Latest / Wake Up with Marci / The Hidden Reason You Don't Feel Good Enough | Dawna Daigneault & Marci Hopkins
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: If you're given worth the first year of your life,
- 0:02Speaker 1: it's you're given a bottle. That's a life need, but
- 0:05Speaker 1: the way you're given that bottle is a self worth need,
- 0:08Speaker 1: and it's invisible because parents can get perturbed, parents can
- 0:12Speaker 1: be exhausted, and the baby can get up in the
- 0:15Speaker 1: middle of the night three times, right, And does it
- 0:18Speaker 1: want to be fed? Does it want to be rocks?
- 0:20Speaker 1: Does it want to be changed? You know you have
- 0:22Speaker 1: to figure it out, and so you get so tired
- 0:25Speaker 1: and so then you can give that next bottle in
- 0:27Speaker 1: a very apathetic or angry way, like oh, fight and
- 0:31Speaker 1: be hungry. That's received on an emotional level.
- 0:36Speaker 2: Are you in the first thirty days of sobriety are
- 0:39Speaker 2: wondering if now is your time to start? Hi? I'm
- 0:43Speaker 2: Marcy Hopkins and I wrote wake Up You're not Broken,
- 0:45Speaker 2: just for you. It's a real raw guide to those
- 0:49Speaker 2: first thirty days. What no one tells you, what you
- 0:52Speaker 2: will feel, and how to keep going. This isn't about perfection,
- 0:56Speaker 2: It's about progress. Or do your copy now on Amazon.
- 1:01Speaker 2: Remember you're not alone, You're not broken, You're waking up.
- 1:06Speaker 2: What if the reason you struggle to set boundaries isn't
- 1:09Speaker 2: because you don't know how. What if the reason you
- 1:11Speaker 2: keep performing, people, pleasing and chasing validation has nothing to
- 1:16Speaker 2: do with confidence at all. What if underneath all of
- 1:20Speaker 2: it is one hidden belief that your worth has to
- 1:24Speaker 2: be earned. Welcome back to Wake Up with Marcy. I
- 1:27Speaker 2: am so grateful you are here, whether you're watching or listening.
- 1:31Speaker 2: If you're new here, thank you for being here. I'm
- 1:34Speaker 2: Marcy Hopkins, your host. I'm an author, TV host, motivational speaker,
- 1:39Speaker 2: mental health advocate, and a woman in long term recovery.
- 1:44Speaker 2: And this show is all about honest conversations around mental health, recovery,
- 1:51Speaker 2: women's health, self discovery, and what it really takes to
- 1:54Speaker 2: rebuild your life. And if today's conversation resonates with you,
- 1:59Speaker 2: please make sure to like, comment, share this episode with
- 2:02Speaker 2: someone who needs to hear it, because these conversations help
- 2:07Speaker 2: people realize that they're not alone. So today we're going
- 2:11Speaker 2: to talk about something that impacts every area of our lives,
- 2:15Speaker 2: whether we realize it or not, and that is self worth.
- 2:20Speaker 2: Many people spend their entire lives trying to prove they're enough,
- 2:24Speaker 2: without realizing their worth was never something they had to earn.
- 2:29Speaker 2: In the first place. My guest today is Donna Danielle.
- 2:33Speaker 2: Donna is a professional counselor, educator and author who specializes
- 2:37Speaker 2: in helping people understand the connection between self worth and
- 2:42Speaker 2: emotional healing. Through her work, she's discovered that many people
- 2:47Speaker 2: struggling with anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, and self doubt aren't
- 2:52Speaker 2: broken at all. They're living with a pattern of denied
- 2:56Speaker 2: self worth, and her new book, Understanding Self Worth explores
- 3:02Speaker 2: how reclaiming our worth can transform the way we see
- 3:06Speaker 2: ourselves and the way we live our lives. Now, let's
- 3:10Speaker 2: meet Donna. Hello Donna, and welcome to Wake Up with Marcy.
- 3:15Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
- 3:17Speaker 2: I love this topic around self worth. Just so you know,
- 3:23Speaker 2: I found self worth probably about eight years ago. I'm
- 3:29Speaker 2: fifty six years old, so you know, this is something
- 3:33Speaker 2: that's really important because so many of us from our
- 3:38Speaker 2: past and how we were raised and such is how
- 3:42Speaker 2: we feel about ourselves, and it really affects that.
- 3:45Speaker 1: I agree. Thank you for sharing that.
- 3:48Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so, Donna. You yourself, You've I mean, you've
- 3:53Speaker 2: built your entire career around helping people in this area
- 3:58Speaker 2: understanding self worth. So why do you believe so many
- 4:02Speaker 2: people are struggling to feel worthy.
- 4:05Speaker 1: I do have a philosophy on that because I've looked
- 4:08Speaker 1: back in some of the historical statements, you know, researchers
- 4:14Speaker 1: have gone back and tried to find evidence of like
- 4:17Speaker 1: why we think the way we do now. Some of
- 4:19Speaker 1: the earliest writings I found were Saint Augustine of Hippo.
- 4:25Speaker 1: He was a religious leader, and a lot of his
- 4:29Speaker 1: early writings and philosophy about the religion at the time
- 4:34Speaker 1: is still being used today and along with his beliefs.
- 4:40Speaker 1: And then some of the things that came out of
- 4:45Speaker 1: the Socratic philosophy is that you work for worth, that
- 4:51Speaker 1: you prove your worth. I'm not saying that's wrong, but
- 4:54Speaker 1: I what I've learned is that when we work for worth,
- 5:00Speaker 1: we don't actually feel worthy. We feel like we're attaining
- 5:04Speaker 1: something that can be taken away because we've worked for it.
- 5:07Speaker 1: And that's why in the book, I have a co author,
- 5:11Speaker 1: doctor Chris Brown, and when we were talking about this
- 5:16Speaker 1: foundational type of human worth, we decided to call it
- 5:20Speaker 1: birthright self worth. And I loved that because it meant
- 5:27Speaker 1: everybody gets it just because you exist, and that's what's missing.
- 5:31Speaker 1: This other type that we talk about in the book,
- 5:34Speaker 1: it's not worked for its realized self worth. And the
- 5:39Speaker 1: goal of the building the pillars of self worth is
- 5:42Speaker 1: that if they're built on a foundation of self worth,
- 5:45Speaker 1: that's a birthright for every human. You can have awareness
- 5:49Speaker 1: of awareness of that worth. Respect for that worth is
- 5:52Speaker 1: a second pillar. Esteem that builds from that worth, and
- 5:56Speaker 1: then confidence in that worth. You get a capstone called
- 6:00Speaker 1: realize self worth. It's just about you and that's true
- 6:03Speaker 1: self worth birthright. Self worth is the starting point. Realize
- 6:08Speaker 1: self worth is what we attain sometime in adulthood. It
- 6:13Speaker 1: is an achievement, but it's not for anybody else. So
- 6:17Speaker 1: it's not about an acceptance in a system.
