My story
Do you feel like a hermit crab? The more you go on with life, the more you don’t feel home in your own shell?
Many people I meet struggle to reconcile who they truly are with who they have become in order to fit in.
In today’s performative, transitional, and post-pandemic world, many of us face lots of anxiety to navigate change and the pressure to perform at work, at home, and in relationships.
But we have hope! The underlying problem, I have discovered is this: Genuine identity.
Raised by a lineage of strong women, I overcame undiagnosed ADHD, earning two PhDs while battling anxiety, depression, and perfectionism. Despite outward success, the pressures to perform in every role as a professional woman, a mother and a wife led me to suppress my true self.
The loss of my father during the pandemic and then a heartbreaking divorce ignited my journey of seeking truth that took me to Egypt, a month of meditation on an organic farm, and many profound transformations. Through this self-exploration, and through learning about my father’s love even after he was gone, I began to reconnect with my true identity and heritage - I am an artist who writes poems, caligraphy and do paintings just like my father's family’s generations of artists and poets.
Here’s the hopeful path I have discovered:
Embracing self-love is a healing journey that brings awareness, acceptance, and creative alchemy of our imperfectly perfect selves.
In 2022, while battling chronic infections, depression, and insomnia during a divorce, I poured my energy into excelling at work, leading my biggest career project, and launching a nonprofit. I didn’t know at the time this was the start of my journey to learning about self-love.
After the transformations that made me not only physically and mentally healthier, and some people even like to tell me I look 10 years younger, The true prize for me is that I live in the moment and I am grateful, because I have truly changed.
I am still changing, by the day, it’s not measured, it’s not for graduation, it’s just life.
WHY MIDDLE NAME LOVE?
- It is my nature and purpose to live for others with love as my middle name.
- Love can become each of our middle name - between the outward name we gladly show to the world and our most private name that reflects our soul.
History of Middle Name Love and the Pink Angels
Through my nonprofit, I connected with the Pink Angels from a Myanmar orphanage, meeting a teen girl battling rare, aggressive cancer. Leveraging my 25 years of research and management experience, I raised $13,000 in weeks, leading a volunteer team from Egypt, the Philippines, Thailand, and Myanmar.
Our collective resilience and our volunteers’ selfless love for this cancer child, beat cancer and she is now cancer free. Embracing that deep passion in myself for someone else when I was in deep pain, and being so bold, I was true to myself, to express and I had hope and I took action, I was fearless. That in a way, authentically spoke Me to the world, I learned that the power of love is limitless and only by loving ourselves can we truly love others and make a meaningful difference.
In the end she and I saved each other. Now, I caught up with myself. And I found Truth has always been on my side. I have been guided by Truth to learn how to love myself. I found my home is right on my back.