Why Woman Unclouded?

For the past years I’ve wanted to do something meaningful with my life. I always knew that this would involve writing in some form  – mainly because years of journalism showed me how powerful words can be.

As cliché as it may sound, having my daughter turned up the dial of this internal urge to write something – something I can share and with which I can, hopefully, make some form of a difference. This urge, this feeling, started brewing inside me. I had no clue what to do. But slowly, very slowly, something started taking shape.

And the key driver of this was my realising one thing – I’m not special.

I don’t mean it in the “insecure” sense (although I have battled, and I’m still battling, with many insecurities). Realising that I’m not special was liberating. And, for me, it all started with pregnancy.

“Something started taking shape. And the key driver of this was my realising one thing – I’m not special.”

That’s when an avalanche of strange thoughts and feelings started flooding my mind. Some thoughts shocked me to the core. How on earth were certain things even crossing my mind? Was I losing my mind?

Just to put you in the picture, I spent most of my pregnancy thinking something would fall on me or crash into me. So, for example, if I was walking under a crane I’d imagine it falling on me and mentally rehearse the ninja style manoeuvre I’d have to do to “save the baby”. As selfless as this may sound on paper, it was driving me insane.

Until I started talking about these feelings. And I realised I was not alone. 

Neither was I alone when my daughter was born and I cried for three days. I was not alone when, a few months after giving birth, stuff that never bothered me before suddenly became a big deal.  I spoke to other women, women I trust, about this and they were going through, or had gone through, the exact same thing.

I was not special. Amazing! Because it meant I was not alone.

I started thinking back to all the other things in my life, pre-motherhood, that made me feel so bad. I’m talking about the stuff that made me feel ashamed to be me – like feeling jealous of other women (including friends in my teens) and hating that I never had the willpower to follow anything through.

Then, as I started thinking of venturing into the world of freelance, came another level of realisation – that there’s so much I don’t know. Stuff that looks so complicated that the very thought of trying to understand it is the perfect excuse to fuel procrastination. Like, for example, how on earth does the whole VAT thing work? Again, I spoke to my woman friends. Some had shared the same struggles in the past and they could guide me through their experience.

“I wanted to create content that helps uncloud women’s hearts and minds.”

It started becoming clearer and clearer. I now knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to create a space where women can share experience, insight and information. A platform that provided emotional and rational content that helped support women grow – by lifting the haze created by insecurity, self doubt, feeling alone, feeling overwhelmed and feeling that you’re not understanding. I wanted to create content that helps uncloud women’s hearts and minds.

And this is how the idea of Woman Unclouded was born.

And why women, you may ask? Why not women and men? It’s simple really. I am a woman, was raised surrounded by women and I am now raising a woman - so that is the gender I understand. This is not an anti-men blog - far from it. Male contributors who can lift the haze on issues impacting women are welcome, as are male readers who feel they can benefit from any content.

So here I am. I’m putting myself out there. I’m sure that along the way there are going to be encouraging remarks and comments that will threaten to break me. But I hope to keep going and I hope to see things grow. I have so much to figure out still. But I’m not alone.

All I have left to say for now is, welcome to Woman Unclouded – driven by my belief that I am not special.

Because we are.

Claudia