Pride is often mistaken for confidence. It can look like strength, competence, decisiveness, and certainty. It can even be admired. But sometimes what looks like confidence is actually a way of protecting a carefully held image of the self. When being wrong feels threatening, when feedback feels like criticism, or when vulnerability feels like weakness,…
There are seasons in life where the past does not feel past. One may continue going to work, raising children, building routines and carrying on with the practical responsibilities of life – yet internally something remains elsewhere. Part of oneself is still stuck living in an earlier chapter. Still replaying a decision, grieving what was…
There are times in life when a person knows they have fallen short of their own values. A choice was made that is regretted and someone was hurt and a chapter unfolded differently than hoped. For many people, what follows is not only remorse – It is shame. This shame can be persuasive. It does…
There is a quiet way shame shapes one’s life. It does not always announce itself loudly. More often than not, it slips quietly into the narrative we tell ourselves about who we are. A moment happens, a decision is made and something breaks, hurts or changes, and slowly almost imperceptibly, that moment becomes a story….