Submitted by Melissa Palmer, Au.D, CCC-A , Audiologist/Business Owner
This Women’s History Month, we honor the 1987 resolution that brought women’s contributions into the mainstream. We celebrate the pioneers who fought for our right to be in the boardroom.
For the past few decades, my life has been a symphony of pivotal roles. As an audiologist and business owner, I’ve spent my career helping others hear the world more clearly. But for a long time, the one voice I couldn’t hear was my own.
As I look back on my own history — pursuing a professional career, working part-time while my children were young to balance “motherhood” with my passion for audiology, then opening my first practice ten years ago — I realized that while I had mastered the “doing,” I was failing at the “being.”
With the recent acquisition of my second practice, the demands have reached a crescendo. Like so many women, I find myself working long hours and letting my business bleed into my weekends. We’ve been conditioned to believe that “having it all” means “doing it all” at the expense of our own health.
But you cannot pour from an empty cup, and you certainly cannot lead a team or a family if your own internal battery is flashing red.
Last year, I decided to reclaim my mornings. Before I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, or a CEO, I am a woman who needs nourishment. My nourishments starts at dawn:
- Body: I wake up early to work out, moving my body not for aesthetics, but for the strength required to lead.
- Mind: I meditate and visualize my day, creating a mental map that prevents me from just reacting to fires.
- Soul: I’ve implemented a digital boundary, turning off electronics and placing them across the room well before bedtime to protect my sleep.
My focus for 2026 isn’t just another professional milestone or a loftier revenue goal; it’s quality time. It’s the intentionality of being fully present with my family, friends, and even my staff without the vibration of a phone in my pocket or a meeting to run to.
We often think of women’s history as a series of external battles won — the right to vote, the right to work, the right to lead. But perhaps the most important battle for the modern woman is the internal one: the right to take up space in our own lives.
As I celebrate 10 years of business ownership, I’ve learned that my family and my practice don’t need a version of me that is “running on fumes.” They need the version of me that is nourished, rested and whole. This March, I invite you to listen — really listen — to what your body and soul are asking for. It might just be the most revolutionary thing you do all year.
