[00:00:00] Dana: I made the choice. I released myself from the bounds that I thought others were putting on me, but I realized it was me all along. I had the power to unhook that leash from that collar that was around my neck.
[00:00:13] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath depth and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention, gratitude, and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.
Welcome back to the Live The Width of Your Life podcast. My guest today is Dana Diaz, and she's a wife, mother, and author of the bestselling book, Gasping For Air: The Stranglehold Of Narcissistic Abuse. Dana has had lifelong experience with narcissistic abuse beginning in her childhood.
Her education in journalism and psychology at Depaul University in Chicago gave her the ability to accurately verbalize and express how this abuse creates confusion and conflict within victims so that she can help other victims know they are not alone and better understand their circumstances. Today, she is the proud voice for fellow victims who are unable, afraid, or ashamed to share their experiences.
She's been on a guest and over a hundred podcasts globally. She's striving to create awareness and understanding to ensure victims are given the support that they need to first understand their own situation and then begin the healing process. She's also been a featured speaker in two summits for healing after trauma and with more to come this year, her first book chronicling her abusive marriage that lasted nearly three decades started as a journal that she had hidden under her couch cushion in the basement.
This was a very powerful discussion and we talked a lot about her personal experience and how that has impacted her life, how she was able to break free from the abuse, and now how she serves as an advocate for other victims of abuse. It's an amazing conversation and appreciate Dana sharing so much about her own story. I enjoyed our conversation and think you will, as well. Take a
listen. Dana, it is such a pleasure to have you on the show today.
[00:02:31] Dana: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here as well.
[00:02:35] Aneta: Yeah, just shared your bio at the beginning of this episode and want to get into your story because I think that for the audience, we never know what people are going through, but everyone is going through something. My hope and intention is always we share people's stories as guests come on and are vulnerable and open.
Someone who's listening can say, I'm able to take something from today's conversation and to move forward, to feel inspired, to be motivated to do something in my own life. So do you mind just sharing a little bit about your story and your experience and how it's just shaped who you are today?
[00:03:20] Dana: Yeah, a hundred percent. I am a girl of not so few words though, so I will try to sum it up, but my experience unfortunately has been that I was an unwanted pregnancy to begin with. Mom didn't want me anymore when I came to be. She married a man who was not my biological father and wanted me even less than that.
So I was unfortunately the victim of child abuse and, child services failed me. Authorities failed me. It was a little rough going, certainly not as rough as other people I've encountered and heard about, but did not start me off on a good note in my life health-wise, mentally or physically, honestly.
Went on to get out of that house at 18, as soon as I legally could. And I ended up falling for a young man and honestly, out of desperation, because looking back, I was a codependent people, pleasing. Please, anybody loves me, find something in me worth valuing and appreciating. So I fell for a guy who was willing to love me sometimes.
As long as I served him and served his purposes and did what he said and said what he wanted me to say and jumped through all the hoops. I didn't know what narcissism was, but looking back, I was raised by two narcissists who abused me. And then I married a narcissist who continued to abuse me. That's what I was used to. It is what it is.
It's just unfortunate that I had to go through that, but so many people do in one way or another, even if it's not extreme abuse, just the emotional impact of not feeling like you'll ever be enough for somebody can be devastating to one's relationships in life, at work, at home in all areas.
And so when I was 45 years old or right before I was 45, my health became impacted. And that's what propelled me into this new phase of my life. Which I would like to share more about. So when I was in my mid-forties, what happened was I had so much cortisol, the stress hormone running through me that it made me autoimmune. It gave me a lung disease that is similar to having fibromyalgia and COPD all at the same time. I dropped to 93 skeletal pounds and had a backpack oxygen machine.
And it was at that point that I said, okay, something's got to change because even my doctor said, I can't give you a pill. I cannot do a surgery. Whatever is causing you so much stress in your life it's going to kill you if you don't change it. And the thing was, I didn't even have to think about it. It was the person I was married to. Things had escalated from narcissistic abuse into domestic violence. I also had, my two parents, unfortunately even though I was not in their home, there were still a lot of games being played, lies being spread, diminishing me, and just minimizing me in any way that they could.
And all this toxicity around me was affecting my health. So, I definitely can speak to the mind-body connection, but that's when I decided that I was worth more. I finally figured out that I needed to love myself instead of waiting for people who were never going to love me and didn't want to love me. To finally love me. It wasn't going to happen.
