We recently connected with Angie Perez and have shared our conversation below.
Angie , we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?
As a mom of three and an entrepreneur, taking time and space for self care is essential to my effectiveness and how I show up in those roles daily. But it’s definitely not easy. Early on in my motherhood journey I felt very guilty taking any time and space for myself. Any mom knows– there is always something to do and there is always more to give. But I found myself falling short of being able to do it ALL and the more I tried– the more I realized I didn’t want to.
I realized if it was my duty to model play, communication and love to my children then it was also my duty to model rest and self care. And not just the external fancy stuff– going to the salon, the gym, taking a bath– but in taking care of my inner self as well. I was fortunate to be raised by a mother who modelled self care and journaled frequently in front of me. She taught me to tune in to my inner voice, to validate my emotions and to witness my own feelings with no judgement.
Today, journaling is my most treasured self-care practice. It helps me to validate how I’m feeling and that helps me to manage my energy and show up as a better mother to my children. By setting time aside to connect with me, I show up more authentically with them; I get to show up as the mother I want to be.
Developing a relationship with myself through writing allows me to be a better business woman as well. I’m able to be a better leader by communicating effectively and efficiently, I’m able to network with ease–I’m even able to create a distinct brand voice because I took the time to find out who I am and I show up as her every day.
Journaling has shaped my life in so many ways and without it I’m not sure I could be as effective as I am in any of my roles.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My journey with self-discovery and finding my purpose lead me to what I do professionally today.
I’m not going to lie– as a mother it was tough trying to find out what was worthy of leaving my children daily. And if I was going to have to work to provide for my children I wanted it to be something meaningful and worthwhile. But my mental health often suffered in search of it. I felt lost, alone and afraid that I would never find what it seems like everyone around me had found–purpose.
Becoming a mother almost multiplied that feeling by a thousand because I wanted my children to see their mother doing something that lit her up and the pressure of just being at times was too much.
I suffered with postpartum anxiety and depression after the delivery of both my sons and it took a long time to come out of the clouds. Getting help professionally was not always accessible with a growing family and resources like attending talk therapy most of the time was financially out of reach.
But I was active in my own self care. Not only in resting and taking care of myself on the outside but on the inside as well. I journaled and reflected quite often and gave space to every emotion I was feeling. When things got dark– I practiced affirmations to help encourage an optimistic mindset and when everything felt like it was working against me– I practiced gratitude to help refocus on all the good I did have.
Along my journey I realized what I was doing could really help individuals feeling the same, so I combined my artistic abilities with a new found purpose to serve and started creating affordable and accessible writing tools to help.
Todays its called Under This Moon– a self care stationery & lifestyle brand providing affordable writing tools and resources to help support your emotional wellness. Under This Moon is a place for those going through self transformation and evolution, those seeking self-care routines that ground you, and most importantly, those wishing to find themselves again.
I truly believe we all have the power inside us to bring all our dreams into fruition. And with self love, gratitude and awareness we can truly achieve anything. Whether you’re making a big decision, wanting to create more intention or battling the pressures of every day life, there are always tools and resources available to you. And we hope to become one of them.
Currently, we best serve our customers through our writing tools. We produce affirmations, intentions and gratitude notepads for quick and easy self care routines as well as guided journals for reflection. We also believe that in order to be positive you have to see positive– and our lifestyle items such as stickers, keychains, pins & totes serve as just that– carrying messages of positivity for your day-to-day life.
However, what we are working on next is what brings me most joy: creating community and space for us to practice together. I am currently working on putting together in-person new moon/full moon journaling workshops for our community members in what will be the next phase on our journey.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I would definitely say adopting a positive mindset has been the most impactful on my journey. Entrepreneurship is filled with a ton of highs and lows and the majority of the time it can be just you dealing with it all. So giving yourself tools to be able to navigate is critical for success. I’ve been able to motivate myself through affirmations, positive self-talk and a lot of self love. Adopting this kind of mindset has made me my biggest supporter and has been so impactful along the way.
Likewise, surrounding myself with motivated individuals has also had great impact on my journey. Its true–you are who you surround yourself with. And if you are around those who don’t believe in you or say you can’t, it’s most likely you will start believing it too. I found true success when I surrounded myself with like-minded individuals who were also going after their goals and inspiring me along the way. It definitely made me more courageous and helped me make big leaps towards the things I wanted.
Lastly, I would say learning to become detached to outcomes or money as measures of success. I have found success so many times throughout my entrepreneurship journey and almost none of it has to do with money. Sometimes it has been connecting with members of our community, dealing with a challenge differently than I would have in the past, or learning a new skill that could help further my business. It is very unlikely you are going to have life altering moments happen to you daily so learning to see small every day moments as measures of success has kept me grounded along the way. Because believe it or not–sometimes failure can have the most impact on your journey, so being able to become detached from outcomes and finding opportunity in failure can be a great measure of success.
My biggest advice– is you need to become your biggest supporter to thrive at any thing in life. So finding whatever works for you in order to become that is how you’ll be able to have impact on those around you. Get to know yourself, find out what environments you thrive in, and talk to yourself like someone you love and you’ll succeed at whatever you choose to do.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
Our ideal customer is someone who is on the path of self discovery. Someone who values authenticity and is willing to put in the work to find themselves. Someone who is wanting to be intentional in how they show up in this world and needs products and tools to help them achieve that.
Someone who doesn’t want to do it alone.
We have a fantastic and engaging online community filled with like-minded individuals who are on the same path as you. We are often putting out self-love and gratitude challenges to our members to keep us motivated and accountable. And soon a space to meet in-person to do the same.
Under This Moon believes in the power of you and bringing light to your journey–no matter what phase you’re in.
So come check us out, Under This Moon.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.underthismoon.ca
- Instagram: @underthismoondesigns
- Other: TikTok: @underthismoondesigns
Image Credits
Carter Savard
