeah. You know what? Oh, that is so true. I think to your point about we have, we're just everyone has babies, right? Like, like everyone can have a baby. Well, not everyone. And second, how someone comes into that space, I think we've also had this narrative in the, in the world of, like, somehow we ha- know how we're gonna feel when some things happen.

[00:42:55] **Nikita Williams:** I think this is a social media situation that I think has- Mm-hmm ... amplified this [00:43:00] lie, in my opinion, which is that you somehow can predict how you will respond to any situation, newness in your space if you just think it. Like, if you could just, like- be it. You know, if you could just like, you know, overcome it.

[00:43:16] **Nikita Williams:** And I'm like, I get there is a fine line between, like, the positive psychology science that we have in the world, which is absolutely powerful, and yet so human in what that looks like, as well as sometimes you are going to human. Like, like, in the sense of you're going to un-know. You're not gonna know.

[00:43:36] **Nikita Williams:** You're not gonna know how it's gonna be, even though you may have planned, "I've been planning to have children. I've been planning to do all these things." You may respond differently 'cause you're triggered by something you didn't know even existed in your body when that happened, and I think that affects our capacity, too, and we don't have enough conversation around allowing space for that, what that looks like and the complexity of [00:44:00] different newness, same or different, and our individual circumstances, how that can show up in our lives and require us to need more space, more time for ourselves to recalibrate, to understand.

[00:44:16] **Nikita Williams:** And as you are in your work that you do, how have you seen the thing that people need to know? Like, what are some things that you feel like people need to know that they don't think they know? If that makes sense, what I'm trying to say.

[00:44:29] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah. I think you said it so beautifully, because we have this perception, and I hear this phrase all the time, "other moms," and then fill in the blank.

[00:44:40] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So, if other moms did it this way, then I should be able to. Um, I'll be able to prepare because I bought X things on the baby list, right? To me, baby showers really should be for mom, right? Because you don't even know this little person. They might hate the bassinet you bought.

[00:44:57] **Nikita Williams:** Yes.

[00:44:57] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** But in that larger picture of, like, [00:45:00] to say, "I can prepare for some things-" And then I also need to create space for the un- unexpected, and that unexpected doesn't all have to be negative, right?

[00:45:10] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** It can be a positive unexpected. But I have to create space for it so that I'm not then panicking when there is no space for it, because I now have to react to an overload situation. And that really was my lived experience. I had packed everything to the minute sometimes, right, with spreadsheets. Like, I've got this covered.

[00:45:32] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I know exactly when he's gonna eat, and I know exactly how much milk I'll produce, and you name it. And yeah, it didn't come to be. And so many of moms that I, I work with or have worked with over the years, right, they may have their own fertility journey. Oh, I really thought I'd get pregnant within the first few months.

[00:45:49] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Now we're on the third cycle of IVF, and I don't know what that will look like.

[00:45:53] **Nikita Williams:** Mm-hmm.

[00:45:53] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And there's a lot of grief in that. So what I say in terms of preparation, there are things that y- you can empower yourself [00:46:00] with, right? You can have education on the mind-body experience that is typical, as well as some of the atypical experiences.

[00:46:07] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yes. And based off of it, gathering your own family health information, your mental health information, you can identify risks and then maybe mitigate some of those. And then you can almost prepare that you will be transformed, and that really is the mindset piece of saying, how do I start to practice letting go in my life?

[00:46:30] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And there are things. We can have really beautiful structure and routine, but also they don't have to be rigid. We can practice the flexibility that's imperative in motherhood. I love to use the analogy of a caterpillar breaking down into becoming a butterfly, right? It's a one-way transformation, and that absolutely is the case in, in motherhood.

[00:46:52] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** But for most of us, if you remember from science, which I barely did until I relearned it recently, but, you know, the caterpillar [00:47:00] breaks down completely into a goo, and it's intentional, but it can feel like chaos. And then we eventually can emerge as the butterfly. I love that analogy because that is very much that pregnancy through postpartum space.

[00:47:15] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** The caveat to that analogy, though, is we continue to change and evolve as human beings and certainly in motherhood. And so we kind of embrace the letting go. We decide, hey, I don't need the perfect nursery. I need to create a flow for how I'm gonna get enough rest Right? Like, I know that's important. I don't know exactly what 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM will look like every day, but what are the things that I know that I will wanna do?

[00:47:47] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I know I need a shower. That's a necessity. Now, I'd like to have some time to journal, because that has been meaningful in my life. So you just start to practice the art of letting go, but being really [00:48:00] intentional. And then for the supports that are needed to have that flow, you start putting those in place before baby arrives, ideally.