And, we talked about self-respect and self-love and I didn't have any before then. I got it real quick when I got sick. But that moment deciding that I needed to remove those people from my life and it's so unfortunate. It was my then-husband my mother and my stepfather, but I had to do something for myself. I had to fight for myself, for my health, mentally, physically, and for my spirit.
And the beautiful thing is, it's not even been 4 years and I haven't had them in my life and it's devastating to cut off people that, I mean, your mother should love you. And it's hard to accept that and fill that wound and move on in your life knowing this, but the beautiful thing is everything that I'd ever wanted deep down in my heart.
And we all have those things that our passions, our goals, our dreams, they all have come to fruition. Since I chose to put myself first and it's not about being selfish It's just about asking I remember deciding to end my marriage and deciding, okay, I have to accept things for what they are I just said what do you want because nobody ever asked me what I wanted.
So I asked myself, what do I want? And the thing is, I answered right away in my head. I'm like, I want to be married. I mean, who doesn't want that person to come home to and have dinner with and all that stuff and be your best friend? I just wanted to be married to somebody that liked me and maybe didn't want me dead, and didn't make me suffer minor details.
And certainly, I hope most people don't have that kind of marriage, but I wanted to be happy. I wanted to use my degrees in journalism and psychology. I've always, since I was 12 years old, wanted to help victims of abuse in some way, specifically children. I wanted to travel just a few minor things. I don't think that was asking for much, but I couldn't. My next question was, can I have that with these people surrounding me and in these circumstances?
And the answer was no. Because when you're surrounded by narcissists or even just married to one. I mean, my house was my prison. I couldn't even go buy cat food without fighting, having to defend myself that I wasn't going to cheat on him with somebody in a back alley somewhere, I was just going to the store to buy cat food.
I shouldn't have to defend going to church on Sunday. So I made the choice. I released myself from the bounds that I thought others were putting on me, but really I realized it was me all along. I had the power to unhook that leash from that collar that was around my neck.
And from that point on, like I said, it's been less than four years. I have remarried somebody whose family I have known for 20 years. We've known each other a long time and the ease, we just fit. It just went together. We have our hiccups now and then every couple does, but it's a reciprocal, trusting, loving, respectful relationship. I didn't even know I was capable of that.
We have traveled. He wants me to be happy. He lets me pursue my passions. I have written three books, one of which has been published already. Two are being released later this year about my experiences. And I'm using those to also be on podcasts like yours to spread the word because it affects so many areas of our lives. Not just if you've come out of the abusive situation, but anybody who has suffered from any kind of anxiety or depression or CPTSD.
It's amazing how things from our childhood catch up with us no matter what age. But what I love is that I was 45 years old when I set out to do this. And in this short time, the last few years, I'm going to be 49 this year. Everything's happened to me. Everything that was in my heart has come true. It has manifested. And I didn't have any magical fairy godmother that came and did it. It was because I saw it. I envisioned it. I asked myself, what do I want?
And I saw the vision. And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. I just had to decide that I deserved it and decide that I was going to take the little baby steps to get there. And now I've gotten there and it's opened up so much more to me.
I always tell people. I feel like I was a flower in a garden and there were all these weeds around me. I couldn't see the sun. I wasn't getting nourishment from the soil because these weeds were sucking it out. I couldn't even feel the rain to refresh me. But now that these weeds are gone, all those toxic people are in situations. There may not be many flowers in the garden with me, but there are some now I can see them and they've always been there for me.
And now my petals are opening and I'm feeling the sun and the rain and I'm getting the nourishment and I'm blooming and I'm thriving and I'm reaching potentials that I didn't even think were possible for me, especially this late in the game. So it's such a beautiful thing that I want other people to understand that it doesn't matter who you are, or where you are.
My ex-husband had me scrubbing floors in a podunk town in the Midwest for money working as a housekeeper. And now I'm on podcasts all over the world we're talking about maybe doing a Ted Talk soon. And there are all these worlds opening up to me that who would have thought that the gal that on hands and knees washing their floors was going to suddenly be a published author and, an accomplished speaker?
And yet here I am doing it. And so if I can do it, I say anybody can really, they just have to ask themselves what they want and give themselves permission to have that.
