What is shame? How does it come into a person’s life? How does it affect a person’s life? Is shame a positive experience, or a negative one – or both? How does a person separate from an experience of shame?

This question asks readers to engage, critically and thoughtfully, with one of the book’s core themes. On a fundamental level, and as she portrays herself, one of the key struggles in the author’s life was to overcome the shame she experienced in several defining circumstances, including her experience with chronic pain. In the book, she identifies some of the sources of that shame, as well as some of the ways by which she strove to overcome it. In short, experiences of both aspects of shame are a fundamental component of the journey referenced in the book’s title. This question asks readers to engage...