“The first barrier is breaking the pattern of putting your head down, acknowledging that it’s okay to ask for help to get that assistance, that it doesn’t make you lesser than, it doesn’t make you less capable.”

“I basically decided for myself that this disease was not going to define me.”

“Something about that moment was just like, the light shining on me like, 'Wait a minute, I am no longer a cancer patient, I can walk away from this, and made me be able to look back and acknowledge the experience and acknowledge, yes, there was definitely a chance of a different outcome.”

“Even now, to this day, as a woman and as a survivor of sexual abuse, I am enraged that it still happens, and I’m enraged that my children have to deal with it. And there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“I was never going to let one thing be the most important thing in my life.”

“I am taking active steps to live the life that I want to live.”

“For all the mothers who are going to hear this, I think it's so important that, when you feel like something's not right, you may not have the actual proof that something's not right, but you should follow up on it.”

“It was a difficult marriage and a difficult divorce, but I think both did set me up for what I would become in later life.”

“There's a certain healing aspect to being open and raw and vulnerable. And I think it's a beautiful healing thing for all of us.”

“I learned that I have to prioritize what is most important to me, and always put that at the forefront.”

“Whatever it is that floats your boat, that makes and brings joy into your life, is what you need to be doing, especially at this stage in life.”

“I really enjoyed taking care of people, and I think I was meant to take care of people. ”

“That made me want my daughter to know me as a person. And to make sure that I was a person outside of just being a mother.”

“Anger is actually a normal part of grieving, even when someone doesn't commit suicide because you're angry with someone for leaving you behind.”

“Writers are the most neurotic among the different artists. And the things we say to ourselves are so awful and so damaging, and so absurd and ridiculous.”

“I ultimately, really, completely healed myself with yoga.”

“I found that it is best when things are challenging to sort of let it be and know that better days are ahead.”

“There's something beyond strength to be able to face that and face it in a way where you then just start to live your life managing this part of your life, and not letting it become the whole of your life.”

“I grew to really love and understand yoga, on not just a physical level, but I saw it as a spiritual awakening.”

“I don't want to be put into a box, I don't like want to have to restrain my identity in any way, whether it's my sexual identity, or my racial identity, my gender, whenever in order to fit a system that may or may not be able to really let me express the fullness of who I am.”