It’s November 2011 and I am standing at the island in my kitchen overlooking New York City as I tell my husband, with tears in my eyes, that we are pregnant! Just days prior, I took a voluntary severance package to leave my executive position at a large pharmaceutical company to follow my passion in health and wellness. And, now, I was being paid to have a baby!
The journey of becoming a mom and an entrepreneur where my husband and I worked from home to create time with our children started as a dream in July 2010, became a reality a year later, and has continued to the present. I have been blessed to raise my son, Gabriel, from home and to also create my business, CRANN Coaching along the way.
It was not without personal challenges because my ego was holding onto the “Madison Avenue, fame, and fortune” of New York City corporate sales along with the societal and family programming of “go to college, get a good job, climb the corporate ladder, and save for retirement.” However, that life did not fill me up or make my heart sing. It just fed my ego’s drive to earn more, accomplish more, and ultimately tire me out.
When I found out I was pregnant it was a time to let go of ego’s grip, lead with my heart and surrender to love. I went with the flow of life and listened to what my soul was calling me to do. Prior to giving birth, I took a prenatal/postnatal yoga certification, I rested, and I got to know myself in a whole new way.
After an amazing 9 months and 21 hours of labor, our son Gabriel was born on July 20th, 2012. Labor led to the most beautiful miracle and my life was transformed. I was back in my pre-pregnancy clothes within six weeks after birth. People stopped me on the street to ask how I did it. My ObGyn praised me. It was great that I accomplished something most women yearned for. The thing was, I just transformed the outside of my body. My inner body, mind, and spirit were not healed and not balanced six weeks after giving birth. For me, that time wasn’t enough to heal my inner body, my mind and spirit – or bring them back into alignment.
I watched many other women head back to work six weeks post-partum and wondered if there was something wrong with me. I questioned everything about myself as I watched the sunrise over the Hudson River and New York City at 5 am day in and day out. As I breast-fed Gabriel in the same white rocking chair, I’m thinking, “but I’m Ann, the coach that teaches people how to balance their mind, body, and spirit, and I’m supposed to have it all together, especially in the happiest moments of my life, and I’m crying every time I think about going back to work.”
I was out of balance and wasn’t living from a whole heart, so I couldn’t teach or love others until I took actions to balance my own mind, body, and spirit.
Once I went to work on myself, I realized that I was comparing myself to the masses of other women that were doing it the way my ego wanted me to do it. My ego wanted me to go back to the “Madison Avenue, fame, and fortune” of New York City corporate sales along with societal and family programming of “go to college, get a good job, climb the corporate ladder, and save for retirement.” I was wondering why I felt out of sync and different. But different was what I wanted in order to balance the time of being with my family and creating a coaching business.
Now three years later, I have found a way to have it all. I call this the ‘labor of love’ because motherhood and entrepreneurship are about constantly birthing new ideas. In every phase of Gabriel’s life, I go through ‘the labor of love’ to find my new balance. Currently, Gabriel is starting a two-day a week pre-school program and once again I am transitioning. I’m finding a new balance of mind, body, and spirit so that Gabriel, my husband, and I can all have what each one of us needs and wants to create.
Life is about cycles and how we surrender to them. I’m here to help women find the balance in motherhood and business so that they can express themselves exactly as they want to be. When we balance our mind, body, and spirit and live from our heart’s calling we can give and receive love. We move out of our heads and move into our hearts and everything transforms. Life is about living our heart’s calling…not the calling of society.
The choice to leave corporate America and then finding out I was pregnant with Gabriel was the start of following my heart’s calling in a whole way – my metamorphosis. It started with surrender and a belief that there is a higher force and power guiding my path. It was the best gift I gave to myself and my family.
Note: published in 2014
Bio – Ann Goldstein
Ann Goldstein is the Founder of CRANN Coaching and a leader in the medical community with a mission to transform our healthcare system from one of a “sickcare” system to one of a “wellcare” system. She is committed to transforming people’s mind, body, and spirit so the three are aligned allowing people to live from a whole heart.
Ann brings her 12 years of pharmaceutical sales and management experience to her current mind, body, and spirit coaching business where she creates customizable programs and workshops to individuals, groups, and organizations.
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