From Shame to Love: Self-Love in the Making

Today I had the most wonderful experience. I got to speak to the staff of Hopewell (hopewellrecovery.com), a program that offers extended care and transitional communities for individuals afflicted with substance abuse issues to help them build a foundation of recovery. Why was it so wonderful, you might ask? Many of the staff that work at Hopewell are individuals who have been through and are continuing through the recovery process themselves. Each person in the room not only wanted to learn more in order to help their clients, but they also wanted to enrich themselves, their own lives, to continue healing their own stories of shame with love. I was deeply moved by this passion and desire, and it made me think about my own story of overcoming shame -- one that I have shared with many people and wrote about in my first book, The Love Response, though I think even back then, I didn't focus on the shame part very much, more on the love part. You see for me, as is true for many people, my feelings of shame were buried really deep. And like many, my shame drove my negative behaviors and habits, my inability to take criticism, my inability to ask for help, and my never-ending need to feel better, want more or prove something. But one day, that changed. As a second year resident at Boston Medical Center in 1996, I was all set to do a fellowship in Pulmonary medicine. I was invincible, headstrong and capable, and rarely, if ever, asked for help. So when the nurse called at 3a...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news