|
Each month, Redeem Thyself highlights an Instagram Follower. The follower will eventually be selected based on engagement and collaboration during the previous month. However, for our 2025 Redeem Thyself Journal, I need to recognize so many who have been so present in posts, DMs, collaborations, and stories since the IG launch in July 2024. For the month of August 2025, I would like to highlight the work of my IG follower Miranda Roos. Miranda lives in the UK and has written a book and developed a journal to assist those overcoming break ups and loss. I appreciate her story and got a copy of her book and her journal. I am so glad that she is sharing her story and helping others overcome. Here is what she had to share today… Fellow Follower: The Empty Drawer: A Story of Breaking Cycles, Not Just Broken Hearts When I wrote The Empty Drawer, it wasn’t just about a breakup, it was the culmination of 40 odd years of learning to love & choose myself. For me, it was about breaking a pattern—a lifelong thread of loving too hard, giving too much, and always putting everyone else first. I left my marriage in 2016. Not because I was choosing myself & knew I deserved to be treated better, but because I knew I had to for my 2 boys. My ex-husband was emotionally and financially controlling, and I instinctively knew I had to leave to protect them and break the cycle when that started to affect them. When I was 18, my sister was killed by an abusive boyfriend. I didn’t know it then, but it was the same patterns that led her to choose this abusive man that we had learned from our parents, that made me always choose relationships with emotionally unavailable men over my own self-worth. The final heartbreak, the one that led me to write The Empty Drawer, was the one where all these lessons finally clicked into place, and even though it was incredibly hard not to want to chase or beg him to stay, I didn’t. Instead, every time I had a moment when I felt compelled to fix things, I poured all my thoughts into “journaling” notes on my phone. I found it cathartic, and it helped me to process things. The Empty Drawer was born from that space. The Empty Drawer that was left behind after my ex left became a symbol—not of what I’d lost, but of what I had never made space for: myself. By the time I’d finished processing my heartbreak and piecing all the pieces of the puzzle together, I had gotten to about 15000 words, and I felt drawn to publish it as a breakup survival guide for women, like me, who had always over given and lost themselves in the process. And although I’m not a therapist, once I finished publishing the book, I felt drawn to make a breakup journal, to create a space for people to process their emotions, because of the benefit I found with writing my own thoughts out. I created The Empty Drawer Journal in two editions: The Comfort Edition, and The Luxe Edition, with colour, and images of sleeping puppies and kittens. The Luxe Journal includes some of the sleeping puppy and kitten photographs I took during my years as a newborn photographer—a career I stumbled into after giving up law and following my then-husband’s career from South Africa to the UK. That season of my life, though unexpected, helped me capture tenderness in the smallest moments—and I wanted to bring that same softness to the pages of this journal, and incorporate the photos as part of my own journey. Today, I’m a solo mum, a creator, a writer, and a woman who has fought to break generational patterns for good. And now, I can see how everything—every heartbreak, every hard decision, every “start over”—was unfolding exactly as it was meant to, in divine timing. With love, Miranda Roos Miranda’s journey is different than mine. Yet, I still enjoyed reviewing her book and her journal. If you find Miranada’s journey similar to yours, I would recommend her book and journal. You can find Miranda on TikTok and IG. Her book and journal are available on Amazon (UK links available below). Thank you Miranda for sharing yourself with us. The Empty Drawer: A Breakup Survival Guide for Women Who’ve Loved Deeply and Lost Themselves The Empty Drawer Journal: A Guided Breakup Recovery Guide for Women Who’ve Loved Deeply and are Finding Their Way Back to Themselves The Empty Drawer Journal: LUXE: A Guided Breakup Recovery Companion for Women Who’ve Loved Deeply and are Finding Their Way Back to Themselves
|
