Know what you'd do in the event of a breakup, a job loss, the freaking apocalypse. 

Have a savings account, an escape already planned. 

If you are in pain in any way or something makes you uncomfortable, that means something is not right. Figure out why.

That "something" could be a choice to change your life but most often, it's a shift in how you see yourself and what you focus on most.

When you know what your feelings are, they're not scary anymore.

You won't start a war to saying: "I don't appreciate you speaking about me in this way," but you will reinforce a kind of self-empowerment that most people never develop in the first place.

Once you know where it began, you can realize that you perhaps adopted the wrong idea about yourself based on what you thought was true in the moment.

If you struggle with low self-esteem, for example, imagine the first time you felt ashamed of yourself. Think about what made you feel that ...