Michelle Dempsey

One step at a time

This October, I’m walking 100km for One Foot Forward to raise $100 for mental health. This challenge is especially personal to me because of my experience with mental health after becoming a mum. Postpartum was not what I imagined it would be. Alongside the overwhelming love I felt for Walter, there were also periods of exhaustion, loneliness, anxiety, sadness and a feeling that I had somehow lost parts of myself along the way. Motherhood changed me in ways I expected, but it also coincided with changes in my life, relationships and sense of home that I never anticipated having to navigate at the same time. There were days when simply getting through the day felt like an achievement. One of the biggest things I’ve learnt is that postpartum mental health can exist alongside enormous love for your child. You can be incredibly grateful to be a mum and still be struggling. You can adore your baby and still feel lonely, overwhelmed or uncertain about what the future is going to look like. The past year has also taught me that sometimes the life you pictured for yourself can change while you’re still trying to adjust to becoming a mother. There can be grief in that too — grief for relationships, expectations, routines and versions of the future you thought were certain. At the same time, there can also be the beginning of something new. That’s why walking 100km feels meaningful to me. For me, this isn’t really about the number on a fitness tracker. It’s about moving forward after a period of my life where, at times, I felt completely stuck. It’s about rebuilding confidence, learning to trust myself again, creating a sense of stability through change, and looking after myself without automatically feeling guilty for doing so. It’s also about remembering that caring for my own mental health is part of caring for Walter. I want him to grow up seeing that difficult chapters don’t have to define us, that asking for help matters, and that there is strength in continuing to move forward even when the path looks very different from the one we originally imagined. Some days the steps forward are big. Other days they are incredibly small. But they still count. So throughout October, I’ll be putting one foot in front of the other — 100km for mental health, for motherhood, for healing, for new beginnings, and for anyone who has ever found themselves struggling during a chapter they thought was supposed to be one of the happiest of their life. My fundraising goal is $100, and any donation, share or little bit of encouragement along the way would mean so much to me. 💛 Share