How Emotional Honesty Changed My Relationships, My Life, and Yep—Even My Personal Brand
This isn’t a rebrand. It’s just me finally being honest.
Okay, here we go.
This is the post I’ve been trying to write for years. Not because I didn’t have the words, but because I wasn’t ready to say them out loud.
I’ve been in this weird place for a while—starting to wake up to who I really am, but still afraid to fully show up as her.
This is me doing it anyway.
Growing up, being perfect was the baseline.
I grew up with a very dominant, image-conscious father. Everything was about how we looked to the outside world. Being “the best,” appearing “together,” never slipping up.
And my mom—she was emotionally distant too. So that’s what I learned:
Don’t feel too much. Don’t show too much. Always be in control. Always be better than everyone else.
So I got really, really good at that.
At performing. At keeping it all neat. At showing the “correct” version of myself to whoever was watching. And honestly? I carried that into everything—work, friendships, even motherhood.
But inside, I was feeling so much.
And I never had the confidence to actually live from that place.
So I’d start and stop. Start and stop. Share something a little deeper… then backtrack.
Let someone see a crack… then cover it up.
But every time I let a little truth out, something amazing happened.
The conversations would go deeper.
The relationships got more real.
The way people responded—it was just… different. And true.
Not just “likes” or polite praise—but actual connection.
And still, I couldn’t commit to showing up fully as me.
Until motherhood happened.
Motherhood cracked me wide open.
Honestly, it just stripped everything back.
The mess. The emotions. The vulnerability. The constant self-doubt.
There’s no performing your way through being needed all the time, through sleepless nights, through an identity that keeps shifting.
You just are. And that forced me to be with myself, raw and real.
These past two years have been a full-on emotional unraveling.
And as hard as it’s been, it’s also been the thing that’s finally pushing me to take this brave, scary, messy step—to just be me.
Flaky. Emotional. Deep. Inconsistent. Sometimes all over the place.
But honest.
So this is it: I’m finally showing up.
Not the “professional” version.
Not the neatly curated, polished one I was trained to be.
This version.
The one who’s been growing slowly in the background for over a decade, trying to find the guts to take up space in her own life.
And yeah, let’s talk about the work stuff for a sec.
I’ve been in a career I didn’t exactly choose for myself.
It was the path that made sense. It was safe. It looked good. And the truth is—I’m good at it. Really good.
I’ve built brands, shaped stories, written strategies that work.
But the whole time, there was this quiet feeling that I wanted something different.
Not necessarily to quit everything, but to build something that’s mine.
Something that comes from the inside. Not the outside.
So now, I’m finally doing that.
I’m taking all those skills—storytelling, strategy, voice, structure—and putting them toward building my personal brand.
From truth. From emotion. From the version of me I used to hide.
And I’m gonna do it here.
Out loud. In real time. With you.
If you’re still reading, maybe you’re in the same place?
You might be in your own version of this.
Feeling like something’s shifting inside but not sure how to express it.
Wanting to start something but second-guessing yourself to death.
Feeling things really deeply but trained to “hold it together.”
If that’s you, I just want to say: same.
I’m still figuring it out.
But I’m showing up anyway.
And you’re more than welcome to walk alongside me.
If you wanna start, here’s what helped me:
1. Say the thing—to yourself first.
Not on social, not in a journal even. Just in your head.
What’s one honest feeling you’ve been avoiding? Name it. Let it be there.
2. Write yourself a letter.
This sounds cheesy, I know. But it’s honestly magic.
Pick an emotion—one you’re kinda afraid of.
Write a letter from that place. Don’t clean it up. Don’t fix it. Just say it.
3. Say something real out loud today.
Not a performance. Just one true thing.
“I’m overwhelmed.”
“I feel stuck.”
“I miss myself.”
Tiny truths. That’s how it starts.
What’s next?
I’ll be here. Writing.
Sometimes deep stuff. Sometimes branding stuff. Sometimes I’ll be tired and rambling.
But I’ll be real.
And if you’re working on something of your own—a voice, a story, a brand, or just… being more you—I’d love for you to follow along.
Let’s stop trying to be perfect.
Let’s build something true.
With love (and a little bit of nerves),
Arushi