I don’t know about you, but am I really thirty-two?
Today I Asked Myself My Story
Author Tess Bates recounts losing a family member to suicide in a heartfelt, raw essay, exploring themes like mental health, grief, shame, worth, and hope.
My First Run Back
The hardest run is always the first run back.
Today I Asked Myself About My Worth
Everyone needs a great flood at some point in their lives to wash away all the bullshit and faulty framework of our unauthentic selves. Since that time, I’ve been able to focus on rebuilding my house on “rock, not sand” if I may be so bold as to borrow a metaphor, so when the floods come again, as is inevitable in life, “who I am” will continue to stand. And I have founded my house firmly upon my worth.
Today I Asked Myself About Rebuilding With Worth
A monumental, seismic shift inside happens when you first realize your worth. Shameful, hateful self-talk that had previously made sense before— that had shaken and scared me so bad that I felt I had to hide who I was—no longer had any power over me. For the first time, my past did not disqualify me from my worth, and shame could no longer convince me to believe otherwise.
Today I Asked Myself About Discovering Shame & Finding My Worth
No one person is any more or less worthy of life, love, and good things than another, no matter the circumstance. All the reasons we assume qualify or disqualify us from “being worthy” actually have no bearing. We are all enough. We did not show up here incomplete. Worth is universal.
Today I asked Myself About Purpose
I think we are all born into this world as a unique assembly of raw material. It is how we cultivate that raw material and utilize it to meet the moment that makes us who we are, and I firmly believe each and every one of us has the gifts and the little spark of madness we need in order to fulfill our purpose. It is our job to keep the embers of our purpose alive at all costs, so when the mighty winds of opportunity blow, there will be nothing short of an act of God to stop our fire from burning.