Priya Chawathe
Emotional Resilience & Parent Coach for Stressed Moms
Hi, I’m Priya
So lovely to meet you here!
It’s my own life story and transformation that lead me to my life’s purpose: helping Moms who struggle with anxiety, depression and past trauma heal their pain; so they can live and parent from a place of love, peace and joy.
I loved becoming a Mom. I lived for the tender sweet kisses and heart-melting hugs from my baby girl; in other words, that innocent, untainted, genuine love.
But being a Mom is hardwork. Our culture doesn’t truly recognize and value the emotional and physical capacity required to parent and raise a child in a healthy way. And I’ve wanted nothing more than to consistently nurture and parent my daughter with the same unconditional love that she showed me…but my autoimmune thyroid illness and mental health challenges often got in the way.
FOR DECADES, MY INNER WORLD WAS FILLED WITH ANXIETY, SHAME, AND HELPLESSNESS.
I struggled with ADHD, anxiety, depression and fatigue starting in childhood, but kept pushing myself through life. I believed that all I needed to do was work harder and be more disciplined. I thought that acceptance, belonging, self-worth and happiness would follow “the good girl template” society had laid out for me.
As a stay-at-home mom, I regularly felt shame and guilt about not having a career, not being able to keep up with chores, not being organized and not being like the other “well-put-together” PTA moms. I was very hard on myself. Perhaps because no one understood my struggle and suffering. Conflicts around housekeeping, parenting and my everyday challenges were common in our home. These heated conflicts added even more pain to my already overwhelmed inner world; increasing feelings of frustration, shame and ultimately a sense of deep helplessness.
I SOOTHED MY DIFFICULT EMOTIONS WITH COPING BEHAVIORS.
I regularly overate or used my phone as a pacifier. I procrastinated chores. These behaviors eased my anxiety and numbed my sadness. But the most shameful and heart-wrenching behavior for me, was losing my cool as a parent: yelling, criticizing and shaming my child – for common childhood and teen behaviors – because my own inner pain made healthy emotional self-regulation a real challenge.
I couldn’t consistently be the calm, compassionate and joyful parent – the parent that I knew I was in my soul – no matter how hard I tried. I loved my daughter dearly, but I didn’t know how to be love.
My personal journey of healing began when I was diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disorder at age 28.
Addressing gut-brain and hormonal health using functional nutrition transformed my physical and emotional health and launched my career as a functional nutrition coach. But with time, I realized that I was still struggling with difficult emotions and coping patterns. So were many of my nutrition clients. Childhood trauma, family dysfunction and human suffering can’t be healed by fixing body chemistry alone. One has to dive deeper into truly understanding the nature of our nervous system, human emotions and our natural state of being – also known as “consciousness”.
MY EMOTIONAL PAIN AND FAMILY DYSFUNCTION WAS AFFECTING MY DAUGHTER’S EMOTIONAL WELL BEING.
My daughter was getting increasingly anxious, frustrated and overwhelmed with meeting high expectations at school, sports and music lessons. She had similar procrastination, avoidance and distraction patterns like me. My anxiety also began when I was very young and was also related to not being able to cope with parental and society’s high standards. We pass on our generational emotional blueprints. I wanted to put an end to these patterns. For her health and mine.
I committed to the conscious path to be a better mother, not realizing that I was also on my way to finding inner calm, resilience and beauty. Learning powerful psychological and eastern spirituality techniques and teachings through several certifications, has made me skilled in the art of navigating difficult emotions. I’ve learnt to pause more and react way, way less.
Only when we learn to feel and allow our own pain – instead of distracting, numbing or reacting – are we truly able to feel and hold our child’s emotions. Shifting from yelling, scolding, shaming and criticizing my daughter for her coping behaviors, to instead pausing and holding space for her pain, now allows her to feel safe enough to share vulnerably and connect with me consistently. She finally feels seen, heard, understood and loved. The energy in our home has also slowly shifted from chaos to calm.
No one teaches us how to be with difficult emotions. And so we distract, numb or react outwardly to ease our suffering. And we just go on with life. It’s human to use coping patterns to ease emotional pain. It’s how we survive. But there comes a time, when our suffering reminds us to go back to our natural state of being: the child-like easy, curious, delightful way of being. Going inward and learning to hold our own pain with love and compassion allows the body to release stored emotions (childhood trauma) and heal. Coping patterns slowly fall away because we no longer need them. Our inner world changes. We react less and respond more. We move more into our child-like state of wonder and joy. More into presence. Out of our whirlwind of thoughts. Out of our painful past and fear of the future. We start becoming love and compassion. We begin to hold our children’s (and others) emotions the way we hold our own. This brings connection, intimacy and a sense of belonging. Togetherness.
Emotions help us share mutual joys, sorrows, and aspirations and it’s through them that we build relationships, community and feel a sense of belonging. Emotions are also responsible for misunderstandings, hurt, isolation, separation and stress. On any given day, how we feel inside (our inner world) affects our ability to live from a place of worth, calm, courage and experience feelings of joy, pleasure, love and intimacy.
