Instead it sounds like a hand-me-down belief that the person took on about herself or himself, like something picked up at the flea-market of other people’s opinions. What such individuals are rejecting is a trait or behavior that doesn’t fit their overly narrow concept of themselves. Maybe that tinny off-note I heard was the sound of anxiety about

Beginning at birth, babies have powerful feelings and fears about the world in which they live. A big part of their parents’ job is to help them manage those feelings – to calm and make them feel safe, for example, or to soothe them when they hurt. If we grow up with caretakers who let us down, who don’t provide the emotional support we need, we wi

For many of us worriers, the self-imposed obligation to look after others before we were ready was a way we could feel more like grown-ups and, thus, be imbued with the perception that we were adults—and, thus, in control.

Feelings are often the first form in which we become aware that something is wrong with our life. We need thought in order to know what to do, but feelings often alert us to the existence of a problem. If our response to feelings that seem to challenge our ordinary routine is to ignore or repress them, then we condemn ourselves to living mechanical