FEATURING: Hayley Harding Returning to Herself

I grew up in Christchurch, and my childhood wasn’t necessarily picture perfect.

My parents separated when I was young, which at the time still felt uncommon. I remember being very aware that my family looked different from many others around me.

My mum worked incredibly hard, often juggling two jobs, and watching her shaped so much of my resilience and work ethic.

I spent a huge amount of time with my grandparents, especially my great nana, who became a grounding presence in my life. They gave me stability, warmth, and unconditional love during some very formative years.
Looking back, my childhood taught me independence early. For a long time, I believed strength meant simply pushing through no matter what was happening internally.

But life eventually taught me something very different.

Through motherhood, grief, illness, and rebuilding, I realised true strength is not always about holding everything together. Sometimes it is about softness, asking for help, and slowing down enough to truly listen to yourself.
That understanding now flows through everything I do, both personally and through unnbound — creating spaces where women feel safe, supported, connected, and seen.

Motherhood has shaped me more than anything. My girls have been both my anchor and my greatest reason to keep moving forward through some incredibly difficult chapters of life.

I unexpectedly lost James to a heart attack in January 2020. It changed the course of our lives overnight.

Five weeks later, the world went into lockdown, and suddenly it was just me, two young girls, and a level of grief I did not yet know how to carry during one of the most isolating periods in modern history.

Like many people, I told myself I was coping because I had no choice but to keep functioning. I kept working, parenting, organising, surviving. From the outside, life probably still looked capable, but internally everything was falling apart.

For a long time I operated purely in survival mode. I became the strong one, the person holding everything together for everyone else. But eventually I realised strength can also become a mask.

Then came the cancer diagnosis, another moment that divided my life into before and after.

Loss and illness have a way of stripping everything back to what truly matters.

I had spent years building businesses and creating a life that outwardly looked successful, but eventually I had to ask myself whether I was truly living in alignment or simply surviving.
Over time, healing became about far more than physical recovery. It became about slowing down enough to hear myself again and rebuilding a life that genuinely felt good on the inside.

I simplified my life, let go of what no longer felt right, and started rebuilding from a completely different place, not from pressure, but from truth.

That journey has been painful, transformative, and deeply humbling, but it also led me back to myself in a way I never expected.

Hayley the Hirer became far more than a hire company. It became a creative extension of me.

 What started as an idea grew into one of the South Island’s leading event hire and styling companies, and I am incredibly proud of what we created.

We had the privilege of working on weddings, luxury events, charity galas, and corporate functions across New Zealand. The business was built on relationships, trust, creativity, and an obsession with detail. I loved creating spaces that made people feel something the moment they walked into a room.

What made the recent sale particularly emotional was that the business was something James and I started together. It carried so much history and personal meaning, so letting it go represented the closing of a huge chapter of my life.

At the same time, the process felt surprisingly aligned, which gave me a real sense of peace around the decision.

After everything I had experienced personally, I began questioning what success really meant. I realised I no longer wanted to build a life that only looked successful on the outside while feeling scrambled internally.

Selling the business created space emotionally, creatively, and personally.

Ultimately, that space became unnbound.

Being diagnosed with cancer as a solo mother after already losing James felt incredibly overwhelming. There were definitely moments where I felt very alone in it all.

Cancer has a way of exposing everything emotionally, physically, and mentally. It forces you to confront not only your health, but every part of your life and the people around you.
Support often came from unexpected places. Some relationships became more distant, while others stepped forward in the most beautiful ways.

My mum was incredible. She carried so much alongside me while I still tried to hold everything together for my wee family.

I also found my people, my soul family. Friends who showed up quietly and consistently. The ones who checked in, sat with me, helped with the girls, and held space for me on the days I could not hold everything together myself.
Those relationships changed me. They reminded me that connection and community can heal parts of you that medicine alone cannot reach.

My daughters were my greatest reason to keep going. There were days where they were the only reason I got out of bed and kept fighting for my health and our future.

The experience completely changed the way I approached healing. I stopped looking at health as simply treating symptoms and started asking deeper questions around stress, trauma, nervous system health, hormones, grief, lifestyle, and emotional wellbeing.

