Nothing can ever require me to abandon myself.


Glennon Doyle writes, “I will not stay - not ever again - in a room or conversation or relationship or institution that requires me to abandon myself.” This is a very empowering notion at first blush, but it is missing an important detail that kicks one’s power up a notch (and is, I think, a little closer to the truth)…

Nothing can ever require me to abandon myself. Only I can do that. 

  • No room,

  • No conversation,

  • No relationship,

  • No institution,

...has ever required me to abandon myself. 

Only the believed thought, “I must abandon myself in order to be in this room, this conversation, this relationship, or this institution” could ever cause me to abandon myself. Not the room itself or the conversation itself or the relationship itself or the institution itself. 

What I hear Glennon Doyle saying is, “I refuse to ever again abandon myself.”

”…So if I find myself in a room and I’m visited by the thought, “I must abandon myself to stay here” and I am having trouble returning myself to the benevolent Truth, I will leave the room rather than abandon myself.”