[00:48:10] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And that's-- I love to work with, uh, moms and women who are in their third trimester, because you have this time where ideally you can slow down a little bit and choose to slow down a little bit, and we can really build up all of the supports before bringing baby home. And then we're gonna have that discussion of, "Oh gosh, you're gonna be completely transformed by this, and it's gonna feel scary, and you're gonna have grief, and you're gonna have joy.

[00:48:37] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And here's how you're gonna work through that without fear, instead feeling like really healthy."

[00:48:43] **Nikita Williams:** Oh, Priya, you were saying all of that, and I'm like, I'm not pregnant, but I think as a woman, there are so many stages of that that we go through, right? There's so many stages of like you're in this space of like learning and growing, and it's like, oh, and then you have to l- like, [00:49:00] your body literally is letting go month to month or, you know.

[00:49:03] **Nikita Williams:** Like, there are so many aspects of being this person that is in this complexity of moving through, flowing through, letting go, learning. It's a constant process, and I think it's a constant process for every human. But specifically, when you have these parts, we are That's literally kind of how we're designed, is to have this letting go, and we are in a world that's constantly trying to like do the opposite of us, right?

[00:49:33] **Nikita Williams:** And it's powerful to hear, just to see, hear that explanation of allowing yourself to plan what you can plan, find places where you can let go, and it's not the end of the world. Like, if husband wants to go the longest way to wherever they're going, let him go.

[00:49:51] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Right. It is really these micro experiences where we can practice letting go and know, like, "Oh yeah, I'm doing it for this particular [00:50:00] season."

[00:50:00] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** But what I love about the work that I do, you know, I go really deep in a shorter amount of time with moms, but these lessons, these can be applied in each continuous phase of life. We'll often describe bringing a child into the world as if like birthing them, or even postpartum one year is like the finish line, and it's not, right?

[00:50:23] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** We're in a marathon, and it continues on and on, so we have to make space for each kind of new metamorphosis. And a lot of moms today have one foot in their kind of fertile years, however we might describe that, I guess more traditionally, and then they have one foot in perimenopause or menopause. And they're also, let's say, caregiving for aging parents.

[00:50:49] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So they've got all of these changes happening in life at the same time, and they, they don't get to experience any of the joy of those flow states [00:51:00] because they're so focused on it's supposed to be in control, and if I'm in control, then I'm safe and nothing bad can ever happen. And we know that that isn't true.

[00:51:11] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And so if that's not actually creating safety, it's a trick our brain is trying to play, what could be gained actually by letting go?

[00:51:22] **Nikita Williams:** And that piece, Priya, is very much the same for folks living with chronic illness. There is an idea that you have control of all of these things that you feel like you should have control of.

[00:51:33] **Nikita Williams:** If you take all the medications, if you do all the doctor's appointments, if you get all the specialists, if you follow all of those things, and then somehow you have fixed it or you have, like, put it in the box, and we're good in the box. And y'all, it doesn't work like that. It doesn't work like that. And almost what I have come to appreciate is the moment you do give yourself to be less rigid, the more you're able to see the joy, the more [00:52:00] you're able to kind of flow and not be so...

[00:52:03] **Nikita Williams:** You're ab- you're actually able to, like, get to know yourself more. You get to see things that you've, like, hidden and pushed down because you've been so focused on just the doing and going and, you know. I have experienced that more so this, this past couple years of being like, "Oh, man, I forgot I like doing that," because I've been going, going, going.

[00:52:21] **Nikita Williams:** And so I think to what you're saying, whatever journey you are moving through, try to find the lightness of it. Also try to find, like, you can create the structure, but try to find the flow of it, too, the enjoyment, and just be okay with being

[00:52:40] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Yeah. Focus less on the doing and more on the being. 'Cause the doing will happen.

[00:52:44] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** You'll do the things that you need to do, and we can create systems to make that doing easier. But the being, yeah, we miss something. Moms in particular in that first year, and I would include myself, we don't have great memories if we're [00:53:00] so focused on the doing. We have some, a lot of pictures on our phones, but we don't have, like, these core memories as clear in our mind.

[00:53:08] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** They're more foggy because we didn't get a chance to, like, be. And I don't mean you have to be physically present with your kid 24/7. I am certainly not doing that myself, and I don't think that's what it means to be a good parent. But just to, like, feel like okay in a moment and say, "Yeah, whatever we do or don't do, like, doesn't actually matter.