- 6:21Speaker 2: Well, while I appreciate all of that and I totally
- 6:25Speaker 2: get it because that is exactly what I did, what
- 6:29Speaker 2: is the root of it? I mean, we have right,
- 6:32Speaker 2: we are born happy humans. Right, I mean we are
- 6:39Speaker 2: born worthy. It is our environment social impact, Like these
- 6:46Speaker 2: are the things the people that are raising us and
- 6:50Speaker 2: the circumstances in our life that are affecting how we
- 6:54Speaker 2: feel about ourselves and the transactional feeling that we get
- 7:00Speaker 2: that we have to work for our worth. So what
- 7:04Speaker 2: is the basis of that, is it more people that
- 7:09Speaker 2: have trauma? Like what, what is it really truly affecting
- 7:13Speaker 2: our worth? And if that is true, how are we
- 7:16Speaker 2: getting it back?
- 7:19Speaker 1: Oh? Great question. So I mean this gets into some
- 7:22Speaker 1: big thematic things. One of the things I've seen is
- 7:26Speaker 1: I've done some reading, and this is over the last
- 7:29Speaker 1: thirty years, is the belief that some people early on
- 7:35Speaker 1: in civilization traded worth for power, because if everybody feels worthy,
- 7:40Speaker 1: they're harder to control. And so people that got into
- 7:45Speaker 1: power started making worth about things, and they started placing
- 7:49Speaker 1: value in things, and so the king with the bigger
- 7:53Speaker 1: kingdom was treated as more worthy than the person that
- 7:57Speaker 1: they just took a kingdom from. And of course that
- 8:01Speaker 1: seemed practical in the sense that, well, but that person's
- 8:06Speaker 1: kingdom is gone and so they don't have anything to
- 8:09Speaker 1: rule anymore. So it was easy to start looking at
- 8:12Speaker 1: the most powerful person as having a higher value, and
- 8:18Speaker 1: then we lost this concept of worth in all of
- 8:22Speaker 1: those battles, and those battles happen in homes as well.
- 8:25Speaker 1: We see a sibling try to dethrone another sibling. We see,
- 8:30Speaker 1: you know, an aunt or uncle try to become the
- 8:33Speaker 1: favorite of the children, of nieces and nephews. We see
- 8:37Speaker 1: a lot of usurping of personal power even in family
- 8:40Speaker 1: systems today, and it tells me that we're still in
- 8:44Speaker 1: a system that power is running the show. And I
- 8:48Speaker 1: would add to Dex we talk about this in the book,
- 8:50Speaker 1: that you can trade worth for importance in any decision
- 8:54Speaker 1: you make, and that's a really dangerous outcome because once
- 8:57Speaker 1: you get importance, you're going to want more and you'll
- 9:00Speaker 1: always need more. Power is not a good counterfeit, and
- 9:04Speaker 1: importance is not a good counterfeit. For worse, they work
- 9:09Speaker 1: to a certain degree and there is more to get.
- 9:12Speaker 1: But what we see probably your whole life, I've seen
- 9:17Speaker 1: it my whole life, is people that get hungry for
- 9:20Speaker 1: power and love the importance that comes with it. They
- 9:25Speaker 1: don't care who they trample. At some point, they get
- 9:27Speaker 1: obsessed with possessing more.
- 9:32Speaker 2: And that can be at any level, right, I mean truly, yeah,
- 9:36Speaker 2: because power is different for everyone. I know that for me,
- 9:43Speaker 2: I had the things that happened to me in my past,
- 9:46Speaker 2: and then I kind of started working in this survival
- 9:49Speaker 2: mode and then with that it was like, Okay, I'm
- 9:53Speaker 2: not going to be my mother, I'm going to show them,
- 9:57Speaker 2: you know whatever. With each thing that I accomplished, I
- 10:02Speaker 2: was trying to feel something from that, like you're talking about,
- 10:06Speaker 2: I was trying to fill my cup. But the thing
- 10:09Speaker 2: is that thing would happen and then I wouldn't even
- 10:14Speaker 2: appreciate that win. It would just be on to the
- 10:18Speaker 2: next thing. So it's kind of like that hamster wheel
- 10:22Speaker 2: we talk about. We're just constantly seeking the next thing
- 10:29Speaker 2: for feeling that worth, when in fact we never really
- 10:34Speaker 2: feel fulfilled.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Well, you never feel worthy. You're seeking worth in the
- 10:40Speaker 1: wrong ways. And so wherever there are systems, and I
- 10:44Speaker 1: mean family systems first, but then also community systems, where
- 10:48Speaker 1: there are conditions, there are always counterfeits. Conditions serve counterfeits.
- 10:54Speaker 1: A counterfeit can sound positive, like all of our kids
- 10:59Speaker 1: are going to go to Ivy League colleges. That can
- 11:02Speaker 1: sound positive, It can sound like parents who really care
- 11:06Speaker 1: about their kid's success. Right, But when it becomes a condition, right,
- 11:13Speaker 1: and the hidden counterfeit behind that can make us.
- 11:16Speaker 2: Look good, yes, right, yes, So then.
- 11:20Speaker 1: The kids, if you put that condition in place, it
- 11:24Speaker 1: becomes the new foundation, and the pillars that are built
- 11:28Speaker 1: are awareness of the condition. Only respect the condition, Your
- 11:32Speaker 1: esteem comes from that condition, and then your confidence is
- 11:36Speaker 1: in living towards that condition. And you're trying to get
- 11:39Speaker 1: a capstone of Ivy League education, but underneath that is
- 11:45Speaker 1: and that'll make my parents love me. Yes, instead of
- 11:51Speaker 1: loving the kids from the beginning, offering them worth as
- 11:54Speaker 1: a birthright and saying I don't know who you are yet,
- 11:58Speaker 1: I'm going to help you figure out it out. And
- 12:00Speaker 1: it's going to take the next twenty twenty one years
- 12:05Speaker 1: through development. And we've brought Ericson's psychosocial model in and
- 12:09Speaker 1: we've paired the different developmental stages of self worth along
- 12:13Speaker 1: with each of those stages that he offers. Because what
- 12:18Speaker 1: we're looking at is if you're given worth the first
- 12:22Speaker 1: year of your life, it's you're given a bottle. That's
- 12:25Speaker 1: a life need. But the way you're given that bottle
- 12:28Speaker 1: is a self worth need. And it's invisible because parents
- 12:32Speaker 1: can get perturbed, parents can be exhausted, and the baby
- 12:37Speaker 1: can get up in the middle of the night three times, right,
- 12:40Speaker 1: And does it want to be fed? Does it want
- 12:42Speaker 1: to be rocks? Does it want to be changed? You know,
- 12:45Speaker 1: you have to figure it out, and so you get
- 12:47Speaker 1: so tired and so then you can give that next
- 12:49Speaker 1: bottle in a very apathetic or angry way like, oh,
- 12:53Speaker 1: fight and be hungry. That's received on an emotional level.
- 12:59Speaker 2: How about that? Yeah, that's powerful and that makes a
- 13:04Speaker 2: lot of sense because even if they don't understand words,
- 13:08Speaker 2: they understand the feeling and the energy that you're putting
- 13:12Speaker 2: off and your tone, right, all of those things.