[00:12:34] Aneta: Yeah, well, so much to unpack here, so you found yourself obviously as a child in this environment with two narcissistic parents, as you said, and sounds like struggling child protective services were involved and many people do go from that one situation to a very similar one unknowingly, not fully awake.
What happened during your marriage where you were able to, at some point move from being in a very similar situation that you were in when you were a child to the point where you had the courage and the desire and the ability to say, I'm going to leave. Like, were you on a spiritual journey? Were you reading any books? Were you talking to someone like what happened that brought you to the point where you were able to do that? And how long did it take to get to that point?
[00:13:27] Dana: That's a really good question because I think everybody's circumstances are unique in some way, but what was not unique about my situation was the narcissistic aspect of being isolated. I knew the second I met my ex-husband, the very first time I met him, he reminded me of my stepfather, who is the king of all narcissists.
It's just that my ex-husband came to me differently. Whereas my stepfather was one of these very loud narcissists, look at me, look at what I have. I'm better than you. He will tell you that to your face too. Whereas my ex was what we call a covert narcissist. They come off as humble, but there's this slight sense of arrogance and entitlement that you're supposed to pity them to the point that you're serving their ego.
It's a strange thing to be caught up in, but catching me differently. I fell for it. Even though there was something in me that said, I know this personality and I don't want any part of it, because I was only 19, I was young, I thought, I'm generation X part some of us older generation X still had that idea that I'm going to be 20 years old. I'm going to be an old maid. If I don't get with somebody and get married and have babies.
I wish that I was more like my millennial siblings where I wanted my education my career and my life to come together first and figure out who I was. But I was just a young girl who thought I better grab the 1st person who was interested in me. So I stayed with them and the kicker was, and the unique aspect was that I fell in love with his parents. They were the parents I always wanted. He was the luckiest guy in the world to have these two lovely people. I mean, I adored his parents, they're like Mr. And Mrs. Cleaver. I mean, who wouldn't want that?
And they took to me right from the get-go. So even though I was going through this stuff with him and I knew he wasn't really my guy and he wasn't the one I wanted to be with, I didn't want to give up his parents. And that's such a terrible thing. And I take accountability for that, but Lord knows we tried.
I mean, it was very early on we met in 1995 at the end of 1995, we got married in the year 2000 by about 2003, 2004. I mean, honestly, even on our wedding day, I knew that there was no way we were going to last. I always knew we would get divorced. We weren't it. We were like oil and water.
But we didn't get divorced till 2020. So that answers the, how long did it take? Because it's not as easy with a narcissist. It's not just saying I'm unhappy. I'm leaving because there's that added layer of they're using legal abuse and financial abuse and sexual abuse and they're creating a narrative.
He was going behind my back, telling his family, even my family that I'm mentally unstable and that I'm not fit to be raising our son, trying to rally everybody so that he could go get a divorce from me and take our son. But I still say it's mine. My son is my son.
He wanted to just take all that away from me and hold that over my head that if you leave, you will have nothing, you will not have your child. You will never see him again. He even told me a few times, he's going to take our son to Mexico. I'm never going to see him again. It's terrifying.
And then you add in that they're violent. There were knives, there were guns, things were going on, prescription drugs. Fists flying, things being thrown. You get scared and you stay and you suck it up. Not because you're weak and not because you're submissive, but because you want to keep the peace for yourself.
And then when there's a child there for your child or children, as the case may be. I didn't even talk about this in my book, but we also lived on a farm and he was abusive to the animals, cows, pigs, chickens. I had a dog that had epilepsy and she would have multiple seizures every day. And that was a whole other thing that was very hard for me to deal with while also trying to prevent him.
I didn't want to provoke him from being take you out as anger on her. So there's so much to it. So it took me a long time, but here's where I tell people, you think, you know what the deal breaker is. You think that if your spouse or partner cheats on you, I'm done. I'm out of there. I'm not going to, well, you know what? He cheated on me before we got married. After we got there, I stopped even asking where he was or who he was with, because I just didn't care.
You think it's going to be when they swing a crowbar at your head and try to kill you, you think it's going to be when the domestic fight, but it's not, you figure out what your deal breaker is when it happens. And for me, what happened was he didn't harm me. I was still standing there. I was still alive, but it was when my body turned on me. Like I said when I got sick and the doctor just said, whatever this is, it's going to kill you. Stress really can kill you. That I realized was the deal breaker. That's when I said, okay, no more because nobody can save me, but me at this point. So I had to save myself.
