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My Father Taught Me Love Is Something You Earn; He Was Wrong

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“One of the hardest things I’ve had to understand is that closure comes from within. Especially difficult if you’ve been betrayed by someone you love because you feel like you gotta let them know the pain they caused, but the peace you seek can only be given to you by you.” ~Bruna Nessif

A photo of my father handing me a tennis trophy has hung in my living room for years.

Even now, if I stare at it too long, I can feel the old rush: pride, relief, belonging. For most of my life, that photograph served as proof that …

What Helped Me Heal from a Breakup and Create a Life I Love

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“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” ~Nelson Mandela

First, I slept in a snow shelter at -20°C.

Second, I stood alone on a stage in Montreal and tried to make strangers laugh.

Third, I stuck out my thumb on the side of a highway with nothing but a backpack and hoped that a stranger would take me home, 1,200 kilometers away.

I did all of these things deliberately, on purpose, as part of a project I called my Year of Fear. The idea was simple: face one new personal fear every month for a …

The Cult of People and What It Means to Be Free

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“Sometimes walking away is the only way to stop walking away from yourself.” ~Unknown

I was between sessions. My TV was on in the background—something I’d half-started watching called The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on Hulu—as I walked into the kitchen to make myself some lunch.

It’s about a group of Mormon wives who became TikTok famous and got into what they call “soft swing.” In one scene, a young woman argues with her mother, who has a long list of rules about how her daughter should behave. The daughter has been avoiding church, tiptoeing around the threat of …

Why I Couldn’t Stop Reacting (Even Though I Knew Better)

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“Knowledge is not skill. Knowledge plus ten thousand times is skill.” ~Shinichi Suzuki

I knew exactly what to say to my narcissistic mother. I just could never say it.

For twenty years I studied every technique in the book. Gray rocking (becoming emotionally neutral and unreactive). Broken record (calmly repeating the same boundary). Don’t JADE (Justify, Argue, Defend, Explain). I could explain these strategies to a stranger at a coffee shop with complete clarity.

But when my mom was sitting across from me at dinner, pushing every button she knew I had, all of it vanished. Every single time.

My

…

Learning to Speak Up When You Were Taught That Your Feelings Don’t Matter

By in Blog, change & challenges

“A proper grown-up communicates clearly and assertively.”

This is something I have heard many people say.

By that definition, I wouldn’t have been classed as a proper grown-up for most of my life.

There was a time when I couldn’t even ask someone for a glass of water. I know that might seem crazy to some people, and for a long time I did feel crazy for it.

Why couldn’t I do the things others did without even thinking about it? Why couldn’t I just say what I needed to say? Why couldn’t I just be normal?

Those questions …

When You Feel Trapped in a Life That Looks Good on Paper

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“When something isn’t right for you, it has a way of letting you know. Not in one big announcement, but in a thousand small nudges.” ~Martha Beck

I was sitting at the kitchen table with my coffee one morning when a thought slipped in that I hadn’t let myself think before: This can’t be the rest of my life.

There wasn’t one dramatic moment I could point to and say, “This is why I have to leave.”

Part of me wished there had been something obvious, some clear betrayal or breaking point I could point to and say, “…

What Happened When We Chose Not to React in Anger

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“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” ~Viktor E. Frankl

A few months ago, I was on a crowded highway with my wife and son. Traffic was barely moving. Vehicles were inching forward, one small gap at a time, with the usual impatience hanging in the air.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang. It sounded like something had burst.

For a second, I didn’t understand what had happened. Then I realized a motorcyclist trying to squeeze through the narrow space between cars had hit us. His side bar

…

How to Heal on a Deeper Level After Moving On

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“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ~C.G. Jung

For twelve years, I believed I was the architect of a perfect life. I had the “Summa Cum Laude” degree, a respected career in human services, a devoted husband, and two healthy daughters. I had checked every box on the “Success” list. I truly thought I had outrun my past.

But trauma has a way of waiting. It doesn’t disappear just because you stop looking at it. It simply goes underground, like a silent program running in the background of a …

The Beautiful Gift We Give Without Even Knowing

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“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Five years ago, my son missed a basketball tryout.

We had been out of town, and by the time we got back, the rosters were already set. I made a few calls anyway, hoping someone might give a kid a late shot. One coach said yes. He had a spot left, and he was willing to take a chance on a name he’d never heard from a father he’d never met.

That coach became one of my closest friends.

I started coming to practices to help …

Finding Peace with Money After Years of Feeling “Responsibly Broke”

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“A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life.” ~Suze Orman

During my upbringing, my parents often fought about money since we didn’t have much of it. My mom was more of an occasional spender, while my father would go as far as making me wear shoes that were a size smaller just so he could save money.

