Meet Aiko
Mindfulness Mentor, Meditation Master, Self-Care Sherpa
I’m a mindful living coach who helps burnt out moms with young kids eliminate the chaos in their homes so they can stop feeling overwhelmed and enjoy more patience in their lives.
Nine years ago, I found myself deep in the trenches of postpartum depression after giving birth to my second kid. I was shrouded in a dark, draining fog, weighed down by guilt and shame for not having the energy to be the mom I wanted to be.
Instead of losing the baby weight, I was gaining. I felt ugly, fat, gross, lazy, uncomfortable, insecure, and ashamed.
I wasn’t pumped about the path I was going down in my career, but I didn’t have the energy to think about what I really wanted to do in my professional life.
My husband and I grew horribly disconnected. He wasn’t helping out, and I was an awful communicator. We hated each other, but I hated him more...
...because everything about my life changed drastically, while his didn’t change at all—except when his career took off and he started traveling more, dressing up and having fancy dinners—while I was left at home crying and leaking like a fat cow.
I found myself stuck in a sick cycle of procrastinating, forgetting important things, and rushing around everywhere. It was worse than mom brain…
I had lost my way.
I had my “woman up” moment one day when I took a look around my house, at all the dirty dishes, trash everywhere, piles of laundry, toys and bottles everywhere...and I knew no one was going to clean it up for me.
That was when I realized no one was coming to save me. I was the one that needed to clean up the mess I was sitting in, lose the weight I was gaining, and fix my relationship.
I was finally ready to take on being happy as MY responsibility.
Initially, when I joined a fitness community, I wasn’t able to stay consistent because I was self-sabotaging and letting my negative thoughts and emotions get in the way of any progress I made. I realized that if I didn’t get my mind right, that I would never be able to overcome the roadblocks preventing me from becoming the person I wanted to be.
That was when, in the midst of a YouTube rabbit hole, I stumbled onto mindfulness.
Mindfulness was attractive to me because you don’t need anything else to practice it. You don’t need money, or a therapist, or to leave your house—you don’t need anyone or anything. I could just be at home, in my bed, doing dishes...I could do it anytime, anywhere.
Mindfulness helped me:
Become aware of what I was thinking, and then understand how those thoughts affected my behavior
Communicate with my husband, dissolve my resentment, and begin supporting him in his career
Gain awareness of what I’m putting in my body, and stay consistent with my fitness goals—allowing me to lose over 40 pounds
Be more open and friendly, opening the doors to making supportive friends
Change my relationship with time so that I could use it with intention and feel it expanding rather than always closing in on me
Spend quality time with my kids and be with them in the moment instead of always planning what would happen next
Truly understand my kids’ feelings and become more gentle with them. No more yelling and snapping.
Mindfulness is a door into figuring out what you need in order to feel vitality. You don’t know what’s in the way until you get clear in your mind. I saw that in my own life, and it was so powerful that I knew I needed to share it with others.
As a mindfulness living coach, I’ve helped busy, stressed out moms:
Stop screaming at her kid for not paying attention during his Zoom calls
Feel less anxious and irritable and find a state of acceptance and calm in the bedtime chaos so she and her kid could have a peaceful nighttime routine
Start taking care of themselves to meditate, journal, and spend time with themselves
Take care of themselves in a meaningful way so they could clear the fog and make a decision about staying in their relationships
Find compassionate understanding for generational differences with parents and in-laws to have more tolerant, connected relationships
Transform the dynamics between mother, stepfather, and child from threatening to harmonious
And that’s just a taste of the transformative power of mindfulness.
Would you like to learn more about how mindfulness can empower you to transcend your struggles?
Results like these are not only possible, they’re inevitable when you focus on the right kind of change: mindfulness.
While it might feel like magic, it’s science: evidence-based practices combined to provide replicable success.
Bio
Aiko Smith is a mindful living coach and registered behavior technician. She helps women reduce the stress, anxiety, and depression associated with being a busy modern woman in a world that discourages women to invest in themselves.
She first became interested in mindfulness after working for several years in special education and having her own children. She realized that having a deep understanding and awareness of her present thoughts, feelings, and emotions can help better inform the choices she was making in her therapy with children and with her family at home.
Aiko has been teaching, guiding, and serving women and children for the past 15 years. She received her B.A. in psychology from the California State University of Long Beach and is currently, in pursuit of her M.S. in Psychology with a specialization in behavior. Aiko remains a busy mom of three and continues her work at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, practicing, studying, and sharing mindfulness.