Karen Brana

I purchased the audiobook and listened in its entirety in one sitting. Its message was so simple and made perfect sense to me. The next day, I brought the book. I'm a mental health professional working for a county health department and during the pandemic, I was designated a first responder. For the past two years, I seem to have lived on auto-pilot and struggled with almost every aspect of my life. The book was suggested to me by a friend who as an EMT was also activated and drinking heavily. I had lived most of my life with systems I adopted from my environment (family, friends, and society). When I failed at a task or goal, I blamed myself (I was smart enough or strong enough). One of the most important thing this book taught me was that the failure was in the 'system' not me...THIS WAS HUGE!!! My thoughts of everything from losing weight, to issues with my relationships, to my professional career, shifted. I quickly shared the book with my husband and together we started not only developing workable steps to address personal and professional issues, but we've practiced these atomic steps every day, and focused on becoming the best part of ourselves. Its a work in progress, but I feel we have a template in which to start and doing this together, even this short period of time, has been a game changer in our relationship.