Healthy striving is self-focused: "How can I improve?" Perfectionism is other-focused: "What will they think?"
Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?
I think that shame is a universal, paralyzing, painful emotion.
What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful.
The truth is, I'm a storyteller. And it scares me, because my training as an academic is that the more accessible you are and the more human you are, the less smart you are. It's a shame trigger for me to be honest.
Love is a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them - we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.