The Shape of Healing: Choosing Myself Through Self-Publishing

I didn’t set out to write a chapbook.

I did set out to survive.

The Shape of Healing started as a handful of messy poems ✍️— scraps of thought, half-formed prayers, a way to make sense of the storm inside me. I wasn’t trying to make something beautiful. I was just trying to stay afloat.

Somewhere along the way, though, something shifted.

The words began to stitch themselves together. Little by little, they stopped being cries into the void and started becoming a map — a record of healing I hadn’t even realized was happening.

Finishing the manuscript was harder than I thought it would be. There’s a strange grief in calling something "done," 💔 especially when it's woven from broken places. Part of me wondered if putting a period on the last line meant closing a chapter that I wasn't ready to let go of.

But the bigger part of me — the part that survived — knew it was time.

Healing isn’t about erasing the past.

It’s about permitting yourself to move forward with it.

Choosing to self-publish feels just as raw. There’s a temptation to wait for someone else’s approval — for a publisher, a contest win, an outside voice to tell me, "Yes, your words are good enough."

But healing has taught me better.

No one else gets to tell me my story is valid.

No one else gets to gatekeep my voice.

So, I’m doing it myself — messy, imperfect, and real. Exactly like the journey that got me here.

Self-publishing The Shape of Healing isn’t just about making a book. It’s about standing up and saying: I am worth the space I take up. It’s about honoring the woman who once believed she was too broken to ever be whole again.

I’m still figuring it out — the layout, the cover art, the blurbs, all the things.

Some days, I still hear the old voices whispering, Who do you think you are?

But louder than that, there's a new voice inside me now.

And she's saying: Who I am is enough. 🛡️

I want to take you all on this journey with me as I navigate this process, so stay tuned 🚀✨ and thank you for being part of this journey. The Shape of Healing is getting ready to meet the world.

#poetry #recoveryjourney #life