Embracing the Journey of Healing: Choosing Courage in Everyday Life

Excerpt from Chapter 28 of Naive Perceptions by Tammy Evans (Coming Spring 2026)

Repair Guide — The Journey Forward: Embracing the Healing Process

Healing isn’t a finish line; it’s the quiet courage to choose differently—today, tomorrow, and the next day.

This chapter invites the reader into life beyond survival, where truth leads, shame loosens, and repair becomes a daily practice.

THE WORK AHEAD IS SIMPLE, NOT EASY

Healing is not found in dramatic gestures—it’s found in small, repeated choices: choosing pause over panic, repair over reaction, honesty over avoidance, boundaries over resentment, rest over over performance, connection over control, and love over shame.

1. THE WORK AHEAD IN THE CLASSROOM

Your healing helps you see the children who remind you of yourself. The work ahead is regulating before responding, modeling calm, separating behavior from worth, repairing quickly, and offering steadiness. You cannot change every child’s home, but you can change how they experience themselves at school.

2. THE WORK AHEAD ON THE FIELD

Sports reveal the nervous system. The work ahead is coaching the person, not the performance—grounding instead of escalating, teaching pressure as a skill, replacing shame with clarity, and showing athletes what regulated leadership looks like.

3. THE WORK AHEAD AT HOME

Your healing becomes your children’s inheritance. The work ahead involves apologizing when needed, noticing triggers, repairing quickly, modeling boundaries, speaking with compassion, and teaching your children emotional language. Presence—not perfection—is what matters.

4. THE WORK AHEAD FOR YOURSELF

This is the quiet, unseen work: taking walks, resting without guilt, choosing truth, honoring limits, letting go of old roles, and living as the healed version of yourself. Self-healing is not selfish; it’s leadership.

WELCOME TO THE LIFE BEYOND SURVIVAL

Survival shaped you; healing frees you.

This is the life where you speak without guilt, say no without fear, trust your boundaries, respond instead of react, and live without carrying everyone else.

This is the reward for the work you've done.

TCP CARD — The Work Ahead

Teach

• Your daily regulation becomes a child’s emotional foundation.

• Consistency teaches safety.

• Connection is how we change outcomes.

Coach

• Grounded leadership transforms teams.

• Athletes rise when shame leaves the field.

• Coaching is nervous system work.

Parent

• Repair is your superpower.

• Your growth becomes theirs.

• Home becomes healing when safety becomes the standard.