Book excerpt: A guide to finding peace, love, freedom, and joy Shit happens, and when it does, the voice in our heads that we choose to listen to—and believe—determines whether we’ll land in Victimtown or Freedomville. In Navigating Shitstorms, Liz Long shares her challenges and successes in battling the destructive Victimtown voices that control through fear and invites you to amplify your heart voice, your own source of innate wisdom, to guide you to Freedomville. Having spent more than fifty years stuck in Victimtown as a result of her close family member’s disappearance in 1968, a case that continues to be one of Canada’s longest unsolved murder investigations, Liz knows the terrain as well as any local. Touring Victimtown’s most popular attractions—such as the Guilt & Shame Café, the Control Factory, the Denial Trails, and more—Liz demonstrates that while short visits offer life lessons and healing, extended stays lead to all kinds of problems. This groundbreaking framework to understanding the voices in your head will enable you to • open healing conversations with yourself and others by equipping you with an accessible language to discuss mental health, • reframe your shitty inner dialogues by embracing a new awareness, and • discover your own route to Freedomville by learning to love yourself without limits or conditions. Written in Liz’s fresh and relatable voice and interspersed with her funny-not-funny memories, Navigating Shitstorms will take you on a personal journey to make sense of how you got to where you are now and find your true life course.