“Oftentimes, especially during my recovery, I didnt need to think about everything I was doing wrong; instead, I needed to focus more on what I was doing rightand then do more of the right stuff. I ...”

“In the past, I was a perpetual victim; how I was doing in any given moment depended on what happened to me. Today I do my best to avoid this kind of victim thinking. Instead, how I am doing is dete...”

“With Ed, I always pushed away the good and only heard the bad. Today, I let in the good.”

“When we feel like giving up, like we are beyond help, we must remember that we are never beyond hope. Holding on to hope has always motivated me to keep trying. I have found this hope by connecting...”

“My job is not to worry about what everyone else thinks about me but to discover what I think. If I actually want to know what someone else thinks, my job is then to ask that person. More often than...”

“Ironically, this physically weak feeling signifies that Im actually getting stronger. I know from my past that I will ultimately feel strong if I just sit with the feeling and experience it.”

“HOW do you define a word without concrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, soWHYpush to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree isWHERE you want to be? Faultle...”

“When she thinks of the toxins built up inside of her from so many years of eating carelessly, of the resentment that has grown steadily over fifteen years of marriage, of the stretch marks and the ...”

“It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathingthey are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would nev...”

“Oftentimes, especially during my recovery, I didnt need to think about everything I was doing wrong; instead, I needed to focus more on what I was doing rightand then do more of the right stuff. I ...”

“Ironically, this physically weak feeling signifies that Im actually getting stronger. I know from my past that I will ultimately feel strong if I just sit with the feeling and experience it.”

“In the past, my brain could only compute perfection or failurenothing in between. So words like competent, acceptable, satisfactory, and good enough fell into the failure category. Even above avera...”

“I have gained wisdom from leaning into my pain, in not allowing the hounds of hell to snap at my heels anymore. Now I turn around, call them by name, and let them know I am prepared to fight.”

“One of the hardest things was learningthat I wasworth recovery.”

“You deserve this. Even when you feel like you dont. You do. You deserve to have a healthy, loving, grace-filled relationship with yourself. You deserve to stop hurting in secret and in shame. You d...”