- 13:18Speaker 1: There.
- 13:18Speaker 2: And I see this a lot and where I live,
- 13:21Speaker 2: it does somehow make you feel as a parent like, oh,
- 13:26Speaker 2: if my child does this thing, then this makes me
- 13:28Speaker 2: look good, right, yeah, and it does put so much
- 13:34Speaker 2: pressure on these kids. Not everyone's path is the same.
- 13:38Speaker 2: We don't, and we have this cookie cutter thing in
- 13:41Speaker 2: some regards, right, And now I feel we are understanding
- 13:49Speaker 2: that we do have different paths and that's okay. But
- 13:52Speaker 2: through this there's a lot of anxiety and depression, Yes,
- 14:00Speaker 2: that is being experienced. And you say that anxiety and
- 14:05Speaker 2: depression can sometimes stem from denied self worth. Yes, and
- 14:11Speaker 2: that's really powerful. So can you explain what you mean
- 14:14Speaker 2: by that?
- 14:15Speaker 1: That was really important to name a phenomenon that I
- 14:19Speaker 1: saw over and over again. I call it denied self
- 14:22Speaker 1: worth because I don't believe you can lose self worth
- 14:25Speaker 1: but so many of my clients were coming in with
- 14:28Speaker 1: what I started calling a lost worth story. They believed
- 14:33Speaker 1: their worth was lost. And I started to get a
- 14:37Speaker 1: sense of why they believed it, because if the people
- 14:40Speaker 1: who love them didn't affirm their worth, it must be lost.
- 14:45Speaker 1: They did this little mental gymnastics in their head. Well,
- 14:49Speaker 1: the people that love me don't affirm my worth, so
- 14:52Speaker 1: it must be lost. And so I started calling it
- 14:56Speaker 1: denied self worth, and just I feel like it's so
- 15:00Speaker 1: oftens the experience. It's like, how can they affirm your
- 15:04Speaker 1: worth and they don't know how to affirm their own
- 15:07Speaker 1: and so the system promotes this these threads of denied
- 15:12Speaker 1: self worth in different ways. And that's the real problem.
- 15:16Speaker 1: It's not that all worth is denied. Conditional worth means
- 15:21Speaker 1: some things about you are affirmed, But it's the conditions
- 15:25Speaker 1: that the parents want in the system that either make
- 15:29Speaker 1: them look good or make them less afraid. There are
- 15:32Speaker 1: lots of ways this plays out.
- 15:35Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense, Yeah, a lot of sense
- 15:39Speaker 2: that fear. So tell us what's the difference between self worth,
- 15:44Speaker 2: self esteem, and confidence.
- 15:49Speaker 1: That was a really fun part of my research is
- 15:53Speaker 1: I would hear clients talk about self confidence, they wanted
- 15:58Speaker 1: more self confidence, or they had low self esteem, or
- 16:01Speaker 1: they didn't know how to respect themselves. And I started
- 16:05Speaker 1: looking those terms up. Just I went to the dictionary.
- 16:08Speaker 1: I was like, what what does the world say about
- 16:13Speaker 1: these concepts? And there was tons of overlap. I want
- 16:17Speaker 1: you to do this as an experiment. Just go to
- 16:19Speaker 1: the dictionary and look each of those terms up and
- 16:22Speaker 1: you'll see a tremendous amount of overlap. And I was like, why,
- 16:26Speaker 1: why do all these terms have overlap? What's combining them?
- 16:30Speaker 1: What's the common thread? And then I was like, what
- 16:34Speaker 1: if it's worth? What if when you honor worth? All
- 16:40Speaker 1: of those things start to happen. And so that's why
- 16:44Speaker 1: I put all those together. Awareness is a pillar because
- 16:46Speaker 1: without awareness, you can't take the next steps. So awareness
- 16:51Speaker 1: of yourself is worthy has to happen. And that's what
- 16:54Speaker 1: I work on in therapy A lot is just starting
- 16:56Speaker 1: to create awareness of self worth and of human worth.
- 17:00Speaker 1: We need both. My most conscientious clients and I just
- 17:05Speaker 1: love their hearts. They can't even get into the self
- 17:10Speaker 1: worth stuff if I don't talk about human worth because
- 17:13Speaker 1: they want everybody to be okay, and I just I
- 17:17Speaker 1: love that kind of wiring in people. So then when
- 17:21Speaker 1: we look at self respect as the second pillar, respect
- 17:24Speaker 1: is how we protect self worth. And I've decided that's
- 17:29Speaker 1: what it was made for. Yeah, it's been misused. It's
- 17:33Speaker 1: been used as a way to get conformity. You will
- 17:36Speaker 1: respect me. But if I'm a parent and I respect
- 17:39Speaker 1: the worth of my child, I sound very differently. I
- 17:43Speaker 1: say things like, hey, please don't disrespect me as your parent,
- 17:48Speaker 1: but I'm also not interested in disrespecting you as a
- 17:51Speaker 1: person trying to figure out who you are.
- 17:55Speaker 2: God, I love that. I love that, Yeah, I I do.
- 18:00Speaker 2: I try to do that. I tried to be respectful
- 18:03Speaker 2: of my children's feelings because I recognize and threw my
- 18:10Speaker 2: own upbringing. My mother. There were a lot of things
- 18:14Speaker 2: that were going on, but I just remember this one
- 18:16Speaker 2: particular time where she was trying to parent me, and
- 18:19Speaker 2: she didn't parent me often, and so I was disrespectful
- 18:24Speaker 2: to her. I was a senior in high school and
- 18:26Speaker 2: I wanted to go out and she was out partying
- 18:30Speaker 2: all the time, and there was so much dysfunction in
- 18:32Speaker 2: my family, and she said that I couldn't go, and
- 18:36Speaker 2: I said, no, you aren't going to tell me. I
- 18:38Speaker 2: can't go. I'm going. And she was saying that I
- 18:42Speaker 2: didn't respect her, and I said, how can I respect
- 18:45Speaker 2: you when you never respect me? And it really is
- 18:51Speaker 2: an exchange. There is so much more respect when you
- 18:56Speaker 2: respect this human And I learned so much much about myself,
- 19:01Speaker 2: even through the eyes of my children. Yes, yeah, so
- 19:07Speaker 2: I you know, I really appreciate that. And I myself,
- 19:11Speaker 2: I'm almost eleven years sober. And it's through all of
- 19:16Speaker 2: my healing and rewiring of my brain and the actions
- 19:21Speaker 2: that I've taken every day to create this change of
- 19:24Speaker 2: myself because and I talk about worth a lot, because worth,
- 19:31Speaker 2: I didn't have any self worth. I had couldn't communicate well,
- 19:36Speaker 2: I had no self boundaries, no self esteem, confidence. I
- 19:42Speaker 2: just felt like I was a shell of a person, truly,
- 19:46Speaker 2: and I used alcohol most of my life to cope
- 19:49Speaker 2: with that feeling, to give myself confidence and.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Act like I had it all together.
