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Background & Major Influences:
Well, I was born in Sydney, Australia, to parents of Pakistani origin. My parents moved back to Karachi, Pakistan when I was two, where I remained until the age of sixteen. I returned to Australia for higher education. Later on I married a Londoner and moved to London to live with him.
I worked in IT and Finance for a number of years until I decided to take a plunge into self-employment. My calling came after the birth of my second child. I knew then that I wanted to do something which brings positivity not only to my life but the lives of other mums too. So, Guilt-free Living was born.
I now offer lifestyle mentoring to mums & have recently started offering business mentoring to people in health, wellness, fitness, coaching & food industries. I currently reside in London, UK with my husband and three children.
The inspiration for the book comes from my own experiences. I became a mum at the age of twenty three, in a country I had only been living for a year with no family around & no friends either. So, the only thing that seemed right, at that point, was to adorn the super-mum cape and ignore the feelings of being overwhelmed.
I also thought, I’m young so I can take this pressure and stress; it won’t do me any harm. But the fact of the matter is that stress and burnout doesn’t care about how old you are. When they strike, your well-being can really spiral down a big hole, and for some it might even get too late before they realise they need to climb back up that spiral staircase of life. I was in that hole for quite some time, and it took lots of health scares for me to realise that it was time to finally STOP being a super-mum. But then how can you be a good and effective mum without being a super mum, most mums would ask?
I took that thought as a challenge and started to bring about changes in my lifestyle which other mothers noticed. My health improved; I became a more jovial and social person. Life started to seem easier even though responsibilities had increased over time — but it’s how you deal with them that dictates yours and your family’s well-being.
Every time I’d be in a group of mothers, they’d ask me for tips and strategies on how to be a guilt-free mum. So, we’d discuss and share, and then one of the mothers suggested that I write about it so I can reach many more busy mums who might also benefit from making similar tweaks to their lifestyle.
Initially I ignored that comment, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Rather than me answering the same questions over and over again (in mummy groups), why not write about them in a methodical manner that will be easier to understand and implement. Mothers will be able to access that resource whenever they like and implement changes at their own pace. Finally I mustered up the courage to start writing about it couple of years ago, and at one point I thought it would never happen as it has taken this long, but here I am today, finally publishing the work that I hope will benefit the busy mums of the 21st century.
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