In many ways, cancer cracked my life open but it also became the catalyst for rebuilding it more honestly and intentionally than ever before.

unnbound was born from healing — physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

During recovery, I became deeply interested in the lymphatic system and the role it plays in overall wellbeing. I started researching movement practices that supported detoxification, inflammation reduction, circulation, nervous system regulation, and emotional wellbeing.

That is what led me to rebounding.
There was something incredibly powerful about the movement itself. It did not feel punishing or performative. It felt joyful, light, and liberating. It reminded me what it felt like to reconnect with my body rather than fight against it.

Because the lymphatic system does not have a pump like the heart, movement is essential for supporting its function. Rebounding became one of the most effective and enjoyable ways for me to support my body naturally during recovery.

But unnbound became about far more than rebounding.

After losing James, and again throughout my cancer journey, I found myself searching for a space where I could reconnect with myself. A place to move my body without punishment. A community of women who understood without needing explanation. A sense of softness, connection, and belonging at a time when I felt deeply disconnected from myself.

That space did not exist, so I built it.

unnbound was not a business idea I stumbled across. It was the thing that kept calling me back even when everything else felt uncertain.

Starting again at 44 was not about reinvention. It was about returning  to myself, my values, and a life that felt true on the inside.

More than fitness, I hope women find themselves again.

So many women spend years in survival mode — caring for everyone else, disconnected from their bodies, burnt out, overwhelmed, or carrying things they have never fully processed.

unnbound is not about chasing perfection. It is about feeling alive again. Feeling connected again.

The feedback has already been incredibly emotional. Women are saying they feel safe, energised, supported, nostalgic, and joyful — like they have rediscovered a version of themselves they thought they had lost.

That is exactly what I hoped unnbound would become.

For me, healing became about looking at the body as a whole rather than isolating symptoms.

Nutrition has played a huge role in my recovery journey by reducing inflammation, supporting gut health, stabilising hormones, improving energy, and supporting detoxification pathways.
I also work closely with a clinical nutritionist, and that completely changed the way I viewed health and healing. Rather than simply placing a band aid on symptoms, we looked at me as an individual, my genetics, lifestyle, stress levels, trauma, environment, and everything my body had experienced over the years.

That approach felt incredibly empowering because it was not about treating me like a one size fits all diagnosis. It was about understanding root causes and supporting my body in a far deeper and more personalised way.

At the same time, I have learned that health is also about balance and joy. I am not extreme or overly restrictive with how I live. I still believe in enjoying life, sharing an ice cream with my girls, going out for dinner with friends, and celebrating moments that matter.

For me, wellbeing is not about perfection. It is about creating a lifestyle that supports you physically, emotionally, and mentally while still fully living your life.

Starting again.

It takes enormous courage to begin again. For me, it was not about becoming someone new, but remembering who I was beneath the grief, pressure, survival mode, and expectations, then rebuilding from that place.

Launching unnbound has meant stepping into a completely different public identity not only as a business owner, but as someone sharing a far more personal story and purpose.

There is vulnerability in that, but there is also freedom.

I am learning to build a business that aligns with who I am now, rather than who I once was.

Without question, my daughters. They are my why.

They have been my constant through every season of grief, rebuilding, business, cancer, healing, and now unnbound.
There were moments where I did not know how I would keep going, but motherhood gives you a reason to keep showing up.

So much of what I have built, changed, and fought for over the past few years has been driven by the kind of life I want them to witness. Not a perfect life, but an honest one.
One where resilience, vulnerability, courage, and joy can all exist together.

I have also been incredibly grateful for the support of local businesses, collaborators, and practitioners who have supported and nurtured me along the way.

The Cove has been an incredible partner in bringing the unnbound pop up vision to life, and I have been surrounded by women and businesses aligned with wellness, movement, and community who genuinely want to see others thrive.

Christchurch has a beautiful culture of women supporting women, and I feel incredibly grateful to be building unnbound within that environment.

One thing I would love women to know is that healing is not linear, and it rarely looks the way you expect it to.

unnbound is the physical representation of rebuilding a life from the ground up with more intention, softness, truth, and joy.

And if sharing my story helps even one woman feel less alone in her own healing journey, then it has all been worth it.

Thank you for sharing your story, Hayley.