Sarah Carvel: I feel like it kept shifting kept shifting as relationships between self and other always are shifting. For me, it was rage. My experiences with doctors, the fact that I wasn't getting better, my inability to express myself produced so much rage. And somehow writing a book made sense of it for me. So I do think putting language to it and not having it be buried in non-language helped me get it out of my viscera someway.
Earlier this year, our listener, Rell, nearly failed a promotion. Not because she was unprepared or unqualified, but because she didn’t maintain enough eye contact with the interviewers. Rell’s eye hasn’t been fully receiving information since she was born, a condition that’s outwardly visible and known colloquially as a “lazy eye.” It’s beginning to affect her self-confidence and is this “ugly thing [she] can’t let go of.” On this episode of How To!, new co-host Carvell Wallace brings on Sarah Ruhl. Sarah is an award-winning playwright, and author who wrote about her experience with Bell’s palsy in her recent book, Smile: The Story of a Face. Sarah has some wonderful advice for letting go of your inner rage, making interactions with strangers less painful, and even finding people who light up your mirror neurons.
If you liked this episode, check out: “How To Dress with Confidence.”
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