How I Emerged from the Depths: My Journey to a Happier Home and a Healthier Me
With 4 children in my house, two little ones under the age of two and two teenage boys, the past couple of years have been a whirlwind of challenges. Throw in a global pandemic, and you can imagine how difficult it was for our family to adjust to our new reality.
When we moved into a new house in 2020, we had high hopes of creating a functional and inviting space for our family and friends. Unfortunately, no matter how much we tried, our home seemed to constantly be in disarray. The clutter kept piling up, and we just couldn’t keep it clean.
Cleaning began to feel like an insurmountable task, and the weight of the responsibility left me feeling drained. The ever-present “mom guilt” made it even more difficult to face the mess, often leaving me paralyzed by indecision. I knew my kids and partner deserved better. I knew I deserved better. But I just couldn’t find the energy or motivation to tackle the chaos.
Then, one day, I stumbled across a video by KC Davis, the author of “How to Keep House While Drowning.” Her message about ‘being kind to my future self’ and allowing for ‘survival days’ resonated deeply with me. With this new perspective, I began to wade out of the fog and started taking better care of my family, and eventually, myself.
The challenge, however, was recognizing when I was drowning and asking for help before I was in too deep. As a data analyst, I knew there had to be a way to track my efforts, my survival days, and the tasks that I do to care for my home, self, and others. If I could quantify my progress, perhaps I could identify the moment when I needed to ask for assistance before it became too much of an issue so that I could avoid feeling overwhelmed.
That’s when the idea for “NeuroSpice” was born. NeuroSpice (this link will take you to an external website) is an app designed to help people like me track and analyze their efforts in maintaining a healthy home and lifestyle. By logging daily tasks, self-care activities, and moments of struggle, I can begin to identify patterns, celebrate small victories, and reach out for help when it’s truly needed.
But an app on its own wasn’t enough. I wanted to ensure that people like me had a place to go to find tips and ideas as well as support during their good days as well as their ‘survival days’. A place where people could take in information of all types: articles, blogs, videos, clips, and more. That’s when my friend and I decided to create NeuroSpice Library.
While the app and library are under development, I try maintain focus on my goal to have a space where all people from all walks of life, ability, disability, and those in survivability mode can research tools and find the help they need to allow them to live better, healthier, and more productive lives.