- 19:56Speaker 2: Until it broke me down completely. Through this healing and
- 20:00Speaker 2: the gratitude and forgiveness and all these different ways that
- 20:04Speaker 2: I've learned to find myself, and I don't find your
- 20:09Speaker 2: worthy self exactly, And it doesn't have to be transactional anymore.
- 20:15Speaker 1: Right, One of the things I love to do in
- 20:17Speaker 1: session as I introduce this is I'll say, okay, here's
- 20:21Speaker 1: your worth, and think of it as sitting like right
- 20:23Speaker 1: over your heart, because I believe it lives here more
- 20:27Speaker 1: than here. This is where conditional worth is. It's the
- 20:30Speaker 1: workforce stuff is up here, the real stuff, like keep
- 20:33Speaker 1: it right close to our heart. And unfortunately, there are
- 20:36Speaker 1: family systems that have been doing this for generations. They
- 20:40Speaker 1: start sliding conditions over the top of that. So when
- 20:43Speaker 1: you look down, you don't see your worth. You only
- 20:45Speaker 1: see the condition required to belong in that system, and
- 20:49Speaker 1: it can get stacked full of conditions. It's usually more
- 20:52Speaker 1: than one that's operating, and so your worth isn't gone,
- 20:57Speaker 1: but you can't access it, and it's yours. It's your
- 21:02Speaker 1: self worth sitting there wanting to be affirmed, wanting to
- 21:06Speaker 1: be honored. And so when you looked at and you're
- 21:10Speaker 1: looking for it, and you're like, am I not worthy?
- 21:15Speaker 1: And the world doesn't support me being worthy because if
- 21:19Speaker 1: your own parents don't, the world doesn't really show up
- 21:22Speaker 1: and give you a different message. And so what I
- 21:24Speaker 1: tell people to do is like, what if we slid
- 21:27Speaker 1: that condition, we can do one at a time. Okay,
- 21:30Speaker 1: but if we slid that out and we've got to
- 21:33Speaker 1: look at that, that's actually a very scary moment. Yeah,
- 21:36Speaker 1: because what I see happen in the face of the
- 21:39Speaker 1: person I'm working with is when I do this, I
- 21:43Speaker 1: see them get gripped with fear because they're afraid nothing's there.
- 21:47Speaker 1: It's why they won't ever slide those conditions away, because
- 21:50Speaker 1: if you can get some worth for this, you're going
- 21:54Speaker 1: to take that to not find out this is gone.
- 21:58Speaker 1: I just don't believe this is gone. Yeah, And so
- 22:03Speaker 1: what we come in contact with in session is how
- 22:07Speaker 1: frightening it is to think maybe I'm not worthy. And
- 22:12Speaker 1: that's why addictions crop up. I mean a lot of
- 22:16Speaker 1: the new writings around trauma say all addictions stems from trauma. Yeah, yeah, right.
- 22:24Speaker 2: There's yeah, there is a reason. And it doesn't have
- 22:27Speaker 2: to be a childhood trauma. Could be divorced, could be
- 22:29Speaker 2: something in your adulthood, the grief you know, somebody passes on.
- 22:35Speaker 1: But yeah, I just.
- 22:39Speaker 2: I work with a lot of people, and in the
- 22:41Speaker 2: work that I do, there's once you get to that
- 22:45Speaker 2: place of alcohol used disorder and and you feel like
- 22:49Speaker 2: you can't stop and there's no other way, and then
- 22:52Speaker 2: you have so much shame and guilt around it, and
- 22:56Speaker 2: it's just like you don't feel worthy, and then you
- 22:59Speaker 2: feel even less worthy because of what you have done
- 23:03Speaker 2: with your life.
- 23:05Speaker 1: Well, it's how you start parenting yourself. And we don't
- 23:08Speaker 1: say that enough, but we will copy the ways we
- 23:13Speaker 1: were parented. But the reason I felt like this book
- 23:17Speaker 1: needed to be written and why I developed worth conscious
- 23:20Speaker 1: theory is it's so invisible the phenomenon that are behind
- 23:25Speaker 1: all of these really awful human experiences that affect worth.
- 23:30Speaker 1: That part's been invisible, like my whole life, and people
- 23:34Speaker 1: talk about worth and they say you're worthy, and they
- 23:37Speaker 1: couldn't put structure behind it. I was like, how do
- 23:40Speaker 1: we restructure this and how do we give it to
- 23:43Speaker 1: each other? I really feel like we can empower each
- 23:46Speaker 1: other when our parents didn't know how to, and we
- 23:49Speaker 1: need to, Like, this is a gift that humanity can
- 23:53Speaker 1: give each other. It's like giving back and helping the
- 23:57Speaker 1: next generation get a hold of something that tangible and
- 24:01Speaker 1: that can be reaffirmed and can be eventually realized and
- 24:05Speaker 1: then it's solid. And you asked me a question earlier
- 24:09Speaker 1: about confidence. When you have confidence in your worth as
- 24:12Speaker 1: a birthright, and you develop realize self worth. That realize
- 24:16Speaker 1: self worth is unshakable. Nothing anyone says from that point
- 24:21Speaker 1: on takes any chunk of your worth out.
- 24:26Speaker 2: Yeah, or it can affect you a little bit, but
- 24:29Speaker 2: then you have the tools and you can manage the
- 24:34Speaker 2: I feel like that crazy in your head, right, Like
- 24:36Speaker 2: if somebody says something and it hurts you and it
- 24:40Speaker 2: kind of changes the way you think, and then you
- 24:42Speaker 2: can ask yourself, why am I feeling that? What is
- 24:45Speaker 2: the root of that versus having that person affect you
- 24:50Speaker 2: and how you feel about yourself.
- 24:53Speaker 1: What if we change that inner dialogue too, When somebody
- 24:58Speaker 1: moves against us and we feel it, it should hurt
- 25:02Speaker 1: because they've been unkind, so we feel it it hurts.
- 25:05Speaker 1: What if we change that internal dialogue to why would
- 25:09Speaker 1: that person move against my worth? Why would they deny
- 25:13Speaker 1: my worth? That's such a weird thing to do. I
- 25:16Speaker 1: wouldn't deny their worth. Like, what if we made it
- 25:18Speaker 1: about that instead of why are you hurting me? Right?
- 25:23Speaker 1: Then we just personalized it. We just took the pain
- 25:26Speaker 1: and we put it on like a coat. But if
- 25:28Speaker 1: we distance ourselves a little bit and say I felt
- 25:32Speaker 1: the move against me, I felt the verbal or emotional assault, right,
- 25:39Speaker 1: and it hurts that somebody is willing to do that
- 25:41Speaker 1: to me. But why are they denying my worth? Because
- 25:45Speaker 1: I'm not interested in doing that to them? Do you
- 25:47Speaker 1: see how we get a little distance when we make
- 25:52Speaker 1: it about something that simple? And what if that's the truth.
