We all have a story. ⠀ Each of us. ⠀ It’s our collective experience of life we create from how we process what is happening around us—From the thoughts we are thinking about our life, the people in our life, and the events that have encompassed the years we’ve spent on earth. ⠀ You might fully believe it’s truth, not story— that you’re telling me the news. That the pain from your past, from your relationships, from the circumstances you’ve had thrown at you are all just thing

I can sit here and spew all the self-care ways we can try to ease our suffering. But I have a feeling you know most of those. I’ve tried them all in my many attempts to take the pain away, and stop the self-sabotaging cycles that come from trying to numb out emotions. They are helpful in some ways, but not in others. Because it still has us seeking ways to avoid pain, as if pain is something that we shouldn’t be feeling; a foreign object to be fought and pushed out. We all su

In the last 24 hours I’ve found myself wishing more than anything to go into my closet and hide behind my hanging clothes. Like I would do as a kid when I got in trouble or made a mistake and didn’t want anyone to look at me. To duck out. To have a significant amount of time where no one could see me, and I could just sit in the silence and pretend to not exist. It sounds dramatic, but it’s my defense mechanism for overwhelming emotion that doesn’t feel great; that has me que

Your world shut down. No more work. No more friends. No more soccer games. No more school. No more family visits. No more outings.

I used to think there was something wrong with me. I hated doing dishes and laundry, day in and day out. Dealing with whining kids who seemed to do nothing but fight and complain all the live long day. I struggled connecting with my kids, and after what seemed like the 10th parenting book I read in an attempt to “get better at momming,” I came to truly believe that the key to my problems was the relationship I had with them. I had been taught my whole life that family relatio

We have been conditioned from a young age to believe that being emotionally healthy means being happy all the time. We might even feel we are owed happiness, that we deserve it, and we are entitled to all the happiness the world has to offer. We are taught that circumstances and other people control our emotions. Other people hurt our feelings or bring us joy, and things make us happy or make us sad. When our life is going good we feel good, and when our life is going bad we