Posts by Barb Nangle
4 Ways Keeping the Focus On Yourself Leads To Be Better Life
Are you filled with tension and anxiety and don’t know why? photo credit: Mohammed Abdelgaffar Maybe you know something needs to change, but don’t know what. You’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work, at least not long-term. That was me before 12 step recovery. I’ve learned to do something that has improved my life…
Read MoreHow Internal Boundaries Help You Stop Abandoning Yourself and Live with Integrity
Issue 158, March 13, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ Integrity Is an Internal Boundary Years ago, when I first got into recovery, I became fascinated with the word integrity. So I looked it up. I was surprised to see that the dictionary had two different definitions. The first is the one most…
Read MoreDiscipline Equals Freedom: How to Develop the Hidden Skill That Ends Self Abandonment
Issue 157, March 6, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ Discipline Equals Freedom, But Not the Way I Used to Think Years ago, I recorded a podcast episode called Discipline Equals Freedom. And I meant it. Back then, I was talking about structure. Food plans. Dating plans. Financial reserves. Time management. Putting systems…
Read MoreHow Emotional Boundaries Keep You from Ruminating and Catastrophizing
Issue 156, February 27, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ Emotions, Emotional Boundaries, and the Stories Your Mind Tells I want to start by sharing something that happened a while ago. It showed me that the tendency toward rescuing and fixing doesn’t necessarily disappear just because we’ve done a lot of work. But…
Read More10 Ways for How to Stop Abandoning Yourself When You Set Boundaries
Issue 155, February 20, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ One of the most difficult parts of setting boundaries isn’t deciding what to say. It’s dealing with what you feel. Sometimes even before you say it. And definitely after you say it. In my experience, the number one thing that stops people from…
Read MoreWhy Emotionally Unavailable People Keep Showing Up and What You Can Do About It
Issue 154, February 13, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ One of my clients recently asked me for concrete examples of emotional availability and vulnerability. She said something like this:“I show empathy. I validate people. I listen. I’m curious. I really try to be there. So why do I keep ending up with…
Read MoreHow to Go From Absorbing Everyone’s Emotions to Feeling Safe Inside Yourself
Issue 153, February 6, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ When Other People’s Feelings Feel Like Yours For most of my life, I felt other people’s feelings. I’ve seen this with clients and fellows in recovery too. This is hard to explain unless you’ve lived it. It’s like being permeable. Other people’s feelings penetrate…
Read MoreHow We Sabotage the Very Love We Want and How to Stop
Issue 152. January 30, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ One of the most painful patterns I see, both in my own life and in my work with clients, is this: we often end up sabotaging the very thing we want most. Nowhere is this more true than in romantic relationships. We long…
Read MoreWhy Keeping Some Things Private Is Healthy in Romantic Relationships
Issue 151. January 23, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ I once had a conversation with a sponsee who was sitting with a knot in her stomach. That conversation has stuck with me for years, and I’ve used it in coaching sessions with my clients. She’d gifted a significant amount of money to…
Read MoreWhy Clear Communication Feels So Hard and Changes Everything in Love
Issue 150. January 16, 2026 ✨ Higher Power Coaching & Consulting ✨ I Thought I Was a Great Communicator. I Was Wrong. For a long time, I believed I was excellent at communicating. Before recovery, I was a program coordinator at Yale University, managing complex initiatives across as many as 25 schools at a time.…
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