Danielle RalstonFounder, How Capacity Works · Founder of ND Hive | Building the productivity hub where work actually gets done | Execution spaces, body doubling & community accountability

Overcoming Shame: My Journey to Self-Love & Better Parenting #shorts

30 Dec 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:46

In this YouTube short, the speaker shares a personal narrative about living with deep shame for many years, largely tied to the unrealistic expectations of an ex‑husband. After leaving the marriage nearly two years ago, she asks herself what she must do to become healthy and be the best parent for her children. She identifies that her default response to challenges is self‑shame and self‑criticism, and she describes the deliberate process of retraining her mind to stop this pattern, aiming for self‑compassion and improved parenting.

Chapters

I was shamed for many, many years and was just told, well, my ex-husband had ridiculous expectations for me, and I kind of beat myself up quite a bit. I left him nearly 2 years ago now. And one of the first things I did, well, I asked myself, what do I have to do to become healthy so that I can give my kids— be the best parent that I can be for my kids? And one of the things was I had to retrain my mind. Um, I would, I would default to shame, and I'd beat myself up. I said, why, why would I do that? Why did I say that? Why did I say it that way? Why didn't I do this? And so I had to learn to stop that, and it was a process.