Episodios

  • Career, Motherhood & the Ego Tug-of-War

    Career, Motherhood & the Ego Tug-of-War
    Oct 7 2025
    What happens when motherhood collides with career? In this episode of Gracefully Unraveled, Kelli Lynch opens up about the emotional whiplash of returning to work after her first baby — and how ego wrapped itself around both her mothering and career identities.Through vulnerable storytelling, cultural data, and spiritual wisdom from Michael Todd and Richard Rohr, she explores how shame and ego shape our sense of worth, and how grace invites us to live beyond performance.If you’ve ever felt torn between the office and the nursery, this conversation is for you.🎧 Regular episodes every other week with bonus episodes in between. Please like and subscribe.👉Enjoy a steady stream of inspirational messages on social channels. Search @GracefullyUnraveledPodcast or click links below!🔗YouTube🔗Facebook🔗InstagramClick the share button to send this to a mom friend who can relate.<>When I went back to work after having my first son, it was emotionally excruciating. The twelve weeks I spent at home were filled with trials of skill — feeding, soothing, sleeping. But returning to work? That was a trial of emotion I could not have anticipated. I hadn’t realized how much of my identity had become tangled up in being a mother — and how ego had wrapped itself around that new role.The word "identity" comes from the Latin word identitas, which means "sameness" or "being the same." To identify is to make same. And now, I was ensnared in all the egoic constructs of motherhood — built from thoughts, beliefs, and expectations. What should motherhood look like? What should I look like in it?I knew society generally accepted working moms. And I loved my career in marketing and communications. But handing my baby to someone else for what felt like more waking hours than I had with him — that shook me.Welcome back to *Gracefully Unraveled* — a podcast where we explore the sacred messiness of motherhood, identity and ego. I'm your host Kelli Lynch, and every other week I’ll be exploring how motherhood reshapes us — not into someone new, but into a deeper awareness of who we are. Through personal reflection, spiritual insight, a dash of data and a whole lot of honesty - let’s unravel with intention and kindness together.Statistically, 55% of moms return to work after maternity leave. But only 70% of all U.S. women take any form of maternity leave. And of those who do, 26% return to work less than two months after giving birth. That’s not a recovery — that’s a sprint. In fact, 26.5% of new moms report their mental health as “fair” or “poor” in their first month back on the job.And let’s be honest — the broader culture still assumes that caregiving is women’s work. That expectation, paired with insufficient policies like lack of paid leave or affordable childcare, leaves most moms walking a tightrope between guilt and exhaustion. Some feel empowered in their return. Others feel fractured.I was somewhere in the middle — empowered but confused. That confusion followed me for years.There was even a season when I became a little too identified with my career. I stayed late, took on more, felt validated by doing well — only to be wrecked with guilt that I had so little time with my son before bed. And later, I learned just how deeply he had struggled — isolated and anxious in after-school care. The mom guilt didn’t shrink with time — it multiplied.In his book Damaged But Not Destroyed, Pastor Michael Todd offers a powerful lens for looking at our past without shame: the HOT method. He encourages us to be:- Humble enough to acknowledge the pain- Open to how it impacted us- Transparent about the ways it still shows upThat framework hit me hard. Because from that moment of returning to work, a lot of decisions I made around my first son snowballed into a giant coil of shame and regret. I can still rattle off everything I think I did wrong over the years.And because I didn't have the awareness (or let's be real, time nor patience) back then to process those emotions, they just festered and resurfaced as shame wrapped in an endless pursuit of perfection. That’s what ego does. It either defends or condemns. Either way, it traps us in illusion. But as Todd shares, the past doesn’t define us. It teaches us.Motherhood — in all its mess — teaches us how to dismantle the ego around our roles, identities, and expectations. Not by perfection, but by grace. We learn to see ourselves as God sees us — always growing, always beloved.Today, I have two boys and work part-time. I still enjoy strategic marketing — helping clients grow, telling and selling their value. But slowly, motherhood cannibalized my career identity. At first, that shift felt like a loss. But in hindsight, it was an invitation to look more closely.Because if I’m honest, part of the reason I began to so strongly identify with work in the first place was that I *needed* to be more than a mom. It wasn’t just ...
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    8 m
  • Motherhood, Ego and the Search for “I Am”