[00:18:52] Aneta: Yeah, isn't it interesting how God or the divine or whatever you believe the universe brings in certain circumstances that you might think, this is terrible that this happened to me. But for you getting sick was actually and losing all that weight. I mean, you are physically in a very weakened state, but that was what propelled your spirit to say, Oh, I'm going to make a change here.
[00:19:17] Dana: A 100%, and I agree with you. Not everybody believes in a divine being or, whatever they believe in. But for me, I was born and raised Catholic. So faith played a big part in why I stayed, but also in why I left. Because I was so afraid to get a divorce. Catholics don't get divorced. I figured I made my bed. I lied in it. I knew who he was and I still married him and made this life with him.
But in the end, I just had to ask God to forgive me I wanted to live and I wanted to live for my son and I wanted to live for myself and I didn't believe for a second that God wanted me to suffer anymore, but I also believe that he put me in these circumstances and that I followed the path I was always meant to because I don't think it's not a coincidence to me that I was raised by these people and then rejected again by this man I spent 25 years with.
But in the midst of all that always had this ability to write and to speak to the point where I had degrees in journalism and minored in psychology. So then I was in this position in my mid-forties to say, okay, I'm done with it, but now I can use the gifts he gave me and all these experiences for good. They weren't for nothing. I'm not a victim. I led the life that I was always meant to live. And that's why when I look back, I tell people, do I hate any of them? Well, I mean, my stepfather's vile, I'm not going to lie, but I don't have an active hatred or anger towards them. Not even my ex. It was what it was.
I think those hard times are when we learn and grow, and I'm taking what I have learned do I know everything now? Can I explain everything? No, but, I'm able to elaborate on a lot of it. And I feel like that's why now I have all the tools I need right in front of me. God meant for me to be exactly where I am. having given me all of this so that I can now put it out there for anybody else who's in that situation.
I always say, I kind of crawled, clawed my way up a mud hole, a mud pit, and there are other people down there. Am I up to the top? No, but I still want to put my hand down there and help other people up to where I'm at so we can get up there together.
[00:21:47] Aneta: Absolutely. When did you get your degrees? When did you go back to school and start writing?
[00:21:53] Dana: Well, it was my degrees from DePaul go. When did I graduate? 1998? I graduated.
[00:22:01] Aneta: Okay, so while are in the relationship but before marriage.
[00:22:05] Dana: Yes, it was right before, because actually, it was right after I graduated that he proposed, which, I talk about in my first book that even I knew back then, when it happened, my ex was so concerned about getting a house and having real estate and having things.
And he saw that I graduated. I had a nice job waiting for me right out of college with a really good salary for being in my early twenties. And he couldn't have all the things he wanted on his own. And he didn't have an education and I was a resource and that's typical narcissistic behavior.
You are a sort of supply for them in some way. So I knew it. But again, I was so attached to his family. And it wasn't the thing people didn't understand too was that it's not like it was bad all the time. I did not see Chucky running down the street with a butcher knife and a striped sweater and disheveled hair and say, Hey baby, you're my type.
These are people that can be charming and funny and there are good times and we have some good memories together. It's just that when it was bad, it was a lot worse than what anybody deserves in any situation in life. But certainly, yeah, the education was there. I just had not been able to use it because what narcissists do is, first of all, he moved me 90 miles away from the city and suburbs.
So I mean, my opportunities for journalism, whether they were writing or doing something in broadcasting, he took me away from all that away from friends and family because he would only be happy if he lived in the country on a farm. And you want somebody that you're with to be happy, especially when they're abusive when they're not happy.
So I went with it and I put my needs on the back burner, which I think is something a lot of women do not do as much anymore when they realize that they deserve, better than what they've been given. But, I, like many women accommodated my husband. I made sacrifices. Then you do it for your children when you have children.
So it was always there. I had just never tapped into it, but certainly when that marriage was over, boy, I got on the internet and I got my laptop and I was writing away. So it worked out well for me.
[00:24:25] Aneta: So tell me, once you made the decision to leave and you said it was about four years ago, tell me what was that like when you were able to leave because you were in this physical state where you were not healthy. So how did you regain your strength, start a new life, and in a short amount of time, write your books find a new relationship, and get healthy? What did that look like, that timeline?