- 25:56Speaker 1: What if they're doing to us what's always been done
- 25:59Speaker 1: to One of the things I like to talk about
- 26:02Speaker 1: in session. And I don't believe this made it into
- 26:06Speaker 1: the book. If it did, it was one little instance,
- 26:09Speaker 1: because I need to do more research on this. But
- 26:12Speaker 1: I talk about worth envy and that there are people
- 26:16Speaker 1: that have worth envy and when they see it in you,
- 26:19Speaker 1: it's like, how dare you think you're so special? And
- 26:25Speaker 1: they can't believe that you have something they don't have.
- 26:29Speaker 1: And I have found those individuals were so hungry to
- 26:34Speaker 1: have their worth affirmed at a very early age and
- 26:37Speaker 1: then they gave up. And I believe a child will
- 26:40Speaker 1: try thousands of times to get their worth affirm before
- 26:43Speaker 1: they give up. I mean thousands and thousands of times.
- 26:46Speaker 1: So when we meet those people out and about, like
- 26:49Speaker 1: in the workplace, and they move against our worth, and
- 26:52Speaker 1: then they realize we're resilient, and so they move against
- 26:56Speaker 1: us again and again. They can't believe we have the thing.
- 27:00Speaker 1: They always want it, and they think they can take
- 27:03Speaker 1: it away from us. They think that they can diminish it,
- 27:05Speaker 1: and then that will make their choice of surrendering it
- 27:10Speaker 1: easier to live with. And I think all of that's subconscious,
- 27:13Speaker 1: by the way, I don't think you're actively like I'm
- 27:16Speaker 1: going to move against your y. Yeah, it's all emotional.
- 27:19Speaker 1: It's all a feeling based thing. That's why I call
- 27:22Speaker 1: it invisible.
- 27:23Speaker 2: Well, what about like the comparison, like that we're all
- 27:26Speaker 2: comparing our lives to other people and this could is
- 27:30Speaker 2: any age, you know, with social media, especially today, So
- 27:35Speaker 2: what can we do to help ourselves not compare our
- 27:42Speaker 2: lives to someone else's.
- 27:45Speaker 1: I don't remember the name of this professor. He was
- 27:49Speaker 1: at William and Mary College and he set up three quadrants.
- 27:54Speaker 1: The way I use this concept is I take those
- 27:57Speaker 1: three quadrants that he said up, which was collaboration and
- 28:01Speaker 1: then competition and then combativeness. So those are the three
- 28:06Speaker 1: quadrants that human beings get into. And we live in
- 28:09Speaker 1: a highly competitive society, right, So comparing is just the
- 28:15Speaker 1: beginning point to competition. First we compare, and then we compete.
- 28:20Speaker 1: What I've seen is that you're one step away from
- 28:23Speaker 1: the next quadrant. So if you're living in the competitive quadrant,
- 28:26Speaker 1: you're just one step away from the combative quadrant. So
- 28:31Speaker 1: I want people to step the other way. I want
- 28:33Speaker 1: us to get back in the collaborative quadrant, like where
- 28:37Speaker 1: we see each other's worth. We have mutual respect like
- 28:40Speaker 1: I was talking about between parent and child before. Well,
- 28:43Speaker 1: you and I can have that, and we can have
- 28:45Speaker 1: it every time we interact. And if I say something
- 28:49Speaker 1: that you aren't sure what it means, you could say, hey, Donna,
- 28:52Speaker 1: can you clarify that that's landing funny for me? And
- 28:56Speaker 1: I'll be yes. I'd love to clarify that I meant
- 29:00Speaker 1: yes and then yeah, And then you could say something like,
- 29:06Speaker 1: you know what, that doesn't hurt as much, But Donna,
- 29:09Speaker 1: I have a different opinion on that. Can I tell
- 29:11Speaker 1: you that? And I can say yes, I'm interested in
- 29:13Speaker 1: your opinion because your opinions have been formed to help
- 29:17Speaker 1: you live your life. They don't have to inform my
- 29:20Speaker 1: life right now. They might, and I if I benefit
- 29:24Speaker 1: from it, I'll be grateful, but I can make room
- 29:26Speaker 1: for you to be you and have your opinions and
- 29:30Speaker 1: live the way that makes sense to you, and I
- 29:32Speaker 1: can actually be happy for you that you figured that out.
- 29:36Speaker 2: Well, Donna. I mean, we've got so much division going
- 29:39Speaker 2: on in this world right now, right, So it would
- 29:43Speaker 2: be nice if more people could appreciate somebody else's opinion,
- 29:47Speaker 2: because that's what it is, is an opinion. And that's okay.
- 29:52Speaker 2: So let's talk about ways that low self worth can
- 29:57Speaker 2: show up in our daily life, and then let's turn
- 30:02Speaker 2: it around and start figuring out some ways that we
- 30:05Speaker 2: do get that worth back.
- 30:08Speaker 1: I would probably call it unpracticed self worth. So again,
- 30:18Speaker 1: this gets really complicated, and this is all in the book,
- 30:21Speaker 1: but there are different types of injunctions that affect our
- 30:27Speaker 1: ability to practice affirming our self worth. And so if
- 30:32Speaker 1: there are abusive injunctions in place in the family system,
- 30:39Speaker 1: that's the most severe. Those messages, again, they're subconscious, but
- 30:45Speaker 1: they're powerful. It's like, don't be you.
- 30:49Speaker 2: Yeah, people get small right they It's one of the
- 30:52Speaker 2: things we talk about. We get smaller and smaller through
- 30:56Speaker 2: the actions of somebody else potentially.
- 30:59Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, And so then a different kind of injunction
- 31:03Speaker 1: we call intrusive injunctions. Those are a little more insidious there.
- 31:10Speaker 1: They kind of slip past our radar because they're the
- 31:14Speaker 1: same message, don't be you, but it's prettier. It sounds
- 31:17Speaker 1: like this be a version of you.
- 31:19Speaker 2: I like, yes, ma'am.
- 31:22Speaker 1: Yeah, And so heyy you like me if I'm a dancer, Ye,
- 31:27Speaker 1: you'll like me if I go take voice lessons, you know.
- 31:32Speaker 1: And so we'll pursue things that make us likable, but
- 31:37Speaker 1: we won't like ourselves more if it's not rooted in
- 31:40Speaker 1: our truth and worth. And that's I'm going to tell you.
- 31:43Speaker 1: The top message of worth conscious theory is that worth
- 31:46Speaker 1: and truth belong together, and it's my live truth, and
- 31:50Speaker 1: my worth is never diminished as I am figuring out
- 31:53Speaker 1: who I am.
- 31:55Speaker 2: My own live truth, not living for somebody else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
- 32:01Speaker 2: I think a lot of things a lot of ways
- 32:04Speaker 2: people perceive it though, like like self worth and what
- 32:08Speaker 2: people talk of a lot about the people pleasing overachieving perfectionism. Right,
- 32:16Speaker 2: So if those are ways that are showing up that
- 32:20Speaker 2: aren't really you aren't really having self worth. When you're
- 32:24Speaker 2: doing that, you are seeking the validation or you just
- 32:28Speaker 2: have so much fear. I mean I could, I could
- 32:31Speaker 2: say I did all those things, But how can we
- 32:34Speaker 2: start transitioning into a place where self worth is showing
- 32:40Speaker 2: up for us.
