by AnnSheybani | Sep 6, 2015 | Carl Jung Institute, identity, Life, parenting
A long time ago, when I was selling photo copiers for a living, I met an older woman who gave me a piece of advice I will never forget. “Darling,” she said, smoothing back her hair with steady hands, “there’s a time and a place for everything. You can’t do it all at...
by AnnSheybani | Jan 5, 2015 | accountability, Alcoholic rules, Alison Bottke, books, Boundaries, change, Codependency, confrontation, Courage, expectations, guilt, Life, mistakes, parenting, people pleasing, Reading, Setting Bounaries With Your Adult Children
As a generation, we’ve done our children a grave disservice by continually rescuing them from discomfort, self-created or otherwise. We’ve meant well, but rather than ensuring their success by smoothing the way for them, we’ve created a herd of frustrated, young...
by AnnSheybani | Oct 3, 2014 | Alcoholic rules, all or nothing, Authenticity, Boundaries, Codependency, confrontation, criticism, dealing with criticism, growing up, Honesty, husband, Life, narcissism, parenting, passive aggressive, people pleasing, personality disorder, rage, The Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome, Walt Hampton
Dear Mimi, Thank you for your comment on this Youtube video. You claim that Walt is a 100% narcissist. The thing I’ve noticed about defensiveness, which is what your criticism stirred, is that it always kicks in when I detect an element of truth in what’s...
by AnnSheybani | Sep 21, 2014 | anxiety, expectations, growing up, identity, Ireland, Life, parenting, personality disorder, running, self-sabotage, tension
I watch my mother get ready for work while I’m visiting her in Medora, North Dakota. At 76, she spends the summer months selling expensive trinkets in some tourist trap at Teddy Roosevelt National Park. Always an early bird, she’s out of the sack by 6 a.m. She...
by AnnSheybani | Aug 5, 2013 | Alcoholism, Boundaries, Courage, growing up, parenting, recovery, risk, Saying no, tension
I came across the perfect statement this morning in an old journal: Stop trying to control everybody and everything. I have spent my life trying to control my surroundings and the people in it. Like a lot of other unhealthy compulsions, I chalk this one up to my...
by AnnSheybani | Jun 30, 2013 | Boundaries, Dan Brown, nice girl complex, parenting, people pleasing, plot, Saying no, tension, Writing, writing lessons
What if uncertainty and tension and confrontation were good things? How might your life improve if you used them as tools? If you stopped running away from them and recognized them as a fantabulous forces for change? I was giving a creative writing lecture last...