[00:24:49] Dana: It all happened so fast. Anybody that's been through, I mean, even if you just break up with somebody, you've been seeing for a few months, it's hard, but when you've been with somebody 25 years, even when it's bad, there's a lot there. It's still very emotional. Mentally there was some depression about it, but not as much because I think it had been such a long time coming.
So I think that I processed it a lot. I think maybe I had already actually processed it and it was just like, okay, now this is just the last thing. We just have to sign the papers that divide our financial assets. But the relationship itself had been over for over a decade. So that part was probably the easiest, the hardest part for me was regaining my sense of self.
Even though I was suddenly like, all about self-love and self-care. And what do I want? I'm going to pursue my dreams which I had always wanted to do. But it's not that easy when for 45 years before that, it's always been about what everybody else wanted and what everybody else expected of me and even the unspoken rules, the bounds I had to stay in.
I remember even the first night. Being in my house, my son was 17 at the time, our first night at home without my husband there, I just felt kind of lost, because I had been serving him for so long. It was always, what did he need? What did he want? What did he expect? And I remember just standing in the kitchen, kind of like a deer in headlights. Like I knew it was dinner time, but I was stunted and I'm an intelligent woman. I mean, I'd like to think I'm independent even, but I didn't know what to do with myself without this man telling me what to do because people had been telling me what to do for 45 years.
And I remember my son coming into the kitchen and glancing at me like what's wrong with you? And he's like Mom, we don't have to follow the rules anymore And it's like a light bulb went on and I'm like, you're right. So dinner doesn't have to be a certain type of meat with two sides that can't be both proteins or carbs or what? There were all these parameters for what got served for dinner So I was like, you know what here's that question again.
What do I want? It's like, you know what, I'm going to have a pint of butter pecan ice cream for dinner. That was the best dinner I've ever had. It sounds silly and we're laughing, but what a freeing and liberating thing to say, I'm going to do something I want to do. And even if it's out there and random. Boy, did that make me feel good? It gave me this sense of joy and ownership over my life.
And it was just a pint of ice cream. So that kind of led into like, he didn't like me wearing lipstick because he would tell me if I wore a lipstick, I looked like a whore. Well, I had lipstick that I liked and I wanted to wear it so I would go out and have a glass of wine with my friends after work and wear that lipstick I felt like I looked nice and I would paint my nails and I started just indulging. Those little bits of myself that I had subdued for him and it felt good. You know what? It was it felt Authentic I was being me again.
And I don't know how to explain to somebody that is like, well I'm me every day. Well, I wasn't I hadn't been me in a long time. So to feel that sense of who I was again really built my self-esteem and gave me that confidence that I needed to keep taking those baby steps forward. I'm 45, but here I come on the scene with a new writer and yeah I'm a single mom and I know I've been doing housekeeping for how many years but now I'm going to get on Podcasts and speak like I know something about something.
It's just that sense of who you are and standing firm in who you are and knowing that you are enough you are qualified you are valuable and you are worthy no matter what anybody else thinks of you.
[00:29:07] Aneta: Absolutely. And it does start small. It's like, you had all this freedom, but not necessarily the practice to indulge in it, as you said, and it starts with even the tiniest little things and appreciating it. Did you know that you were going to write a book? How did the book come to be?
[00:29:26] Dana: That's interesting, no, I had always thought it would be a cool thing to write a book. I mean, I remember back in college thinking, how cool would it be? But I was trained in journalism, so it was reporting news stories and more informational and direct communication which I know there are books out there like that.
Mine is more stories that I have put together. But where the first book came from is that I decided to leave my ex-husband right at the brink of COVID. So I spoke to an attorney about divorce without his knowledge, of course. And a week and a half later, we went into the shelter in place for COVID. So now I was locked in a house with this man who had emailed everything and the city.
Yeah, we're in a rural area. I could see my neighbors, but we were isolated. So it was a hard thing. I moved to my basement. He lived on the second floor of our house and our son had the main level. It was like, we were all quarantined under the same roof, but it wasn't fun by any means. I was very worried because of the things he was emailing, saying to me, texting me even. He was outright threatening my life.
So I felt it was necessary to make a record of some sort because I was at the point as paranoid as it sounds, I was sure that I was going to take a fall down the stairs or something was going to happen and that he would make it look like an accident, but it wouldn't be.
