Preloading

How Letting In Pain Can Make You the Person You're Meant to Be

Season 7 Episode 714
Aired on 09/11/2016 | CC tv-14
As a self-described "recovering addict to everything," Oprah's Book Club author Glennon Doyle Melton says she used food, alcohol and drugs to hide from her pain. We all have our "easy buttons," she says, which we push in an attempt to numb our pain and loneliness, whether it's sex, shopping, overworking or even unkindness toward others.

Still, what Glennon discovered after years of battling addiction and bulimia is that embracing pain can transform and enrich your life. "Pain is a traveling professor," she says. "And it just goes and knocks on everyone's door. And the smartest people I know are the people who say, 'Come in and just don't leave until you've taught me what I need to know.'"

Here, Glennon offers her hard-won wisdom on how letting in pain can bring about healing and help you fulfill your true potential.

More About Oprah's Book Club
Order your copy of Love Warrior online or pick it up at your local bookstore or library. You can also start reading a free preview now. Visit Oprah.com/bookclub to learn more about the book, and check out our FAQ page to get info on how to participate.

Glennon Doyle Melton is also teaching an online course with vulnerability researcher Brené Brown in which she dives deeper into the work featured in Love Warrior. Learn more about the course!