The Rooted Mama

Ever feel like you’re carrying something you can’t quite name?

Like you’re capable, functioning, showing up every day; and somehow still feel like you’re running on empty in a way you can’t explain to anyone.

That was me. Long before I became a mother.

I was the woman who had it together on the outside and was quietly unraveling on the inside. Anxious. People-pleasing. Saying yes when every part of me wanted to say no. Dimming myself down so consistently I forgot what my full light even looked like.

Then motherhood arrived and turned up the volume on everything I hadn’t dealt with.

My daughter’s birth was traumatic. What followed was severe postpartum depression, chronic pain, and an autoimmune diagnosis that made me wonder if I would ever feel like myself again.

But here’s what I learned on the other side of all of it:

The baby was never the problem.

There’s a mental, emotional and spiritual gap that exists long before motherhood. It lives in the woman who second guesses herself in meetings. The one who drives past two exits because her mind left the building twenty minutes ago. The one who’s killing it on paper and quietly disappearing in private.

Motherhood just makes it impossible to ignore anymore.

I’m Destynie, founder of The Rooted Mama. I’m a wife, mother of three, and a Subcommittee Co-Chair for the Tennessee Maternal Health Task Force. I found my way back to myself through faith, real tools, and a village that refused to let me stay lost.

Now I do this work because I know exactly what it costs a woman to keep carrying what she was never meant to carry alone.

In Tennessee, where we have the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, women are dying from preventable mental health crises. Not because they weren’t strong enough. Because nobody caught them early enough.

That’s what The Rooted Mama exists to change.

If you found your way here, something brought you. You don’t have to have it figured out. You just have to be willing to start.

You’re in the right place.

Ready to stop shrinking and start shining?  Take my “Are You Dimming Your Light?” quiz today!