[00:53:29] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** We're just spending time together." Um, in a world where, you know, they have music classes for babies that are three months old, I'm not knocking them, but that's not the being. That's, that's the doing, right? And if it, and if it actually gives you so much joy to go to that, great, but if you're doing it for the enrichment of your child, your kid is not there developmentally.

[00:53:53] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So give yourself a break and just say, "Oh, the actual work in this season of life is to heal, to [00:54:00] care for myself, especially if I'm bringing in or into this season chronic illnesses that I've been living with for a long time, to care for those in whatever unique way they might show up in postpartum," and then just to, like, be together.

[00:54:15] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** There's nothing you have to accomplish other than spending time together. Yeah, there's no good mom award you get at the end. The really, the award is, yeah, being able to have those core memories and feel deeply connected and healthy

[00:54:32] **Nikita Williams:** Well, this was a very, very lovely conversation. I really enjoyed it, and I hope that it serves so many to just feel like, one, you get to take care of yourself and it not feel like a chore, right?

[00:54:47] **Nikita Williams:** And being is important, too. And though you're, like, caregiving and taking care of different things, you can find the joy and the lightness of it to an extent and just [00:55:00] tap into a village. Like, create the actual village. Take the time to do that. Get the resources you might need, um, someone who's gonna challenge some of your thoughts around what you think is good around being a mom or, you know, the CEO of the company or the...

[00:55:16] **Nikita Williams:** whatever it is that you feel like you have to check a box off. Get some people in your world that are lovingly, compassionately gonna be like, "I don't know. Let's look at this mirror. This is... You know, is this aligned with you, or are you just going checking?" You know? So I like to ask everyone at the end of the show a question, which is, if there was something about any part of this conversation or your journey that you thought was true, maybe it was becoming a mom, maybe it was starting a business, that you now look back and you're like, "That was the total lie of all lies that I thought," what would that be?

[00:55:50] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I'll do one for each category. For business, that you as an entrepreneur have to be on 24/7, that you have to [00:56:00] essentially sacrifice all of your personal time in order to support the business. Ultimately, I think that it's kind of a very old-school mentality that, like, oh, if I work harder, that's better. And I'm a big believer in working smarter and creating my village there, uh, professionally of people who are amazing at the work that they do and create supports and systems that allow me to have a balanced life.

[00:56:28] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** And personally and in motherhood, I guess it's similar, that you have to be on 24/7 in order to be a good parent. And even for me, someone who had extensive public health and mental health training prior to having a child, I fell for that lie. I thought, gosh, I have to be present physically so much. And, um, really what we know is, right, our kids need their basic needs met, sure.

[00:56:58] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** They don't need to all be met by you. [00:57:00] They need unconditional love, and more than anything, they need healthy parents. So if you take the time, even away from them, to be the best version of yourself, to be fully healthy and joyful and fulfilled, that truly is a gift for them and really anyone in your life.

[00:57:20] **Nikita Williams:** Mm. So good. How can we find you if anyone wants to connect with you? Of course, we're gonna have everything in the show notes, but what is the place they can go to find more about you and your work?

[00:57:31] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** If someone is interested in just connecting, um, or is interested in coaching or is interested in my speaking, um, they can go to my website, which is just my name, priyarednamwaldo.com.

[00:57:44] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** I'm also on Instagram at that same handle, um, @priyarednamwaldo, and then LinkedIn as well. I try to be as engaged in those platforms in a world that is never-ending platforms as [00:58:00] possible. But certainly, um, if you reach out to either talk for a discovery call or just for some resources or advice, I always make sure to get back right away.

[00:58:11] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** So I'd love to talk with anyone who is in this season.

[00:58:15] **Nikita Williams:** Awesome. Well, thank you so much, and I really appreciate you taking some time and chatting with us about, you know, taking care of little people, getting ready for little people, and taking care of ourselves most importantly, so thank you.

[00:58:28] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** Thank you so much.

[00:58:29] **Priya Rednam Waldo:** It was a lovely conversation.

[00:58:30] **Nikita Williams:** That's a wrap for this episode of Business with Chronic Illness. If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. It helps more entrepreneurs living with chronic illness and autoimmune disorders find these conversations.

[00:58:44] **Nikita Williams:** You can check the show notes for links, resources, and ways to stay connected. And if you have a question or story you'd like to share, visit craftedtothrive.com to leave a voice message for the podcast. I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, remember, you [00:59:00] can build a thriving business without sacrificing your health, your peace, or your profit.