Noona Nafousi - Life Coach

She booked a call after her family holiday. "Best trip. Felt nothing the whole time."

She had built everything she said she wanted. Twenty years of climbing. A role she'd earned three times over. A salary that removed every practical worry for her and her family.

And there she was, on the holiday she'd been counting down to for months, watching her family laugh by the pool, feeling like she was looking from above. Totally detached.

Her first instinct was to change something external. New job. Out of Dubai. Something had to move.

I've heard this enough times to know: it's never what's outside.

The leaders I work with aren't broken. They're not ungrateful. They've spent so long pushing at the pace that's asked of them that they stopped checking in with the person doing all the pushing.

The career got everything. The relationship with herself got breadcrumbs.

She didn't need a new role. She needed to remember who she was before the role became her entire identity.

Six months later, same job, same life. She told me recently that the ten-day Eid holiday was the first one she'd actually enjoyed in years.

If you've achieved everything on your success list and something still feels missing, you probably just forgot to put yourself on it.

A few months ago, an HR Director resigned from a job she didn’t even want to leave because she was convinced she was about to be fired.

She wasn’t.

Her nervous system had convinced her there was a threat where there wasn’t one.

I know this pattern because I lived it too.

What we believe about how our nervous system responds and how we lead is far more connected than most people realise.

One of my clients had built the life she wanted. The career, the role, the salary, the success.

And yet, on the holiday she had been looking forward to for months, she felt nothing.

Her first instinct was to change everything outside of her.

But sometimes the problem isn’t the life you’ve built. It’s that somewhere along the way, you stopped checking in with yourself.

Six months later, same job. Same life. But she was finally enjoying it again. This happened because we understood what was happening in her career that was making her feel this way.

This work changed how she sees her life now.

Have you ever achieved everything you wanted and still felt like something was missing?

A CEO messaged me recently to ask what I'd done to his wife.

She used to come home and keep working. Now she comes home and stops.

He wasn't complaining. He wanted to know how to get some of that for himself.

Swipe to see what actually changed.

I over did it…..

Yesterday I recorded my limitless podcast.
It’s a passion project and I love it.
3 amazing guests.
2 kids at home.
0 meals were consumed during the day.

By 4:30 I was wiped.

Woke up this morning with this tingly feeling in my body.
I felt tired.
Agitated.
Down.

I knew exactly what is happening.

My body is whispering….please look after me.

- I’ve not stopped since I’ve got back from holiday.
- I’ve not nourished my body properly.
- I’ve underestimated working full time with the kids at home needing me.

What I would have done before was solider through.
Ignore it and gaslight myself pretending nothing was wrong.

I shouldn’t feel like this is what I would have said.

But not this time.

Instead I:
- cancelled my 2 hour solo podcast recording in the studio today
- went to the gym to get my steps in (my target is 12k a day)
- planned my food for the today prioritising protein.
- booked a lovely restaurant to go to for dinner tonight.

My word for this month is fun.

And I need to remind myself that I can still have fun whilst looking after my body and nourish myself.

Sounds so simple doesn’t it?

Honestly, no.

As someone who is a high achiever I can so easily slip into pushing myself, not giving myself enough spaciousness, and not prioritising my health.

Not today.

I had to work against myself today and rearrange my day to allow myself to have more capacity for me.

Little reminder for anyone whose body might be whispering to them today.

I learnt before that my body whispers and then is screams.

Today I’m listening to the whisper….

Life Update

If someone has told me that this would be the year I would be a single mum I would have said you’re crazy.

No way. Not us. Not me.

But life, I truly believe, gives you what you need and not what you want.

End of January just before the year of the snake was done, it seemed there was a huge shedding about to be activated for me. I got a WhatsApp that shocked me to my core.

I was blinded. I spent 5 week trying to save my family till I realised, I need to lean into self respect and acceptance. This is done.

By March we had told the kids. He moved out and the war started and so did 7 weeks of homeschooling.

Brutal.

By mid June we were divorced.

The ironic thing is in January I had told my mentor Rachael | The Energy Woman ♦️ that I was ready to meet the most powerful version of me. She told me this is a huge declaration. Are you ready? Yes. I am I told her. Little did I know that this was how I’d meet her.

And my god have I met her.

I feel stronger and more powerful than ever.

I made a decision very early on that I would exit with grace and heal with grace for the sake of my kids.

I have felt my dad’s presence guide me through this. I went to his grave a few months ago and begged him to help me. I then went straight to the mosque where we had prayed over his body near his grave and prayed, asked, begged Allah to heal me, heal my heart, help me.. I handed my pain over and said I trust you.

My prayers were answered.

Something in me got activated.

I tapped into a strength inside of me I didn’t even know existed.

I sit here today having had 3 huge losses in 3 years:
- oct 23, lost my best friend of 33 years
- Oct 24, lost my person, my dad
- Jan 26 my husband

And the lessons from each have been profound.

I did heal alone.

I will talk about what I did to help me heal so quickly in time but for now…..I enter this new chapter with integrity, inner peace and my head held up high, for me, my kids and all who is in my life.

Here’s writing the next new chapters of my life to be the best fu@ chapter ever written!

❤️

Happy birthday to my baby sister! Roxie Nafousi

The one whose nappies I changed, who came to stay with me when I was at university on her Easter holidays and who moved in with me in London.

The one who’s made the Nafousi name known, whose my icon and who I just adore so so deeply.

I’m honestly so blessed to have you as a sister, a friend and a confidant.

May this year bring you all that you wish for and more sis and can’t wait to see your new book make it to the best seller.

Keep inspiring, keep shining and have so much bloody fun while you do it.

Love you and have the best day. Wish I was celebrating with you today.

Love, your big sis,

Noona Da Best xx

Woman in their mid forty plus are not to be ignored…

Which one speaks to you the most?

It’s the last slide for me..

❤️