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Melissa Shearer's avatar

"I refuse to pursue this path of character creation from a place of self hatred"

This is the way forward. No shame, no friction. Pick up a bad habit? Cool. Smile in self-awareness and gently set it down.

I just found your writings and I can tell I'll be sticking around a while.

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Macayla's avatar

shame really hurts... how do you move amongst shame? your words are healing, 'a love letter' not only to bad habits but to the self that looks at itself and cringes.

'i hold no ill will towards you. i recognize you as medicine. you’re not the medicine i need, but you are the one i turned to — and for what it’s worth — you worked. you worked too damn well. it’s when the temporary relief becomes constant dependence that we have to move on.'

thank you for being a model/voice of compassionate change in a sea of self-betterment content that tells you you suck.

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Sophia Pinto Thomas's avatar

We're all suffering from a host of small addictions, from retail therapy to doom scrolling, and the chief driver behind them is dopamine. so much is going on in the world and no one wants to feel grief. Hence, dopamine holes. but shame is carceral, and everyone knows not to talk bad about someone who's working hard & getting clean. thanks for encouraging us all to get clean, Josh.

I'm off to put down my phone, hear the birds, and work on my poetry. <3

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Nicole Goya's avatar

Not enough people are bringing this up, or even aware of this: the "bad" parts of ourselves led us to who we are today. And there's got to be at least one part you like about yourself, right now. What if that part didn't exist because you erased the bad memories, the mistakes, the nightmares of your past? You wouldn't exist, not in this capacity. Learn to appreciate your shadow. You just don't have to live as your shadow.

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Esther's avatar

Chef's kiss to this paragraph:

you’re a banquet of comfort food when fasting becomes more consistent than intermittent.

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Isabel H's avatar

🙏👏

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Hanna's avatar

Love this one Josh, such a healthy way of looking at this. “Thank you for the appetite”👏

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