From Saving Lives to Saving Herself: Antoinette Njombua-Fombad on Mindful Living and Self-Connection

As an acute care nurse for over 14 years, Antoinette Njombua-Fombad had become accustomed to saving lives. It was embedded in her nature, and what she lived and loved to do. However, with the onslaught of COVID-19, Njombua-Fombad’s responsibilities in healthcare, and her overall perception of life, took a drastic change. Instead of saving her patients’ lives, it was time to save her own. In her newly released book, Everything is Within: Crafting a Mindful Life—My Journey to Self-Connection and the Lessons Learned Along the Way, Antoinette dives deep into her journey back to self, self-love, and empowerment. Leaning on four essential pillars for mindful living, Njombua-Fombad invites readers to embark on a reawakened state of being. In her own words, “You are yesterday, today, and tomorrow—ever-evolving.”

Inspire N Style Magazine: What inspired you to write your book? 

Antoinette Njombua-Fombad: “During the pandemic, I lived through an awakening that had me questioning my life and how connected I felt to and with it. That revealed a desire to write, specifically for healing. Like many others, I needed healing—deep healing from past traumas and anxieties. The last five years brought in the profound realization that everything starts with the self because everything is within the self. One year after deciding to start my manuscript, that offering is finally here to share.” 

Have you always wanted to be an author?

As early as childhood, I was frequently lost in my thoughts and in some other world within this one—experiencing creative visions that to another weren’t tangible to feel with such intensity. Being creative has always been a piece of my soul signature, and one of the blessings from five years ago was the gift of a desire to write. When that knowing came, I felt a freedom I hadn’t felt before. That’s what writing is to me now. It’s my guide to freedom. 

The title of the book is “Everything is Within” — will your book help those who tend to seek external validation or external sources to be connected and happy?

The seed of this book is from a gnosis of self-disconnection as a result of not necessarily external validation, but our lack of internal meaning with our environments. We are all created on purpose, and the Idea that there is a finiteness to every metric for how we matriculate through our time here is a source of this perception. We are not disconnected from our environments; we feel disconnected from ourselves within those environments. The road to happiness is knowing who you are and how to create a life that matches you. That must be the focus, to be the best of you based on YOU, not another. We are our greatest gifts, and everything we need for our journeys is within us. 

We hear the word “authenticity” so many times now-a-days that it’s almost taboo. What does being authentic mean to you, and how can one do so — without feeling as though it’s a part of a trend? 

Authentic living is guided by internal meaning, honoring the intuitive knowing of who we are, trusting that with conscious intention, (which is always our truest starting point for our contributions), and living better aligned with ourselves and our communities. It’s surrendering to the reality that our contributions in any environment are essential and valid within our capacity, regardless of whether we are working to grow that capacity. When we are trying to be ourselves, we are never ourselves because it is guided by a force outside of us. That is conformity, not authenticity. So, the goal must be knowing and focusing on how being yourself can add, raise, grow, and build any environment, how you co-create, rather than how it is trending.

What key takeaways do you want readers to leave with after reading your book?

• True belonging is belonging to ourselves first. We choose our belonging, not the other way around. 
• Vulnerability is the gateway to connection, externally and especially to the self. 
• Change is always an option if you don’t like where you are. It’s choosing new habits, with consistent practice, and creating a new lifestyle.
• Life is dual, and transcending through each season in your life is the goal because life is about the experiences. 

We are human and will experience different environments and energies. Instead of focusing on the misfortunes that come, the focus is on how we transform and transcend them. Alchemize it into something beneficial for our growth because we are constantly growing. What better way to live through our growth is there than to influence what we create for our lives? Living intentionally. 

What can we look forward to from you in the future?

My mission is to nurture souls to fully embody and live out their lives according to their signatures and assignments. My vision is through Self-love and freedom. I am a soul nurturer with an assignment to impact our individual and collective freedom through self-connection, for we are only free with our world to the degree to which we are free to ourselves, and we integrate synergistically when we show up authentically trusting and honing into our unique contribution. 

This year, my work will focus on creating impact and building a community of self-connected individuals so that we collectively live better soul-connected lives. All speaking engagements, guest panel discussions, a podcast I plan to start soon, a workbook for ‘Everything Is Within’ for easy and personalized application of practices in the book, and a bi-weekly virtual workshop webinar for reflections on the teachings in ‘Everything Is Within’.

I look forward to connecting with you all, diving deeper into personal growth, and supporting your journey toward living a more authentic and mindful life.