I'M MAGGIE
My name is Maggie Maris. The obstacles in my life have made me who I am today: a strong woman with a lot of wisdom and experience.
With Maggie's Way, my roadmap to a happier life, I hope to help you rediscover your strength within yourself. My motto? DARE TO BE!
As I started to feel happier, I found myself saying to my daughter more often, “You can look at it from this point or do it that way!” She then said, “Mom, I'm not open to this right now. Why don't you write it down? Then I'll read it when I'm ready.” That’s how the ideas was born to write down all my experiences and insights. Pretty soon I noticed how nice it is to write everything down at some point. When I thought that others might benefit from it as well, I immediately got excited. I had found my spark: Maggie's Way was born! This was my IKIGAI.
''HAPPINESS IS ACHIEVABLE''
MY PERSONAL STORY
I want to share with you my personal story. I want to explain how Maggie’s Way came about and why, after all of my experiences in life, I can finally say that I am truly happy.
My story begins the moment I completely broke down. I had spent my life trying to juggle so many things and I was completely exhausted – I just couldn’t do it anymore. After my collapse, I was admitted to different clinics and was diagnosed with everything from ADHD, manic depression, major depressive disorder and PTSD. I followed the therapy programme and took all the medication I was asked to take but nothing seemed to help.
If you were to look at my life, I had everything I could wish for – a loving husband, wonderful children, two docs and no money worries – I had everything, so why did I feel so bad? I also felt guilty for feeling bad – how spoilt was I! Why wasn’t I happy? What was wrong with me?
These were questions I couldn’t answer at the time. All I could do was complain, and no-one seemed to understand me, and they found me annoying. I shut everyone out of my life but deep in my heart, I was looking for someone to break through and help me. I was so alone that I just didn’t want to live any more. In the end, I concluded that I had just burned out.
Reflecting on my life now, I can identify all of the experiences I had gone through which led to my burnout. I had such low self-esteem which I traced way back to my childhood and being bullied by my brothers who called me ‘stupid’ every day and I began to believe them. I didn’t do well at school and, as my friends went off to college, I was left at homebecause I was just not good enough. I went to England for a while, but tragedy struck as I lost a friend there in an accident that I witnessed. A high point in my life was when I became a model – this was something I could do, and I made a lot of money. But I was very insecure in this tough world where I also had to face rejection. Eventually, I left the modelling world and did some reception job – which I really enjoyed. But my life continued to have troubles. I married my first husband, sadly things didn’t go particularly well and our marriage ended in divorce.
After a few years though, I met the love of my life! I was so desperate to impress this beautiful, fun, and smart man that things went completely wrong. I couldn’t believe that such a nice man had fallen for me! We bought a house together and I was going to arrange the entire renovation - but that went completely wrong!
Soon I got pregnant with Flynn, a large and very hungry baby! My husband went back to work and I was alone with my son. As any new mother will know, it’s a really tiring job! I became even more tired and very sad. Looking back, I was suffering from postpartum depression.
Frederik proposed to me whilst we were on vacation – it was so perfect, but I did wonder if I could handle planning the wedding. At the same time, my father had become very ill with cancer. He passed away just a few months after my wedding.
That was the final straw and I collapsed. I was institutionalised and my brain seemed to switch off and I couldn’t think any more. I was a zombie and all I could do was stare into space. At this point I truly felt that my life was over.
I knew I had to make a plan to really try to get better. So I went to India, alone, to a clinic specialising in Ayurveda – a traditional India system of medicine which aims to preserve health and wellbeing by keeping the mind, boy and spirit in balance. The first clinic I went to was awful, so after a few months, I moved to another clinic. By then, I had been in India for about 5 weeks and had lost so much weight – I now weighed about 55kg! During one particular treatment, I remember this overwhelming sense of panic and the need to get out of the clinic. So, I moved to a hotel. I began to eat and I began to get stronger.
I remember one day so clearly - I was walking along the beach towards the sea, I felt the breeze on my face and could see beautiful flowers on the shoreline. The medication was leaving my body and I was starting to feel again – this was my rebirth – my awakening to life.
From that moment, I have dedicated my life to finding happiness through self-healing – by reading, reflecting, eating well and moving my body – which led me to Maggie’s Way. My four-step programme to self-healing.
''HAPPINESS IS ACHIEVABLE''
MY MISSION
Are you ready to feel really happy and happy again and to allow yourself this too? I'm going to help you with this using Maggie's Way. It's just easy and fun because YOU can do a lot more than you think.
My mission is to help and inspire people by sharing my experiences and insights. These have made me realize that we often try too hard, while we try our best. Everyone wants to feel happy, I am convinced of that. After years of searching, I found the answer to why I felt so bad and learned that often only a few things are needed to feel good. I wrote it down and I think it can help a lot of people. No rocket science but pure attention to yourself, so that you can stand up for who you are. You will therefore do the things that are good for you and live the life you are entitled to. Just believe me!
I can conclude that it should not have taken me years and that it could have been better, faster and more fun. But everything has a reason and the reason for me now is that I want to help you. That makes me happy again and so the circle is complete. I would like to help you in my positive and motivating way. There is so much more you can do once you start to believe in yourself and do what is right for you.
With my WAY you will learn to put yourself first. This is very important. Then I offer you various tools to give your life more depth and satisfaction. I also hope that you will find your passion. How cool would that be? We will work with topics such as health, sport, nature, mindset, gratitude, styling and nutrition. These come back at Maggie's Thoughts and Maggie & More and are accessible to everyone! Whether you are having a hard time or are quite satisfied, but secretly want to get more out of life. Give it to yourself!
I hope it really helps you and makes you as happy as I am, because I really want that for everyone.