All I felt was Shame!!

The Hidden Weight of Achievement....

All I felt was Shame!!

I felt shame after coming back from having a baby and not going at the same pace I used to before creating, birthing, and feeding this tiny human.

I felt left behind. This feeling occurred while I was running a profitable virtual business school, New Founder School, teaching two classes on entrepreneurship as a professor at San Francisco State University, healing and going for multiple therapy and physical therapy sessions, and also building the prototype of my wellness company Shaanti.

When I stepped back to breathe, I realized I had been doing the work of FIVE people. FIVE.

And you'd think that would have made me proud. That I would have felt validated, knowing how much I had accomplished.

Instead, I broke down and cried.

Because I had let it get this far.

This was not NEW!

I had spent years overworking, overdelivering, and overextending myself—from running a vocational school in India at 16 to building a venture-backed AI AR startup in Silicon Valley, without ever questioning if there was another way.

I honestly believed, even subconsciously, that my worth depended on delivering more than others.

My entire identity was based on:

✔ Being the decision-maker

✔ Fixing what was broken

✔ Carrying the load for everyone

I thought I was just doing my job.

Turns out, I was doing the job of five people.

And after birthing a human, I still expected to show up like that!

Here's What Was Happening in My Brain: Back in 2019

The dopamine-reward system in your brain makes overwork addictive.

Every time I took on extra work: whether launching my startup or building New Founder School during the pandemic, I got validation. Recognition. A sense of purpose.

And this wasn't new.

As a child in India, I was a "good girl" when:

✔ I took responsibility beyond my years

✔ I didn't complain

✔ I did what was expected

What the brain learns:

➡ Overextending yourself = good.

➡ Taking up space = bad.

The problem? That reward is temporary.

And the cost? The burnout that drove me to the woods of Northern California. The exhaustion that required immersion in kundalini yoga and Ayurveda to heal.

Here's What I Know Now: Postpartum + Mompreneur Chapter

✔ I am worthy, period. There is nothing I have to prove to be an acceptable human being—not through vocational schools, startups, or teaching positions.

✔ I am enough when I'm nurturing my 8-month-old tiny Human while doing my best to launch a new business initiative slowly.

✔ The social media ecosystem claiming to be your "family" isn't. Your actual family—my husband, my family, my founder friends, my REAL LIFE friends, and my baby is my family.

I remind myself constantly, though it is hard -

I don't have to prove my worth anymore through extraordinary achievements.

I own it through life-synced entrepreneurship, where numbers and ambitions go with balance and prosperity.

Have you ever tied your worth to how much you do? Tell me in the comments, I bet you're not alone.

Take the space.

Love and Light,

Arjita