- 32:42Speaker 1: Again? It takes practice. One of my favorite he's a
- 32:47Speaker 1: clinician and theorist, Stephen Hayes. He's basically the father of
- 32:51Speaker 1: acceptance and commitment theory, and he shifted an ideology that
- 32:57Speaker 1: I thought was such a brilliant change. He said, practice
- 33:01Speaker 1: doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.
- 33:05Speaker 2: M I like that.
- 33:06Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. So that's one of my goals
- 33:10Speaker 1: with worth conscious theory is that I am practicing honoring
- 33:14Speaker 1: someone's worth a whole session. Through the whole session, from
- 33:17Speaker 1: the beginning to the end. They're always safe in that room.
- 33:21Speaker 1: So they learn what that feels like because they haven't
- 33:23Speaker 1: felt safe enough to live true to themselves and remain worthy.
- 33:28Speaker 1: That's not been available to them. Yeah, you know, and
- 33:31Speaker 1: so we have to get a feeling for it first.
- 33:33Speaker 1: Now we're lucky if we have a few friends that
- 33:37Speaker 1: honor are worth even when we mess up. That's one
- 33:40Speaker 1: of the beautiful things of having friendships. And I think
- 33:43Speaker 1: it's one of the reasons it's a celebrated relationship friendships.
- 33:50Speaker 1: Shakespeare talked about friendships. You know, Caesar talked about thinking
- 33:55Speaker 1: he had a friend in Brutus. But still we see
- 33:59Speaker 1: this reaches far back in multiple societies throughout history, Like
- 34:04Speaker 1: friendship has always been there. Why it is I think
- 34:08Speaker 1: the second most powerful relationship we have. And what's beautiful
- 34:13Speaker 1: about friends that are like minded is we make room
- 34:16Speaker 1: for each other. We can get upset with each other
- 34:19Speaker 1: and still say, but you still get to be my friend.
- 34:23Speaker 1: And for some reason, there are much more restrictive requirements
- 34:28Speaker 1: in family systems than in many of the friend systems
- 34:31Speaker 1: that we join.
- 34:32Speaker 2: Yeah, and just remember everyone out there that it's so
- 34:37Speaker 2: important that you take inventory of who you are surrounding
- 34:43Speaker 2: yourself with. Yes, Because it's not just about having people
- 34:49Speaker 2: around you. That's not fulfillment. It's having the right people
- 34:54Speaker 2: that are lifting you up. Yeah, supporting you, not lifting
- 34:58Speaker 2: you up right, because that means maybe we're depending on
- 35:01Speaker 2: someone else to value us.
- 35:04Speaker 1: Affirming your worth and so one of the transactions we're
- 35:09Speaker 1: more able to recognize because when I talk about affirming worth,
- 35:14Speaker 1: people ask the same questions You're asked, how do we
- 35:17Speaker 1: do that? How do we do that? And so awareness first,
- 35:20Speaker 1: awareness of what affirms my worth and what doesn't. And
- 35:24Speaker 1: worth isn't importance. That's such a diluted, detached concept. We
- 35:33Speaker 1: can get it, and our whole society tells us how
- 35:35Speaker 1: to get importance, how to get recognized at school and
- 35:39Speaker 1: at work and in the community. We out to elevate
- 35:42Speaker 1: ourselves in importance. But with worth, it always includes this
- 35:46Speaker 1: mutual respect. It's a co created respect that says I
- 35:51Speaker 1: see your worth and I will not move against it
- 35:55Speaker 1: with every fiber of my being. It's a different mental
- 35:58Speaker 1: orientation because with importance and with power, it's you're a
- 36:03Speaker 1: resource to me until I need to use you, and
- 36:06Speaker 1: after I use you, I discard you. It's a completely
- 36:09Speaker 1: different arrangement, and.
- 36:12Speaker 2: That happens all the time. Yeah, So I just want
- 36:16Speaker 2: to take a minute because as we're talking about worth,
- 36:21Speaker 2: I mean, for me, for so many years, I always
- 36:25Speaker 2: thought that my value was attached to accomplishments. How I
- 36:29Speaker 2: looked that was a huge one, how people thought of
- 36:33Speaker 2: me and whether I was getting everything right and just
- 36:37Speaker 2: life became so exhausting, and I was drinking more and more,
- 36:41Speaker 2: and that's how I was coping, and I thought I
- 36:46Speaker 2: was broken when I realized I wasn't broken, and I
- 36:50Speaker 2: wrote a book called wake Up You're Not Broken, a
- 36:53Speaker 2: companion for your first thirty days of sobriety. So for
- 36:58Speaker 2: all those out there that that are coping in this way,
- 37:03Speaker 2: I see you, and it's normal. It's very normal. But
- 37:08Speaker 2: we can make the choice to stop, to surrender and
- 37:14Speaker 2: take action like this daily action that Donna and I
- 37:17Speaker 2: are talking about. So let's just take one minute to
- 37:21Speaker 2: see a little more about the book and we'll be
- 37:23Speaker 2: right back. Are you in the first thirty days of
- 37:27Speaker 2: sobriety or wondering if now is your time to start? Hi?
- 37:31Speaker 2: I'm Marcy Hopkins and I wrote wake Up You're Not
- 37:33Speaker 2: Broken just for you. It's a real raw guide to
- 37:37Speaker 2: those first thirty days, what no one tells you, what
- 37:40Speaker 2: you will feel, and how to keep going. This isn't
- 37:43Speaker 2: about perfection, It's about progress. Or to your copy now
- 37:48Speaker 2: on Amazon. Remember, you're not alone, You're not broken, You're
- 37:53Speaker 2: waking up all right. Thank you all for being here,
- 37:57Speaker 2: for those that are watching, for those that are listening,
- 38:00Speaker 2: We're so grateful you're here. And oh my goodness, talking
- 38:03Speaker 2: about self worth. Donna and I just I am so
- 38:07Speaker 2: appreciating the conversation, and I'm resonating so much for all
- 38:12Speaker 2: that you have shared. One of the things that you
- 38:17Speaker 2: shared with me prior to this conversation is that if
- 38:23Speaker 2: it's and actually you have brought this up, but I
- 38:27Speaker 2: want to talk about it a little more. That if
- 38:29Speaker 2: it's not safe to be yourself, vulnerability becomes dangerous. And
- 38:34Speaker 2: I talk about vulnerability a lot because that was very
- 38:40Speaker 2: hard for me to get vulnerable and ask for help
- 38:45Speaker 2: because you feel like maybe you're losing in some way
- 38:48Speaker 2: and you're not strong enough. But I'd love to hear
- 38:51Speaker 2: what it is that you mean by that.
