When the strong one cracks a little
Jun 26
Written By Maire Cahoon LAc // Fertility Acupuncturist, Coach, and Creator of The 3-Month Path to Fertility
There’s this moment when you realize:
You’ve been holding everything up…and quietly falling apart.
I’m talking to the women who’ve always been the anchor.
The dependable one. The capable one.
The one who gets things done.
And then one day you can’t remember what you came into the room for.
You’re trying to fold laundry while a baby cries and someone else needs a snack and your body feels like it’s running on empty.
Your nervous system is cooked. Your patience is gone.
You’re tired in your bones and somehow still blaming yourself for not doing more.
After my third baby, I didn’t crash, I eroded.
Slowly. Quietly.
Until I was a sobbing mess on the floor.
Postpartum hit differently this time.
There wasn’t one big breakdown. It was a thousand tiny frays.
And here’s the part no one talks about:
Even when you know the tools (and I do), it doesn’t make you immune to depletion.You can be wise, intuitive, successful, and still feel lost inside your own skin.
What I’ve learned and what I share with my patients is this:
The invitation isn’t to “bounce back.”
It’s to recognize a new norm, even if it’s temporary.
To find yourself again in this new state of being.
Not by clinging to who you were before,
but by understanding that comparing your now to your then
can quietly erode your sense of worth.
Because that comparison, the judgment that this version of you is somehow less efficient, less streamlined, or less capable…
that’s what creates the feeling that something is wrong.
But nothing’s wrong.
You’re just in transition.
Not returning to the woman you were before motherhood,
but meeting the woman you are now.
Softened. Recalibrated.
Wiser, even in your unraveling.
This season isn’t asking you to do more.
It’s asking you to get quieter.
To listen to what your body’s been whispering beneath the noise.
To simplify.
To be deeply nourished.
To let it be enough, for now.
If that resonates, if you’re somewhere between holding it all together and wondering who’s holding you, you’re not broken.
You’re human.
And you’re allowed to be held, too.
If you’re navigating postpartum and feel like your body, mind, or spirit are unraveling then this is your sign to come in.
At Mala Healing Arts, I hold space for women just like you.
Through acupuncture, nourishment, and grounded care, we gently bring the system back into balance. Without judgment, without pressure.
✨ Book an in-person session with me in Honolulu⬇️
Let’s start where you are.