A Year Can Change A Lot

“I feel like a completely different person from who I was a year ago.”

I said this in a recent therapy session, and I didn’t necessarily mean it in a good way. It’s not that my life now is worse by any means. It’s just different, and it was the first time I’d really paused to think about it.

A year ago, I was essentially throwing a bunch of shit at the wall and seeing what stuck. I was vending and volunteering at local festivals, teaching multiple yoga classes a week, putting together corporate wellness package proposals, hosting full moon ceremonies, and working part-time as a marketing operations consultant. There’s probably more that I blacked out of my memory 😜

I had supposedly escaped the hustle culture that exists in the 9-5 world, only to create my own kind of chaotic hustling with no real “plan” for how to grow my business in a sustainable way, pay off credit card debt, or feel that sense of freedom I was always chasing. Yes, I had worked with business coaches, yes, I had done more training and certifications and retreats, and yes, I still felt lost. 

Meanwhile, I was in full denial that one solution could be to engage in an intentional job search, so I could stop cobbling together a full-time income and get compensated for what I knew I was worth. I honestly felt a lot of resistance to that, for many reasons, but knew I couldn’t go on much longer without making a change.

On a personal level, I had recently moved in with my boyfriend, which felt like a big, exciting step for both of us, but also put even more attention on my lack of career direction and financial stability.

Flash forward to today: I am gainfully employed, settled into living with my partner, and debt-free (yay!). I’ve done a lot of simplifying, which has created space for me to start teaching a class at my favorite yoga studio of all time!! More on that below 👇 😊

I’m proud of each of those things in their own right. And I’m recognizing that having a full-time job and living with someone else means I simply don’t or can’t do a lot of things I used to do as a single, self-employed person (for better or worse).

I can’t spontaneously go to lunch with the gals on a random Tuesday. I can’t sign up for a month-long trip or training on the other side of the world (at least not without considering my other half and our shared adult responsibilities).

I don’t have a slow, luxurious 3-hour morning routine anymore. Truthfully, I barely make time to meditate for 5 minutes, let alone do an hour of yoga and breathwork, journal, go for a walk, or make myself a nourishing breakfast. I do some of these things some of the time, but I’ve gotten out of a lot of the daily habits I used to preach as a wellness coach.

And there’s definitely some shame in admitting that here! But there is also A LOT of compassion and acceptance and gratitude for where I’m at today.

I think that’s where I notice the most growth when I compare 2025 Marta to 2026 Marta. I’m not a picture-perfect yogi, or employee, or partner, and I love myself anyway.

What I do try to be consistent with is listening to my body, asking for what I need without apology or guilt, and counting the small wins. Going to bed early, sitting down to eat something (aside from a protein shake) before I hop on my first morning meeting, getting outside for a lunchtime walk, even a short one: it all counts!

While part of me feels super secure in my “settling down” era, I also know that a year from now, life will probably look completely different again, for reasons I couldn’t begin to imagine today.

The best I can do is remain open to whatever comes my way, practice discernment by saying yes when I mean yes, no when I mean no, and trust that the universe is guiding me in the right direction. I just need to follow the threads.

Lots of love,

Marta

Enjoyed this reflection? All of my monthly wellness notes live on my blog if you ever want to revisit them or catch up on previous ones: wellnesswithmarta.com/blog

3 things supporting my balance right now:

• Spending Sundays cooking up elaborate meals and prepping food for the week with my boo 👩‍🍳
• Bringing the pup for walks in the woods 🐶
• Monday night yoga + women’s circle at Pranayama in Mystic. This has been my favorite ritual the last 2 years 💞

What I’m reading/listening to: Just finished A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum, an amazing novel based on stories of 3 generations of Palestinian-American women.