- 38:56Speaker 1: Well, if you are already afraid that you have no
- 39:01Speaker 1: worth and you've built a life. So if I use
- 39:04Speaker 1: my little hand model, here's worth and here's conditions. But
- 39:08Speaker 1: some people, because of all the conditions, they forget this
- 39:12Speaker 1: is here. They build a life outside of it, and
- 39:15Speaker 1: they get whatever they can get, so they perform. Right,
- 39:19Speaker 1: you were talking about being beautiful, right, being perfect, So
- 39:23Speaker 1: any counterfeit will get you over here, that you live
- 39:27Speaker 1: a life in pursuit of that counterfeit, right, And it's
- 39:29Speaker 1: a counterfeit to worth. And so when you're living over
- 39:33Speaker 1: here and you feel so unfulfilled in every desperate pursuit
- 39:40Speaker 1: of this life. Being more vulnerable makes you think people
- 39:45Speaker 1: are going to see this doesn't work. I am trying
- 39:49Speaker 1: as hard as I can to make my life work
- 39:52Speaker 1: using all this stuff the world has given me as options,
- 39:57Speaker 1: and if I'm more vulnerable, they're going to see what
- 40:00Speaker 1: failure I am. So that's why vulnerable is scary. What
- 40:04Speaker 1: what real vulnerability? What real vulnerability does is yet it
- 40:09Speaker 1: makes it see that. But then we say, there's a
- 40:12Speaker 1: path from that to this. This is there, It is
- 40:16Speaker 1: waiting for you. It's always been there. Sometimes I find
- 40:21Speaker 1: myself apologizing to clients. I'm so sorry the world has
- 40:26Speaker 1: not helped you affirm this your whole life. I'm so
- 40:29Speaker 1: sorry your family system didn't know how to honor this
- 40:33Speaker 1: and reaffirm this. But we're going to start.
- 40:38Speaker 2: You're making me cry right now, the word yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 40:48Speaker 2: I mean that's just really powerful to hear that, and
- 40:52Speaker 2: and it's and it's I think, you know, like for
- 40:56Speaker 2: me coming from abandonment a day and my family sexual abuse,
- 41:03Speaker 2: all of those things, it's just so hard because you
- 41:08Speaker 2: just build so many walls up and you just to
- 41:13Speaker 2: bring those down you're so afraid. I think you're going
- 41:18Speaker 2: to get hurt and need to see you.
- 41:20Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 41:21Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
- 41:22Speaker 1: You said bring those down because we talk about the pillars, well,
- 41:26Speaker 1: there are imitation pillar pillars we're building all the time.
- 41:30Speaker 1: We're building our lives, so we have awareness of something,
- 41:34Speaker 1: we respect, something or someone, we have some self esteem.
- 41:38Speaker 1: It goes up and down, and we have confidence in
- 41:40Speaker 1: some things. But if it's not on a foundation of worth,
- 41:44Speaker 1: those pillars can come down. And that's that other vulnerability piece.
- 41:49Speaker 1: Like so I showed it to you this way that
- 41:50Speaker 1: I'll give you a visual of it a different way.
- 41:53Speaker 1: Sometimes when you go to therapy, the therapist is helping
- 41:56Speaker 1: you take blocks down and you're like, I have spent.
- 42:03Speaker 3: Those pillars, like you know, thirty forty fifty years, like
- 42:07Speaker 3: please don't take them down, And you're like, well, but
- 42:10Speaker 3: we could use these blocks over here, Like what if
- 42:12Speaker 3: we build those Let's.
- 42:14Speaker 1: Take the ones that work and let's start reassembling them
- 42:17Speaker 1: on a foundation of birthright, self worth, and let's see
- 42:20Speaker 1: how much more solid that feels.
- 42:23Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 42:24Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 42:24Speaker 2: One of the things I have this visual in my
- 42:28Speaker 2: head my last day of drinking, like everything that I
- 42:32Speaker 2: had built up on my rocky foundation, my uneven foundation
- 42:36Speaker 2: from you know, all that happened in my childhood just
- 42:40Speaker 2: came crashing down. And while that's so scary, it has
- 42:47Speaker 2: allowed me to rebuild that structure in my life on
- 42:52Speaker 2: a solid foundation. Good, and so I'm not afraid of
- 42:58Speaker 2: it falling down again. Of course it always could, right,
- 43:01Speaker 2: life can happen, but it won't.
- 43:05Speaker 1: It won't fall the way it did the first time
- 43:07Speaker 1: because you're building on something more solid. And that's really
- 43:11Speaker 1: the goal is to figure out what we were given
- 43:15Speaker 1: that wasn't very solid, and that we built our lives
- 43:18Speaker 1: on a foundation that just wasn't going to hold our
- 43:21Speaker 1: whole life. It was going to crack and crumble, right,
- 43:25Speaker 1: But then keep the blocks that work, keep the building
- 43:28Speaker 1: blocks that still makes sense to you, but yes, put
- 43:31Speaker 1: them on a more solid foundation. That's lovely. I'm actually
- 43:35Speaker 1: very happy for you.
- 43:36Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, thank you, And I love what you've
- 43:39Speaker 2: said because we are so here. But what I've allowed
- 43:45Speaker 2: myself to do is come here, come and open up
- 43:49Speaker 2: my heart and and think from this brain instead of
- 43:55Speaker 2: this brain. Yeah yeah, yeah. So for someone that's out
- 44:03Speaker 2: there right now that they've spent those years proving, performing
- 44:09Speaker 2: and people pleasing that we were kind of talking about before.
- 44:13Speaker 2: But where do they begin to start rebuilding? I mean,
- 44:17Speaker 2: is there something that could start to do today to
- 44:19Speaker 2: help them with their sense of worth? And then of
- 44:22Speaker 2: course seek help more from someone like you or through
- 44:26Speaker 2: your book.
- 44:28Speaker 1: Well, this really simple exercise that I do is I
- 44:32Speaker 1: take the word worthless. I write it on a dry
- 44:35Speaker 1: erase board. When I hold that up in front of
- 44:39Speaker 1: someone that's feeling that way, that tears come to their eyes.
- 44:42Speaker 1: Sometimes they start crying because they are so afraid that's true.
- 44:47Speaker 1: And then I'll take a marker and I'll draw a
- 44:49Speaker 1: line down the middle, so i separate the word worth
- 44:53Speaker 1: from less and I'll say worthless than? What if you're worthless?
- 45:00Speaker 1: Are you worth less than? And that shifts. There's a
- 45:04Speaker 1: different thought that happens there, which is, oh, oh you
- 45:09Speaker 1: mean I can kind of create compartments. And I'm like yeah,
- 45:13Speaker 1: because I'm going to ask you some questions. Do you
- 45:15Speaker 1: think anybody is worth less than kindness? And I always
- 45:20Speaker 1: get to, oh, do you think anyone is worth less
- 45:23Speaker 1: than compassion? Than honesty? You know what? What are? What
- 45:29Speaker 1: is anybody worth less than? And these lovely people I
- 45:34Speaker 1: feel so privileged to have worked with the people I've
- 45:37Speaker 1: worked with. They know, they know what they won't do
- 45:41Speaker 1: to someone else, and even if they have, they feel
- 45:45Speaker 1: bad about it. Yeah, I have been dishonest with someone,
- 45:49Speaker 1: but they weren't. They didn't deserve it, they weren't worth that, right,
- 45:52Speaker 1: I'll say, Okay, So then let's start looking at what
- 45:56Speaker 1: you're worth, because you just named what everybody's worth. Honesty, consistency, compassion,
- 46:03Speaker 1: There's there are so many good words. I let them
- 46:07Speaker 1: choose the words at a certain point, like take over,
- 46:10Speaker 1: like tell me what what? What is everybody worth having?
