Please Don't Eat the Script: Waking Up from the Silent Performance is a profoundly personal, soul-stirring invitation to stop performing for the world and start becoming who you were always meant to be.

Author Shirley A. Stephens delivers a raw, redemptive look at what happens when the roles we've played for too long, the caretaker, the provider, the achiever, and the strong one, begin to collapse under the weight of expectation. Part memoir, part mirror, and part guide, this book gently leads readers through the robust process of awakening, releasing, and rebuilding.

I began writing this book after a series of honest conversations with a friend, the kind of conversations most people avoid until they're at their breaking point. What began as a reflection quickly became a revelation.

"Each chapter started talking back to me," she says. "I didn't realize I was writing a book that would help me heal in real time."

With honesty and grace, Please Don't Eat the Script explores the quiet exhaustion of living on autopilot and the courage it takes to stop pretending you're fine. Through a blend of storytelling, faith, and practical wisdom, Stephens helps readers recognize the "scripts" they've inherited, those unspoken rules and expectations about who they should be, and invites them to lay them down finally.

This book is more than a roadmap; it's a refuge. It's for the woman who's tired of trying to hold it all together. The man who feels unseen beneath the pressure to perform. The believer who's lost their rhythm with God. It's for anyone ready to stop running and start receiving peace, grace, and the permission to be.

Inside, readers will find:

• Reflections that bridge faith, emotion, and self-awareness
• "Pause + Process" prompts to guide personal growth
• Gentle reminders that healing doesn't erase you; it reveals you
• A message of restoration for those walking through transition

Please Don't Eat the Script reminds us that awakening isn't a destination; it's a daily decision. It's the art of slowing down long enough to listen, release, and rediscover joy right where you are.

For anyone standing at the edge of change, weary, hopeful, or somewhere in between, this book whispers:

You don't have to perform to be loved. You have to wake up to who you already are.