A Working Mother’s Guide to Emotional Wellness: Hazel Turner’s Journey to Balance

Before dawn breaks, Hazel Turner is already moving. While most of the house is still quiet, she is preparing breakfast, checking emails, packing school bags, and mentally organizing the rest of her day. By the time the clock hits 8 a.m., she feels as though she has already lived several lives.

“My mornings start in fast-forward,” Hazel says. “Some days, I don’t even realize I’m holding my breath until I finally sit down.”

Like countless working mothers, Hazel learned the hard way that emotional wellness is not an indulgence. It is essential. Her journey toward balance, resilience, and inner calm didn’t happen overnight, but it reshaped how she views motherhood, work, and herself.

When Doing Everything Becomes Too Much

Hazel works as a project manager in the tech industry, a role she once thrived in. Before becoming a mother, she enjoyed the pressure, the deadlines, and the constant momentum. Long hours felt rewarding. Productivity was her measure of success.

That changed after she returned to work following her first maternity leave.

At first, she tried to fix the problem by pushing harder. More planners. More late nights. Less sleep. For a while, it worked. Then one afternoon, sitting alone in her car after daycare drop-off, the tears came without warning.

“That wasn’t weakness,” Hazel says. “That was my body telling me the truth.”

Recognizing Burnout Without Shame

Instead of ignoring the signs, Hazel decided to listen. She began exploring emotional wellness tools and downloaded a mindfulness app that offered short, supportive reflections. For the first time, she heard language that felt gentle rather than demanding.

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“It helped me notice things I had been dismissing,” she says. Irritability. Constant guilt. Exhaustion disguised as motivation. These weren’t character flaws — they were signals.

Working mothers, she believes, are conditioned to silence those signals. “We take care of everyone else first,” she says. “Somewhere along the way, we forget we matter too.”

Finding Calm in Small Moments

Hazel didn’t change her life all at once. Instead, she focused on what she calls “small moments of return.” Short pauses throughout the day where she checked in with herself instead of pushing forward.

Between meetings, she practiced slow breathing. Sometimes she placed a hand over her heart and reminded herself she was doing enough. Other times, she took five quiet minutes away from screens.

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“These moments don’t fix everything,” she says. “But they soften the edges.”

She also began waking up slightly earlier — not to work, but to sit in silence. No phone. No noise. Just coffee and stillness. Over time, those fifteen minutes changed the tone of her entire day.

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“I stopped reacting to life,” she explains. “I started entering it.”

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Why Support Changes Everything

One of Hazel’s biggest realizations was that emotional wellness isn’t meant to be achieved alone. She joined online communities for mothers where honesty replaced comparison.

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“Being able to say ‘this is hard’ without judgment was healing,” she says.

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She also started therapy, something she once believed was only for people in crisis. Now, she sees it as ongoing care. Therapy helped her identify emotional boundaries — especially at work.

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“I stopped responding to late-night emails immediately,” Hazel says. “Motherhood didn’t make my time less valuable.”

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Learning to protect her energy allowed her to show up more fully in every role she held.

Redefining What Success Looks Like

Before becoming a mother, success meant achievement and efficiency. Now, Hazel measures it differently.

“Success is presence,” she says. “Being where I am without guilt.”

She learned to stop judging her emotions and instead listen to them. Overwhelm wasn’t something to suppress — it was information. Sometimes it meant she needed rest. Other times, it meant she needed help.

Journaling became a powerful outlet. Writing allowed her to process emotions rather than spiral inside them. “Once the thoughts are on paper,” she says, “they lose their grip.”

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he also mentors other working mothers, reminding them that exhaustion does not mean inadequacy.

“One honest conversation can change someone’s entire week,” she says.

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he also mentors other working mothers, reminding them that exhaustion does not mean inadequacy.

“One honest conversation can change someone’s entire week,” she says.

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What Hazel Wants Other Mothers to Know

Hazel now speaks openly about her journey, not because she has everything figured out, but because she knows how isolating burnout can feel.

Her advice is simple but powerful:

Perfection is not the goal — presence is.
Rest deserves space on your calendar.
Support is strength, not failure.
Your children learn emotional health by watching you honor yours.
Small wins matter more than flawless days.

“Some days I still cry in the car,” Hazel admits. “But I don’t shame myself anymore. I let it pass.”

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ew Vision of Motherhood and Wellness

Hazel believes emotional wellness will shape the future of leadership and work culture. She advocates for workplaces that support parents not just with policies, but with empathy.

“Flexible schedules and understanding save more than productivity,” she says. “They save people.”

Looking back, she no longer chases balance as a final destination. “Balance isn’t something you reach,” she reflects. “It’s a rhythm — changing, imperfect, and deeply human.”