- 46:14Speaker 1: You know, safety, some kind of human warmth, you know,
- 46:21Speaker 1: decency that there's some lovely words that come forward. And
- 46:25Speaker 1: then we start from there. Okay, let's take the words
- 46:29Speaker 1: that you've come up with today and let's start making
- 46:32Speaker 1: sure those exist in your head for you. Because this
- 46:36Speaker 1: is the dialogue. We memorize how we were parented, and
- 46:40Speaker 1: then we parent the inner child, and that's where our
- 46:44Speaker 1: worth starts, right with how we were parented. So then
- 46:48Speaker 1: we start being unkind, disrespectful, unfair, dishonest with our own self.
- 46:55Speaker 1: And then I believe this part of us, I think
- 46:58Speaker 1: of my inner child as being five, and I think
- 47:01Speaker 1: sometimes she goes, hey, stop it, Like I don't like that,
- 47:06Speaker 1: Like if a five year old could really be robust
- 47:08Speaker 1: in their reaction to a parent. Hey, yeah, that's mean.
- 47:12Speaker 1: Don't say that, right. And I listen to her if
- 47:16Speaker 1: any critical thing comes into my head, and I say,
- 47:20Speaker 1: like done, and oh my gosh, what's your deal? Like
- 47:23Speaker 1: this tone of voice, you know, sometimes it's been when
- 47:27Speaker 1: I was younger, it was harsher. It's just like, oh
- 47:29Speaker 1: my gosh, what's wrong with you? And then now I
- 47:31Speaker 1: let that inner five year old talk back from her worth,
- 47:35Speaker 1: she'll be like, hey be nice. Mm hm, why not
- 47:40Speaker 1: be nice? Yeah, everything we need to stay say, be
- 47:45Speaker 1: delivered in a nice way.
- 47:46Speaker 2: I think, so yeah yeah. And one of the things,
- 47:51Speaker 2: like recognizing perception. There's a method I talk about called
- 47:56Speaker 2: the care method, asking for help without guilt, reinforcing your boundaries,
- 48:01Speaker 2: healthy boundaries, and embracing your works. So I just I
- 48:05Speaker 2: love this conversation because it's so vital for us to
- 48:10Speaker 2: create a positive life for ourselves. And Donna, your work
- 48:15Speaker 2: is amazing and you're helping so many people, and I
- 48:19Speaker 2: just I love your energy and your heart. I could
- 48:23Speaker 2: see it. So can you tell us where we can
- 48:26Speaker 2: find your new book, Understanding Self Worth and learn more
- 48:31Speaker 2: about you and your work?
- 48:33Speaker 1: Well? Thank you. Can I show you the book? I
- 48:35Speaker 1: keep it? Please there. It is Understanding Self Worth, a
- 48:40Speaker 1: guide to worth conscious theory and psychotherapeutic practice. It is
- 48:45Speaker 1: written to help mental health professionals in any field work
- 48:51Speaker 1: with their clients using this model. We do have clients
- 48:55Speaker 1: that have asked to read it, and so we put
- 48:57Speaker 1: a statement in the front that if if you're a
- 49:00Speaker 1: client and you start reading this book, please please please
- 49:04Speaker 1: have mental health professional that you're working with to help
- 49:08Speaker 1: you unpack some things, because it could trigger some unfinished
- 49:11Speaker 1: business and we just want you to have the support
- 49:14Speaker 1: you need. So the book is more in an academic tone,
- 49:20Speaker 1: and doctor Chris Brown is my co author and that
- 49:24Speaker 1: is her area of expertise. She's an excellent academic writer.
- 49:29Speaker 1: She's been published multiple times. I'm grateful for her assistance
- 49:34Speaker 1: in helping me bring this forward in the most responsible
- 49:38Speaker 1: way that we could. And then for me, you know,
- 49:43Speaker 1: I've been in private practice for over twenty years. I
- 49:48Speaker 1: noticed this gap in treatment very early on. I pursue
- 49:54Speaker 1: training in trauma, so I'm a certified trauma professional, and
- 50:01Speaker 1: even though trauma sometimes touches on this, I just felt
- 50:04Speaker 1: like there were still some things that I could flesh out.
- 50:07Speaker 1: So I just continued reading and learning and understanding self
- 50:12Speaker 1: worth and worth consciousness is the goal. We can be
- 50:18Speaker 1: self conscious or we can be worth conscious. And prior
- 50:22Speaker 1: to me naming that term worth conscious, all I saw
- 50:27Speaker 1: out there was self conscious or neutral, and I didn't
- 50:31Speaker 1: think that was a very attractive shift. Self conscious or
- 50:35Speaker 1: just not self gut like that. So I wanted to
- 50:39Speaker 1: give people something more nurturing. So worth consciousness is the goal,
- 50:45Speaker 1: and you learn how to do that in the book,
- 50:47Speaker 1: but again it's a more technical read. I do have
- 50:51Speaker 1: a rule for all my clients whenever I have them
- 50:54Speaker 1: get a book, I'll say, open it up, look at
- 50:57Speaker 1: the chapters, and just read the one that resonates with you.
- 51:00Speaker 1: You don't have to read the whole thing. Start with
- 51:02Speaker 1: what resonates with you. That might be all you need
- 51:05Speaker 1: that week or that month, and then go back to
- 51:07Speaker 1: it and look again.
- 51:09Speaker 2: I love it. I love that. Well, thank you again
- 51:13Speaker 2: so much for coming on Wake Up with Marcy. I
- 51:16Speaker 2: really appreciate it. Donna.
- 51:19Speaker 1: Oh, it's been a pleasure.
- 51:21Speaker 2: Well for all of you out there, if this conversation
- 51:25Speaker 2: has resonated with you, please make sure you like common
- 51:28Speaker 2: and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.
- 51:31Speaker 2: Because your worth isn't something you earn, it's not something
- 51:36Speaker 2: you prove, it's not something someone else can give you
- 51:39Speaker 2: or gets to give you. It's something that's been yours
- 51:43Speaker 2: all along. So just know that no matter what you've
- 51:48Speaker 2: been through, no matter what your mistakes have been, no
- 51:52Speaker 2: matter how lost you may have felt, you are not broken.
- 51:57Speaker 2: You are becoming, and it is possible to wake up
- 52:01Speaker 2: to your worth and you are worthy. So I will
- 52:06Speaker 2: see you next week with an all new episode, a
- 52:09Speaker 2: brand new episode, and I'm so grateful you have been
- 52:12Speaker 2: with us today. I hope you have an amazing week.
- 52:14Speaker 2: Bye bye