A few years ago, I was living a “dream” life. I had a wonderful husband, two beautiful kids, a successful job, the nice car, the nice house.
On the outside, I knew what I wanted and I had a plan to get there. Everything was going great.
Then one day, I saw a video about a little girl behind a mirrored glass, in a red dress with a number pinned on it. She was being sold as a sex slave in a room full of little girls in red dresses. The video was made by an organization that’s out to end this horrific tragedy. They talked about how this one little girl still had light and life left in her eyes. She still had hope.
In that moment, sobbing at my computer, I knew my life was going to change. I didn’t know how or when, but I knew it was going to be different. It was like a switch was flipped and a part of me woke up.
In the following months, I did some deep soul searching and realized this:
I was living this fast paced life, balancing A LOT of priorities while constantly pushing myself to do more and do it better. I loved the challenge and I could usually push through to make it happen.
I believed that as a woman, I could do it all – be great wife, a caring, nurturing, present mom, and successful in my career.
But when I got honest with myself, there was a problem…
On the inside, I was really tough on myself, questioning if I was doing any of it right.
I felt pretty alone and stuck.
Instead of believing that I really had it all, I was thinking things like:
My kids are having some struggles, is it because I’m not doing enough?
I’m a terrible wife. We’ve been fighting a lot and it’s probably my fault.
I’m a terrible friend, my friends must think I don’t need them in my life, if they only knew!
I’m not as good at this sales thing as I used to be, I’ve really let it slack a little lately.
Maybe my life is just a front.
And I was actually believing these lies that were playing in my mind.
But why?
Through all of my busyness, I inadvertently disengaged from my closest relationships.
Since becoming a mother, I’d been spending my time in relationships of the closest proximity. I wasn’t consistently connecting with the women closest to my heart.
I thought that was okay because we had the kind of friendship that picks up right where we left off. I let myself believe it was just the normal way of life in our fast paced world. We have Facebook to keep up with the masses (and even find out when our friends are pregnant), we tweet each little moment, we Instagram our picture perfect moments, we email, we text… and we’re good, right? We’re connected.
But then I realized, I’m not good. I’m not connected and it’s affecting more than my social life.
It’s affecting what I believe about myself and the choices I’m making. My lack of true connection to the women who give me roots – way down past the business meetings, birthday parties and soccer games – is changing me.
It’s allowing me to stay stuck on autopilot in my life and rehearse false stories in my mind, rather than living a life of love and belonging… And It isn’t just affecting me. It’s affecting my husband, my kids and everyone around me. I knew I couldn’t be the only one and that there had to be a better way.
This is why HeartStories was born.
Women are designed to live in connection. We need consistent community with those few others we feel safe enough to be completely ourselves with. The ones we belly laugh with, who love us exactly as we are and where it’s safe to be happy, brave, sad, scared, uncertain, and sometimes all at the same time. We need consistent connection to a place where we know we belong.
I still believe as women, we CAN do it all – we can be great at whatever we set out to do, whether it’s being the best PTA mom, running a fortune 500 company or anything in between. We just need each other to get there. We can heal, empower, support and ground each other to the truth about who we really are, which enables us to approach our lives from a place of worthiness.
Wondering how that little girl in the red dress has anything to do with my situation? She gave me a new perspective. She gave me an unquenchable thirst to share the value and worth that every girl and every woman should get a chance to live from.
As a result, HeartStories is committed to funding the fight for freedom.
We have plans for exciting opportunities for brands to get involved, enabling us to give back to non-profits through your use of the app. This freedom fight is so much a part of the fabric of who we are as an organization, we sought companies that would partner with us at the launch event, The HeartStories Summit, to begin living out that commitment.
Technology Partners and Marsha Clark and Associates were the first to raise their hands with us. With their help, we raised over $2600 to donate to two organizations.
Those organizations are My Refuge House and Traffick911 as our non-profit partners for the event. Kim Jones of My Refuge House and Lindsey Speed of Traffick911 each shared with the attendees about the amazing work they are doing to rescue and restore the girls that come to their safe homes. The girls from My Refuge House even made red wire heart shaped bracelets for the attendees. We raised awareness and funds to support these incredible organizations, and we’re honored to be able to do it!
And that was just the beginning.
HeartStories is now so much bigger than just me pursuing my passion. We are a tribe of women, passionate about staying connected to ourselves and each other in this fast paced digital age of relating. We have some new ring leaders and we’re ready to do this…big time!
If you haven’t already, SIGN UP for the beta app by visiting beta.heartstories.com. Then tell your 9 closest friends that if they’re ready to commit to sharing life with you, there’s now an app for doing just that.
I’m so glad you’re here and part of this story. Join the conversation in the comments below to let us know if we’re on the right track and if you’re coming with us! 😉
Love!
Crystal
