Sharna Burgess Gets Candid About Struggling With 'Intrusive Mom Thoughts'

As Sharna Burgess explains, intrusive mom thoughts are a real thing. The Australian pro dancer shared a silly reel with a much deeper lesson to be had on her Instagram this week, and honestly, it’s not talked about enough. Burgess is a mom to five-month-old Zane, and recounts the ways these thoughts disturb her in her daily life.

“Honestly, I thought it was something wrong with my brain at first,” she began. “These super dark thoughts of all the things that could go wrong. All the ways I or life could accidentally hurt my baby. Falling down stairs holding him, sickness, a car accident. the list is long, but I won’t share it. If you know, you know.”

When it comes to how she deals with the thoughts, she shares, “5 months in, and I still get them, but I have learned to tame them and understand them and most of all. realized I am not alone. That last one was a huge relief. I guess it makes sense, too; we have this massive responsibility suddenly upon us when we leave that hospital… in a diaper.. sleep-deprived, emotionally charged but also depleted, trying to piece ourselves back together, and let’s not forget .. in pain. That new responsibility is filled with so much love, wonder, and awe, but nobody warns you about the equal amount of fear that now lives within you. It’s the most excruciating love you’ve ever felt, and it's overwhelming, at least for me, it was. But now I have tools that I wanna share with all my mamas that may need it like I did/do.”

The Dancing With The Stars pro goes on to share the tools that have helped her overcome intrusive thoughts, writing, “1. Deep cleansing breaths taking in as much air as you can and hold as you say “I release all thoughts that do not serve me,” then control that breathe out imagining those words and the feeling they bring leaving you. 2. When I need a quicker fix I physically swipe my hand in front of my eyes and say “no” and imagine that image being destroyed and gone. I shake it off and call in a memory that I can’t wait to make with Zane. All of the firsts that he has coming.”

She admits that these are just two she likes, but there are so many available if you look for them. In her parting words, she also provides encouragement to other moms struggling with intrusive thoughts, sharing, “You’re doing great, mama; remember that.”

Sharna shares her son Zane with her husband, Brian Austin Green, who she met in 2020 through a mutual friend. The couple competed together on Dancing With The Stars, season 30, and they welcomes Zane in June of this year.

Motherhood is not for the faint of heart. You’ve got this, Sharna!