I Owed Myself This Much

You were never meant to come last.

You say yes before you've thought about it. You apologize for asking questions. You're everyone's safe place, and you have nowhere to set down your own weight. You keep promising yourself you'll rest, start, or ask for what you need once everything else is done. It never is.

I Owed Myself This Much is a year of letters, one for every week, written to the woman who has spent her life caring for everyone but herself. Each letter meets you in a real, everyday moment, helps you see where the pattern began, and ends with one small practice for the week ahead: a sentence to say, a habit to set down, a conversation to have.

Inside, you'll learn to:

• Say no without a long explanation, and without losing the people you love
• Tell healthy guilt from the guilt that only keeps you small, including guilt handed down by family, culture or faith
• Set boundaries with family, partners, friends and at work, and around money
• Ask for help, rest without earning it, and let joy back into your days
• Rediscover what you want, and find the voice to ask for it
• Begin again, gently, when you slip back into old habits