by AnnSheybani | Dec 9, 2013 | all or nothing, Boundaries, dieting, goals, guest post, Life, people pleasing, perfectionism, Planning, Saying no
This is a guest post by the famous Walt Hampton. December can be a crazy month. It can feel like an energy vortex sucking us forward at warp speed only to dump us out breathless and exhausted sometime around the end of January. It’s pretty easy to wear yourself out so...
by AnnSheybani | Aug 25, 2013 | 10 Stupid Things WomenDo to Mess Up Their Lives, Alcoholic rules, Alcoholism, Anne Lamott, attachment, books, Boundaries, Brene Brown, coaching, Codependency, connection, Daring Greatly, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Emotional Unavailability, extreem dependency, Fearless Living, grace, guilt, Honesty, identity, Intimacy, limiting beliefs, Lit, love, Mary Karr, mistakes, nice girl complex, people pleasing, perfectionism, Reading, Rhonda Britten, role model, Saying no, Self love, Sociopathology, The Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome, The Gifts of Imperfection, The Sociopath Next Door, Traveling Mercies, vulnerability
If I were to teach a course about overcoming the emotional damage and the misconceptions picked up from alcoholic parents, this would be the semester’s assigned reading. You’ll see me quote from these books from time to time, and I often send them to my...
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...
by AnnSheybani | Jun 17, 2013 | Boundaries, coaching, expectations, husband, identity, parenting, personality disorder, Saying no, Tony Robbins, Walt Hampton, Writing
One 15-minute conversation with my mother, and I know how I got this crazy. She’s why I wake up in a cold sweat convinced that I have to organize my garage—right this second, at 2AM—even though it’s been an absolute shit show for the last six years. Why I need to...
by AnnSheybani | May 6, 2013 | aging, books, coaching, Courage, dating, dieting, divorce, Honesty, Intimacy, marriage, mistakes, parenting, Saying no, Self-Esteem
My sister-in-law once told me that I should write a book entitled What Not to Do. She’d heard the slew of “Ann Stories” my brother liked to tell, and was horrified by my mistakes, and lack of common sense. Frankly, I think the woman was jealous of me and my big,...