Danielle Eckhart
Bio
I write literary stories about people navigating suffering, power, and love, asking how meaning and responsibility survive when life breaks open.
Stories (26)
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Open February 25th: An Honest Letter to The Hopeful Finalists
Today is February 25th and the Vocal+ Fiction Awards Finalists will be announced. Twenty-five talented writers will be ecstatic! The other one thousand will be disappointed. There's a 97% chance that I will be a part of the latter. Call it damage control, this is a reference letter to return to as needed.
By Danielle Eckhart4 years ago in Motivation
Forget Mondays & Januarys
By now, you've likely listed all the different ways to transform your life for 2022. Whether it's to become healthy, meet new friends, start your own business, adopt a pet, drink less, or smile more: Most people use this time to reflect on the past and plan for the future.
By Danielle Eckhart4 years ago in Motivation
The Lotus Effect
"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering." - Friedrich Nietzsche Why is it a person can go through an event that shakes them to the core, rattles their soul, or breaks their heart and they later say "I wouldn't change a thing."? We dislike or fear what causes us pain, yet in some situations, the lesson we learn may be worth the cost of such struggles.
By Danielle Eckhart4 years ago in Motivation
Self Love For 'Devalued' Kids. Top Story - October 2021.
It's no secret that the early years of our lives shape who we become as adults. Isn't it frightening how so much of our childhood is out of our hands? A devalued kid is someone raised with little to no praise, validation, positivity, or acceptance. The result is things like poor self-esteem, passive-aggressive or avoidance behavior, and people-pleasing personalities. Such behaviors may have begun as survival or coping mechanisms. As grown-ups, it feels as if we left our parents' house and packed the wrong baggage. We've held onto the baggage for so long we don't how else to live. We don't know where or how to start building the right tools we need to let ourselves grow into our potential. Omar Hameed describes The Devalued Self in The Devalued Self: Childhood Emotional Abandonment, Devaluation of the Self, and Anxiety:
By Danielle Eckhart4 years ago in Psyche
Undoing
Karla swung her feet out of bed. She listened for the noise of Secret Service agents patrolling the corridors. Harry slept in a separate suite alone. Her husband was estranged ever since his workers found the brown paper box. What an idiot, she thought, to think I'd get away with it.
By Danielle Eckhart5 years ago in Fiction
Follow At Your Own Risk
Rory didn't notice how badly I wanted to be her. Or maybe she was used to people acting strangely in her presence. She tended to get into trouble. Yet she could've smooth talked her way out of anything. I grew up on the straight and narrow side and I desperately craved the thrill of the risk.
By Danielle Eckhart5 years ago in Fiction
