In this week's episode, I sit down with Kate Eckstein, of Kate Eckstein Design. Kate left the corporate world to realize her dream of owning her own interior design business. When she began her company, she had become the mother of two small children, she was married and believed herself to be living a fully authentic life. Yet when Kate discovered that the woman she was presenting to the world was not her true self, she also had to acknowledge she was not her true self in her marriage. Kate talks about the shedding that happens in divorce and the pain of what is lost, even if authenticity is found.

Like me, Kate is the mother of a neurodivergent child. We talk about our perfectionistic personalities and how they bleed into motherhood. We talk about how we find ourselves “chasing our child’s brain” because our sons' needs are so great, and we think that there is always more we could be doing to help these little humans feel successful in their lives. Spoiler alert: we are human and just doing our best.

Kate just keeps reminding us over and over that there is so much letting go that is constantly taking place to grow: “By letting the perfect that I thought I needed go, it allowed me to be at peace with who I am with what’s left.”

Some highlights in this Episode from Kate:

“You want to say, ‘Oh, I won’t lose anything because I’m real now’, but you will lose all kinds of stuff and it hurts. And you wonder, well, maybe that other person was better than the real me because maybe that's why I created that person in the first place. But after all I’ve gone through, that now that I am on the other side, I can say, oh… the people who are still here right now, they know what’s on the inside. And they love it.”

"And I think, certainly going through the divorce, I lost that exact thing.  And it's very interesting to be fully supported and loved by a partner, but have them not be able to take on that anxiety, or compassion. I guess it is like, they don't need to, and they aren't. They can't have the same level of feeling towards your kid."

"Starting a whole new life, when you're a fully fledged adult is complicated. I was married for 13 years, we just sort of grew up together. And now... new relationship, new family members, new home, new job—it's like learning all of this stuff over again. So there's a huge learning curve in terms of that blending of people, and who you want to be in that mix."

Don't Miss a Beat.
Follow my Instagram for news from me, Tara Beckett:
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Website for Kate Eckstein Design:
http://www.kateecksteindesign.com/

Kate's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kateecksteindesign/

Original Music for Let Perfect Burn by Eleri Ward
https://www.instagram.com/eleriward/