    Motherhood, Ego and the Search for “I Am”
    Sep 23 2025
    In this first episode of Gracefully Unraveled, Kelli Lynch opens up about the identity shift that came with early motherhood — the grief, the guilt, and the unraveling of ego. Through honest storytelling, cultural commentary, and spiritual reflection, she explores how motherhood can strip away labels to reveal something deeper: the divine “I AM” within.Blending open-hearted faith, psychology, and scripture, Kelli shares what it means to move from performance to presence, and invites you into the same inquiry: Who am I, beneath the noise?If you’ve ever felt the tension between who you were and who motherhood demands you be, this episode is for you.👉 Be sure to Follow @GracefullyUnraveledPodcast for future episode releases and click the Share button to send this to a mom friend you think needs this!📲 Bonus content on social channels. Search @GracefullyUnraveledPodcast or click links below!🔗YouTube🔗Facebook🔗InstagramTranscript >2018 was a pivotal year for me. My son was almost a year old. From the outside, I looked like I had it together — smiling, doing the mom thing. But inside, I was unraveling. Not in a loud, dramatic way. It was more subtle — a slow-moving fracture that deteriorated my sense of self.I didn’t have a full understanding of ego back then or it's connection to self-identity. I thought ego was just arrogance — someone overconfident or cocky. Which isn't entirely wrong, but it's incomplete. The egoic mind is far more insidious — it compulsively identifies with form. It latches onto our roles, our accomplishments, our image-- and convinces us that we must protect those labels at all costs. And the greatest cost is choosing human over being.Before motherhood, I had a life. I had identity. A college degree, a career, marriage, a house, and disposable income. It all looked pretty shiny. But when we began talking about having kids, something shifted. I didn’t think we had to change. I thought I did. And that’s how it all started."You’re listening to Gracefully Unraveled — a podcast about the honest, soulful, and sometimes edgy journey through motherhood. I’m Kelli Lynch, and every other week I’m exploring how this path reshapes us — not into someone new, but into a deeper awareness of who we are. Through reflection, spiritual wisdom, a little research, and just enough comedy to stay sane — we’ll navigate this messy, beautiful unraveling together."Once my son was born, and the fog started lifting — I didn’t recognize myself. I didn’t know that the grief I felt — over my freedom, my sleep, my sense of control — was normal. I didn’t know that admitting how hard mothering felt would feel like failure.There were moments — rocking him for the third time that night — when I imagined God saying, “You were made for this,” and me replying, “Are you sure?”My husband would ask, “Are you okay?” and I’d answer with the classic, “I’m fine.” But I wasn’t fine. I was tired. I was overwhelmed. And I felt guilty for even thinking about all I had given up — like restaurants, shopping, gardening. My son barely slept more than two hours at a time. And the world around me was full of judgment — sleep train him, let him cry it out. I didn’t.And I’m glad I didn’t. At five, he was diagnosed with separation anxiety. That neediness wasn’t a flaw — it was part of who he was. Not all babies are the same. Neither are all mothers.The truth is, I had internalized that all of this — the parenting, the emotional labor, the identity shift — was mine to carry. That’s not accidental. That’s in part cultural.In societies like the U.S., gender stereotypes are deeply entrenched. They shape us long before we ever become parents. Women grow up absorbing messages that mothering is central to their value — that it’s natural, expected, selfless.When a woman becomes a mother, she undergoes a profound transformation. She’s expected to reorganize her entire identity around this new role. And that’s not inherently wrong — but it’s rarely supported with grace.Research describes maternal identity as a “central formation of the maternal need… a motivational sphere and axiological process” — in other words, it’s deep. It draws from our biology, our upbringing, and our culture. And it’s complicated.Many women experience what some researchers call an “identity crisis” during this [maternal] shift. Because you’re still you. You still carry your pre-maternal self. But now you’re supposed to bury her for the sake of someone else’s survival. And sometimes, she doesn’t go quietly.And that’s the tension I lived in: trying to be a “good mom” while mourning everything I used to be. The loss of self felt like failure. But looking back, it wasn’t. It was an invitation.While my eldest son is nearly 11 years old now, it wasn’t until a handful of years ago that I started to find hope in the suffering. I ...
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    8 m
  • Identity After Childbirth (Trailer)

    Identity After Childbirth (Trailer)
    Sep 12 2025

    Who are you, beneath the roles you play?

    If motherhood has ever left you feeling like a stranger to yourself, you’re not alone. Gracefully Unraveled is a podcast for mothers navigating identity, ego, and the sacred mess of becoming — and remembering — who you truly are.

    This short intro shares the heart behind the show and invites you into honest, soulful conversations at the intersection of motherhood, spirituality, and self-discovery.

    👉 Click the share button to send this to a mom friend and join my social channels for bonus content!

    🎧 Expect new episodes every other week with bonus content on social channels. Search @GracefullyUnraveledPodcast or click links below!

    🔗YouTube

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    Transcript >

    Before I was a mother, I thought I knew who I was. I thought identity was something you could define - career, relationships, beliefs. Then I became a mom — and slowly, the comfort and confidence of knowing who I was - started to unravel.

    This podcast, Gracefully Unraveled, is born from the raw edges of this experience. It’s a space where we hold both heartbreak and hilarity. Where spiritual teachings, research, and reflection meet in the middle of a messy kitchen floor. Where we can talk about self-identity, ego, motherhood, and everything in between — without pretending we’ve got it figured out.

    Because this isn’t about becoming a mother — it’s about remembering: the great I AM. Not the roles we play or the titles we hold alongside it, but the deeper presence beneath it all.

    Whether you’re driving, hiding in the closet for a few moments of peace, or simply trying to feel less alone — this is for you. Let’s do this journey together — imperfectly, honestly, and with a little grace.

    New episodes every other week, with bonus content on YouTube and social. Check the show notes for links and be sure to Subscribe, Follow and Share with your mom friends.
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    1 m