Hey I’m Catriona

My Story so far…

I am a wife and mum of 2 beautiful girls (identical twins to be precise).

Our girls were born in Wellington, New Zealand and I thought we were living the dream, I was on maternity leave from my Corporate Project Management role, we had great jobs, our own house, two new babies and supportive family and friends.

Just before the girls first birthday, my husband was offered a role he couldn’t turn down so we made the decision to move to the sunny Hawke’s bay – roughly 4 hours away from where we were and where we didn’t know anyone.

We moved, found a rental, I found a job in Digital Marketing Project Management and then we moved into our own house and this is where I started to unravel…

We were both working full-time, the girls were not sleeping through the night so we were tremendously sleep deprived and I found that…

• I would fly off the handle at the smallest thing and my head felt constantly fuzzy.
• I was having trouble managing my emotions with waves of sadness and frustration coming over me
• My work was suffering as my self-esteem fell apart, the self-doubt taking over so much that I was scared of sending an email without someone else reviewing it
• I avoided confrontation at all costs because I was scared of being wrong or getting too angry and most likely I would start crying
• I constantly looked for ways to numb the pain that I was feeling
• I avoided anything that made me reflect on my parenting abilities or my own mental health

I mean I was ok, this was just because of sleep deprivation right, this is normal right? And then one day, I wondered, what if it’s not?

So I visited my doctor who diagnosed me with Post Natal Depression.

This was a huge moment in our lives and we decided that we needed to make some changes in our lives, to have more support around us and less stressors, So we moved to Dunedin, from the north island to the south island, to a place with a set of grandparents who have provided more support than we can ever repay.

After moving, we slowed down, I took some time out before looking for a part-time job so I could have something for me and spend time with my girls. It was at this time that I started an online health and wellness business and personal development was a number one priority alongside sales.

Over the next couple of years, I worked on my mindset, I picked up a part-time job to work alongside my online business and felt my resilience start to rebuild, I felt more positive, my self-belief was returning.

But something still wasn’t right and in December 2019 I decided to quit my job to focus on my health, mainly getting my body strong and fit and losing excess weight.

Then came 2020 – the year of Covid, lockdown and for me Cancer.

After what I thought was a fab lockdown of eating healthy, meditating, exercising, and focusing on personal growth, I found myself dealing with frightening uncertainty.

I had a lump on my neck, my first thoughts were something was up with my glands or thyroid but no, over the next 8-10 weeks, from blood tests to cells taken out by needle to a biopsy of one of the lymph nodes, my mind occasionally jumped from “I am fine, it will come back negative” to “OMG am I going to die?” but mostly I knew that whatever the diagnosis was, I would accept it, treat it and be ok.

Eventually, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

And once I had a diagnosis, it was here that I realised how important everything I had learned about positivity, about meditation, about our mindset truly was. How I was blessed to have the tools and techniques I needed to help me manage my mind throughout the diagnosis phase and how prepared I would be for the upcoming treatment phase.

And then I knew what I had to do, I wanted to help women who, like me, needed tools, techniques and accountability to help them manage their minds, rebuild their confidence and learn to love themselves when life throws a curve ball.

So here I am, ready to help you become the woman you want to be!