So I took a notebook. It's funny. It was just one of those old notebooks from my son's fourth grade that he hadn't used all the papers. So it was unsuspecting. So I started recording the day and time. This is what he texted me. This is what he said. There was an altercation between us. Sometimes he'd get into it with our son physically.
I was just basically keeping a record. Call it a journal, but I kept it hidden under the cushion of the couch in the basement because he didn't go down there much and I figured who looks under their cushions except for the ones a year we might go in there to vacuum out all the coins and crumbs and whatever.
So I figured it was safe there, but having all this time with COVID and as things were escalating, I'm like, okay, I have time on my hands and I have a laptop, so I would take some of the more atrocious occurrences and elaborate more. While they were still fresh in my memory, because of the other part of this too, I know everybody has heard this term gaslighting, but let me tell you when you are being gaslighted, you are told that how you are seeing things, the things you're hearing, the things you're seeing, your experiences have not happened, you're crazy. I never said that. It starts to wear on you when it's going on for several years.
So for me that record and then elaborating with these stories was also for my sense of knowing exactly what was what. I know I saw this, I know he said this, I'm looking at a text message where here's clearly saying, X, Y, and Z. I wanted to be completely aware and cognizant so that nobody could come back and say, I didn't say that. That didn't happen.
But that journal, essentially, all my stories are what ended up being my book and the book it's bittersweet because I'm glad that it did well as a book and it still is but it's doing well because so many people are relating to it. And it makes me sad that so many people have been through those same circumstances or similar ones. But it has also led to a lot of questions about how was I raised, what the next book was, and what came after.
[00:33:41] Aneta: What is the name of the first book?
[00:33:43] Dana: Gasping For Air: The Stranglehold Of Narcissistic Abuse.
[00:33:48] Aneta: Okay, and can people find it on Amazon and all the places?
[00:33:52] Dana: Absolutely. It's on Amazon and I have made it available as an ebook as well because I do realize at book signings, I have people buy the book and say, I'm going to give it to my daughter or my son or whoever. And I'm like, yeah, it says narcissistic abuse on it. That's probably not something they want on their coffee table if they're in that circumstance.
So the ebook is available for people if they need to have that situation kind of hidden. But yes, it is available. And I encourage people to take a read, even people who have not been through narcissistic abuse. I've been told it's a page-turner and that it's just a good story about a toxic relationship. I wish I could feel the same. It wasn't so fun living it, but I'm glad it's resonating and opening people's eyes to the reality of it.
[00:34:39] Aneta: Yeah. So tell me what's next for you, Dana. So you're in this new stage of life. Sounds like everything is going well. You've been able to manifest this beautiful life. What is next? What are you looking forward to?
[00:34:53] Dana: The healing, I think the journey is lifelong. I can't say I'm fully healed. There are still days when I stumble and hear all the messages, the narrative that people thought about me before, and it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of effort. So I'm kind of at that point, I tell people, when you're on an airplane and the oxygen masks, if they drop, you're supposed to cover yourself first before you pick your favorite child or your husband or whoever you're going to help next.
And that's kind of where I'm at. I've got to take care of myself while these next two books are being released. I've got to heal some wounds that, I kind of poked some bruises while I was writing these books. So I kind of sense where I still need to do a little work inside, but while I am doing that, I am looking forward to just basically being a resource for people to direct them if they're ready and willing to be more and be better and be healed.
And I will probably next year, take on more speaking gigs and just be talking more openly about it. But most of all, my wish for myself is just to be able to live in the present and put the past in the past and leave it there. Like I said, it was what it was. It served its purpose. I am learning and growing still, and other people are learning and growing from it as well. But I'm ready to move forward. I want to live for now. I want to be happy and I want to be at peace. And so that's my goal for the rest of my days, however long they may be.
[00:36:26] Aneta: That's wonderful. Well, I definitely will encourage folks to take a look at your books. We'll include all the details in the show notes. And there's a final question that I ask everyone, Dana, which is what does it mean to you to live the width of your life?
[00:36:42] Dana: I think it's just being true and honest with yourself. Because if you can be honest with yourself, then I think everything else falls into place.
[00:36:52] Aneta: Beautiful answer. I wish you continued success. Thank you for doing this work. Thank you for sharing your story so that others may benefit and also maybe find the day and the courage to make some changes for themselves as well.
[00:37:08] Dana: Wonderful. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:37:10] Aneta: Thank you.
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