Blessing Makanjuola – Creating healing spaces for women

Sometimes, the mind carries burdens that no one sees. A mother lies awake at night replaying every harsh word, every loss, every expectation she couldn’t meet. A woman steps into her day with a smile, while inside, pain quietly gnaws at her confidence, her joy, her sense of self.

These unseen struggles, emotional scars, mental fatigue, and silent grief, can weigh so heavily that life feels like it’s running on autopilot, while the heart quietly pleads for space to breathe.

Blessing Makanjuola knows this weight intimately, and it is the reason she created Healing Spaces with Blessing, a bi-weekly show streamed on her YouTube channel

Healingspaceswithblessing, that opens a sanctuary for women to finally speak, be heard, and find a path toward emotional restoration.

The mental health advocate and feminist storyteller has spent years exploring the intersection of culture, womanhood, and emotional wellbeing, using words, research, and lived experience to illuminate subjects often left unspoken.

“Healing Spaces with Blessing was born from my own journey as a daughter, wife, in-law, and mother,” she says.

“As a daughter, I watched my dad follow society’s expectations, even when my feelings needed to be chosen first. Childhood taught me how often girls are asked to swallow pain so adults and culture stay comfortable. In the past, I’ve had grown women, complete strangers, speak to me in ways that cut deep, a reminder of how casually women’s dignity is treated, even by people who don’t know their story.”

Her journey into creating the show was also informed by her experiences with pregnancy and childbirth.

“Then came pregnancy and childbirth. From my own experiences to reading books like The Stolen Child, I saw how many women go through miscarriages, traumatic births, lonely recoveries, and silent mental health struggles while still showing up for everyone else.

“I realised how often women almost die emotionally, and sometimes physically, and the world just says, ‘Congratulations.’ In my culture, when a Yoruba woman gives birth, we say ‘Ẹ kú ewu ọmọ’ — congratulations on surviving the danger of childbirth. That sentence holds both joy and risk.”

For the host, the show is a way of honoring that reality. “This is a sanctuary where women’s stories are finally heard, their pain is believed, and they are supported to Breathe. Heal. Speak,” she explains.

She envisions the program as a space where women can admit the complexities of their feelings without fear of judgment. “I love my children, but motherhood broke something in me and nobody shames her for it.”

Makanjuola distinguishes the show by centering motherhood and unseen labor while honoring culture without romanticizing suffering. “We talk about Yoruba and African contexts, polygamy, extended family, and expectations placed on wives, mothers, and daughters.

“We honor our mothers and grandmothers while asking: What do we want to do differently so our daughters don’t break in the same places?” she says. Her tone is intentionally intimate and nurturing; she approaches each story not as a distant expert, but as a trusted auntie friend who will listen, support, and hold space for honesty.

The show is structured to confront the feelings of being unseen, unheard, or overwhelmed. “We highlight the woman whose life doesn’t look dramatic on the outside, but whose mind is tired, whose body is exhausted, whose scars nobody asks about.

“We give women full sentences, no cutting them off with ‘At least you have a healthy baby,’ no silencing them with comparisons. Their feelings are allowed to exist without being measured against someone else’s pain,” she explains.

Each episode weaves honesty, culture, sisterhood, and vulnerability, combining expert insights with lived experiences in a relatable, supportive format. The host shares from her own journeys with pain, womanhood, and emotional survival, while guests reveal their authentic selves in a safe space. “Vulnerability doesn’t mean bleeding for the camera; it means being real, within what feels safe,” she says.

Targeted at women across Africa and the diaspora, those navigating pregnancy, motherhood, career pressures, caregiving, or societal expectations, Makanjuola hopes each episode leaves viewers knowing they are not alone, their experiences are valid, and healing is possible. “Healing might be slow, but it is possible for me,” she says, echoing the message she aims to instill in every viewer.

With Healing Spaces with Blessing, Makanjuola has created more than a show; she has created a movement of emotional honesty and empowerment, a place where women can breathe, speak, and begin to heal, one story at a time.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers.

She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay.

She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos.

As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender.

She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies.

Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category.

She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category.

She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations.

Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

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