This conflict of opposites created real tension in our home, and eventually, my dad instructed my mom to give my father her entire salary so he could manage it. She had …

A Little-Known Truth About People-Pleasing and How to Stop (for Good)

By in Blog, love & relationships

“Being a people-pleaser may be more than a personality trait; it could be a response to serious trauma.” ~Alex Bachert

Growing up in a home, school, and church that placed a lot of value on good behavior, self-discipline, and corporal punishment, I was a model child. There could have been an American Girl doll designed after me—the well-mannered church girl with a nineties hair bow edition.

I was quiet and pleasant and never got sent to the principal’s office. Complaining and “ugly” emotions were simply not allowed. Though I was very rambunctious and “rebellious” as a toddler, all of that …

How to Feel Safe When Panic Feels Dangerous

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“Anxiety isn’t you. It’s something moving through you. It can leave out of the same door it came in.” ~James Clear

Years ago, I had a panic attack while driving across a bridge, and I thought I might die that day.

Suddenly my heart started pounding. My breath became shallow and tight. My chest felt constricted, and a wave of dizziness washed over me.

I was driving sixty miles per hour, and there was nowhere to pull over. The bridge stretched for miles, suspended over open water, and I was alone in the car.

A terrifying thought shot through my …

The Sounds That Helped Calm my Mind

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I recently had the opportunity to take an online Sound as Medicine workshop with Phyllicia Victoria through the Omega Institute, and what a beautiful experience it was.

As you may know from my previous emails, I’ve been moving through the hardest time in my adult life for the past eighteen months.

I’ve been back and forth across the country numerous times to support my father through brain cancer treatment. All the while, I’ve been homeschooling my oldest son, adapting to changes in my industry, and in recent months, coping with estrangement from one of the closest people in my life.…

How I Lost Myself in a Controlling Friendship and What I Know Now

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“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.” ~Søren Kierkegaard

I didn’t lose her all at once.

I lost myself first—slowly, quietly, in the way that only happens when someone you trust makes you doubt everything you think and feel.

She was magnetic when I met her. Warm, intense, the kind of person who made you feel chosen just by giving you her attention. I felt lucky to be her friend. That feeling lasted just long enough to blur what came next.

It started with small things. A plan I made that somehow became her plan. …

How Being the Strong One in My Family Became a Trap

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“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.” ~Ernest Hemingway

My grandmother had just died. My sister and I had come from the room where her body still lay, and we were standing in the elevator in silence when the doors slid closed. My sister looked at me and said, “Now you’re the last strong one in this family.”

It was comforting to hear her words. I felt proud. And then, almost immediately, something else. My stomach clenched. I just wanted to stop the elevator, run away, and never look back. My sister wasn’t …

Lessons from Slowing Down: What My Body Needed to Feel Better

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“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” ~Jim Rohn

I used to think tiredness was a personality trait.

I was the person who could work fourteen hours, sleep five, and do it again. I wore my exhaustion like armor. It proved I was serious. It proved I was dedicated. It proved I was worth something.

What it actually proved was that I was running my body into the ground.

The Surgeon Who Could Not Heal Herself

I trained as a surgeon in London. My days started before the sun came up. They ended …

How to Overcome Ultra-Independence and Receive Love and Support

By in Blog, love & relationships

“Ultra-independence is a coping mechanism we develop when we’ve learned it’s not safe to trust love or when we are terrified to lose ourselves in another. We aren’t meant to go it alone. We are wounded in relationship and we heal in relationship.” ~Rising Woman

Do you feel like you have to do everything on your own?

Is it difficult for you to ask for and receive help for fear of being let down?

Have you ever heard the expression “Ultra-independence may be a trauma response”?

If this is you, I get it; that was me too.

Please know there …

The Powerful Insight That Helped Me Worry Less and Sleep Again

By in Blog

“Surrender is not about giving up. It is about letting go of the illusion of control.” ~Judith Orloff

Watching my mother lose her memory while I was losing mine felt like a cruel preview of my future—until I learned that stress, not genetics, was writing my story.

It was 3:47 a.m.—again. I’d been awake since 2:13, and before that I’d slept maybe ten minutes.

This had been my pattern for years: wake up shortly after falling asleep, check the clock, lie there frustrated.

Wake again, check the clock, review the day prior, and plan the next day.

But this …

Breaking Free from Self-Consciousness and Erythrophobia

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“Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.” ~Brené Brown

I used to call myself a “beetroot.” It was a label of defectiveness that my inner critic screamed at me every time I felt the heat rising in my cheeks. For years, I lived with erythrophobia, an intense and persistent fear of blushing that quietly dismantled my world from the inside out.

Most people blush. A warm flush creeps up the neck before a first date or a public speech, and then it passes. For me, …

To the Wounded Parent Who Wants to Do Everything Right

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“The greatest gift you can give your children is your own healing.” ~Dr. Shefali Tsabary

Am I doing too much or not enough?

Am I screwing my child up? Am I being too hard on my child? Am I being too soft? Am I spending enough time with my child? Do I help too much? Should I help more?

Is my son going to be taken advantage of because he talks about his feelings? Is my daughter going to be considered too bossy because she has boundaries? Should I be doing more as a parent? Or less?

These are the …