Last Chance Letters

Sometimes we learn from looking back, sometimes we are better served by moving on. The choices we make impact how we see ourselves and how we relate to others. Our self-images limits our ability to receive and to release compassion; we are bound by ourselves and our pain.

While it’s critical to analyze our mistakes, it’s equally critical to make plans to exit the desert of loneliness and self-criticism. At what point is it permissible to release ourselves from feelings of guilt, unworthiness, and shame? At what point do our feelings become choices, and at what point do we need help wading out of the water?

Therapy is a powerful construct that helps us navigate life’s toughest questions. Staying in sync with a neutral third-party is sometimes the only way to truly understand what steps we need to take to come out of the darkness and into the light. Honesty, openness, and vulnerability come at a cost; however, embracing them is one of the only things that allows us to heal.

If you need encouragement today, consider that you are a work in progress. You would have done it differently the second time around, you would not fall into the same traps or trip into the same deep holes. Do not let your past performance impact your hope. Do not be limited by your failures; be empowered by your strength and resilience. You are still here, and that is enough.