Past Present: How to Stop Making the Same Relationship Mistakes---and Start Building a Better Life

Past Present shows readers how to change destructive relationship patterns by identifying the root issues from their pasts and finding the source of healing for their unique stories. No matter where we are in life, both our greatest joys and our deepest heartaches are linked to the people in our lives--family, friends, or coworkers. And each of us brings both beauty and brokenness into relationships. The origins of our beauty and our brokenness often can be traced to the patterns of relating we learned when we were young. We relate to others in ways that reflect the distorted messages we heard and internalized earlier in life. The good news is this: we don't have to remain stuck in these patterns. In Past Present, Scott Vaudrey equips us with tools and a strategy to identify the messages we've internalized--both as children and as adults--from the influential people in our lives; refute and repair the distorted messages that led to unhelpful patterns now holding us back; and recognize the productive messages we've internalized and maximize the strengths they built into us along the way. We can't undo yesterday. But we can do the rest of our lives better.