As part of this week’s Streets Ahead Street Team promotion, I’m sharing D.G Kaye’s book ‘Words We Carry:  Essays of Obsession and Self Esteem’:

Words from the author:

“I have been a great critic of myself for most of my life, and I was darned good at it, deflating my own ego without the help of anyone else.”

What do our shopping habits, high-heeled shoes, and big hair have to do with how we perceive ourselves? Do the slights we endured when we were young affect how we choose our relationships now?

D.G. takes us on a journey, unlocking the hurts of the past by identifying situations that hindered her own self-esteem. Her anecdotes and confessions demonstrate how the hurtful events in our lives linger and set the tone for how we value our own self-worth.
Words We Carry is a raw, personal accounting of how the author overcame the demons of low self-esteem with the determination to learn to love herself.

Here’s a 5 star review from Madelyn Griffith-Haynie:

Some of you will find this book comforting, and a few of you will find it just what the doctor ordered. But it is not for everyone.

You probably won’t be able to relate if you are one of the lucky few whose parents supported your every endeavor, who were never bullied or at the receiving end of a few catty comments that echo still, who began living the life of your dreams and tripped over the perfect relationship the moment you left your parent’s house, or who always found yourself in the center of “the IN crowd.”

FOR EVERYONE ELSE, this is an uplifting, positively focused quick read that is more like a conversation with a supportive big sister. The “girlfriend” conversational tone is one of the book’s charms. Using “open-faced sandwich” examples from her own life in a series of shorter essays organized in sections, the author shares her own insecurities and how she overcame them, disclosing many of her own challenges with the process of developing self-esteem herself. Many with her history might not have been able to do so, struggling still.

‘Words’ would be helpful to anyone of any age with a similar background (and most females still struggling to make peace with their real or imagined “flaws”), but I especially want to encourage younger women to give it a read. It is likely to save you a few years of “relationship mistakes” and second-guessing as you work through the many issues common to most of us. Perhaps it will help you avoid some of the heartache that accompanies those years when we SO much want to be “popular” and think we would be if we were taller/shorter/thinner/blonder – whatever-er!!

Follow the author’s journey as she takes us through what it took for her to work through her own “flaws” and negative emotions and come out the other side, whole, happily married to a wonderful man for many years now, and extremely productive.