Where Do I Go From Here? In the weeks and months following the discovery of my husband’s affair, I most often would find myself going through the motions of daily life. Being a stay at home mom of five homeschooled children, I didn’t have a “break” from my kids. My break from daily life would often be found in the seclusion of my vehicle. On one occasion I found myself driving aimlessly ..read more

Some days, everything can seem like too much to handle, and this can really take a toll on your energy. I spent many sleepless nights wishing, hoping, and praying to wake up to find that all my pain had disappeared. The pain seemed to rot in my gut and would then turn to anger, followed by sadness. Ironically, most days, the pain wasn’t even about the state of my marriage, but rather trying to cope with the loss of my “first marriage.” I was still married to the same person, but I was grieving the loss of the ..read more

Facing Your Triggers: Finding Freedom on a Dance Floor I conquered a trigger last week, and I couldn’t wait to get home from my vacation and share it with you! One of the assignments in EMS Online is to list your triggers. When I took EMS Online about 3 1/2 years ago, I remember thinking, “How many can I list? How much time do I get? We could be here all night ..read more

How Long is This Going to Take? I sat in the therapist's office for the first time after my husband finally confessed his affair. I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Surely I did not belong here, did I? She introduced herself, we had some preliminary conversation, and I told her my story. I didn’t know what people actually did following betrayal, but I knew I needed help and I needed it now. The pain I was experiencing was excruciating and I could barely move through the day. My head was spinning ..read more

Comparison: What Did They Have That I Don’t? There I was sitting at my dining room table. I was three days removed from “D-Day” and as the betrayed spouse, in a bit of a rough spot. My wife had left to go stay with friends for the week so we could both take some time to determine our next steps individually and as a couple. As I was sitting at the same table where our family had eaten countless meals together, the thoughts of comparison kept creeping up in my mind. It was like a bad nightmare that I couldn’t ..read more

You Are Not Alone. Please Join Us. Four years ago, I discovered my husband wasn’t who I thought he was. When he left the house, he didn’t secretly fight crime or possess any cool superpowers. Instead, he had lived a double life for over a decade. I heard my parent’s generation speak about where they were when they learned that President Kennedy had been shot. Everyone remembers where ..read more

I was scrolling through Instagram a few days ago, and I saw this quote that said, “I feel like I’m in Season 5 of my life, and the writers are just making ridiculous stuff up to keep it interesting.” It made me think of a few random things that happened during my first season of recovery that were so poorly timed that it was almost ..read more

Songs for the Soul | Freeflowing Finale (S2:E10) Join Rodney and Angela for an uncut heartfelt, free-flowing finale of Season 2. In this special episode, they extend their deep gratitude to everyone who made this journey possible: the dedicated crew, the supportive audience, and last but not least, each other. Reflecting on their growth and lessons learned over the past two seasons, they revisit ..read more

When Anxiety Takes Over: Lessons Learned from Inside Out 2 Melissa here. I wanted to take a second to share a moment I had this week, from watching the new movie Inside Out 2. For those of you who may have missed the first Inside Out movie, it's an animated depiction of a young girl, Riley, and her journey navigating her emotions, Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust and Fear ..read more

A Guided Meditation for Cultivating Compassion Hi. I’m Karen Baker supervised by Rick Reynolds. In this video, I'll lead you through a short, guided meditation on compassion. Opening our hearts and practicing self-compassion and compassion for others can help us accept and give space to our anxieties. Sometimes, focused and kind attention is all we need to feel more at peace and ease ..read more