The greatest regret of the dying*

“I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself.”

For most of my life, stillness eluded me. My mind was a relentless scanning machine, forever searching for what was wrong or what came next, but rarely present to the joy of the moment.

It took me a virtual lifetime to recognize that this exterior version of me, with its incessant mental chatter and negative bias, was not my true self. I went in search of me.

Most of us drift through life, nodding along to the question, “How are you?” while never pausing to ask ourselves: How am I really doing? Who am I beneath this surface? We avoid the deeper truths lurking just below, often disconnected from our true, loving and authentic self.

I know I'm not alone. We all yearn to break free from the chains of unconscious patterns. If I can shift, I believe most can. There is a path.

Howard Steinberg

* Bonnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying

Howard Steinberg
Confessions of a Problem Seeker: book cover
#1 Bestseller, Survivor Biographies and Memoirs

The Journey

One life, told in six turns, from inherited fear to hard-won stillness.

  1. The Inheritance

    Born to survivors

    The son of Holocaust survivors in New York. The trauma was unspoken but ever-present. Life was to be survived. Joy was not to be trusted.

  2. Age Ten

    A diagnosis for life

    Type 1 diabetes arrived with dark, looming warnings. A boy learned to live with constant vigilance, in secrecy, and the quiet weight of what could happen.

  3. Adulthood

    The builder

    Built companies and a “successful” family life, a haven for a fearful restless mind, on a shaky foundation.

  4. Midlife

    The reckoning

    Divorce. Professional loss. An emptiness that success and survival instincts could no longer mask. The unshakable question: who am I beneath all this?

  5. Later Life

    The awakening

    Hunkered down, dug deep and found an opening to inner connection with the aid of teachers and plant medicine: Ayahuasca and other modalities.

  6. Now

    The return

    From busy brain to loving heart. Shedding an old identity to come home to an authentic, present self. There is a path.

“

We are all a complex alchemy of genetics, neuroscience, and our own individual childhood experiences that form a persona to navigate life. Rarely do we pause to examine what lies beneath our busy identities.

From Confessions of a Problem Seeker

Early praise

What readers are saying

“A profound and gritty human journey of reclamation. Reading it evokes that rare elation that only comes when another human is fully open.”

Jessica Flynn

Psychotherapist, LMSW

“A gripping, radically raw life story of reinvention. It speaks to striving professionals who have mastered the game, only to wonder why they're still running.”

Tom Rogers

Founder of CNBC and MSNBC, media industry leader and digital pioneer

“An inspiration for how, through spiritual inquiry and awareness, we can befriend all of our inner parts and find profound healing.”

Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Founder of Internal Family Systems, author of No Bad Parts

“I found myself laughing at his self-deprecating humor one moment, and wiping away tears the next.”

Mariela Glandt, M.D.

Endocrinologist, Founder, Owna Health

“An honest and transformative memoir. Howard's writing style is a joy to read.”

Loch Kelly

M.Div, LCSW, author of Shift Into Freedom

“Howard Steinberg writes like the funniest guy at the recovery meeting: open and wounded, yet somehow still optimistic and full of light.”

Brian Loew

Founder, Inspire Health

“More than a book; it's a gift to the type 1 diabetes community and a reminder that no one walks this journey alone.”

Aaron J. Kowalski, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF)

“A courageous and luminous memoir. Steinberg shows the path through trauma can open into freedom of the heart.”

Kathleen Stansberry, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Elon University

“A testament of resilience, self-discovery and the spirit to keep going after more than 55 years with this condition.”

Gary Hall Jr.

Olympic Swimming Champion (5 Gold Medals) with Type 1 Diabetes

“A profound and gritty human journey of reclamation. Reading it evokes that rare elation that only comes when another human is fully open.”

Jessica Flynn

Psychotherapist, LMSW

“A gripping, radically raw life story of reinvention. It speaks to striving professionals who have mastered the game, only to wonder why they're still running.”

Tom Rogers

Founder of CNBC and MSNBC, media industry leader and digital pioneer

“An inspiration for how, through spiritual inquiry and awareness, we can befriend all of our inner parts and find profound healing.”

Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Founder of Internal Family Systems, author of No Bad Parts

“I found myself laughing at his self-deprecating humor one moment, and wiping away tears the next.”

Mariela Glandt, M.D.

Endocrinologist, Founder, Owna Health

“An honest and transformative memoir. Howard's writing style is a joy to read.”

Loch Kelly

M.Div, LCSW, author of Shift Into Freedom

“Howard Steinberg writes like the funniest guy at the recovery meeting: open and wounded, yet somehow still optimistic and full of light.”

Brian Loew

Founder, Inspire Health

“More than a book; it's a gift to the type 1 diabetes community and a reminder that no one walks this journey alone.”

Aaron J. Kowalski, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer, Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF)

“A courageous and luminous memoir. Steinberg shows the path through trauma can open into freedom of the heart.”

Kathleen Stansberry, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Elon University

“A testament of resilience, self-discovery and the spirit to keep going after more than 55 years with this condition.”

Gary Hall Jr.

Olympic Swimming Champion (5 Gold Medals) with Type 1 Diabetes

Read all endorsements

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A conversation on survival instincts, healing, and the search for an authentic self, the heart of Confessions of a Problem Seeker.

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Confessions of a Problem Seeker by Howard Steinberg: book cover

The Book

Confessions of a Problem Seeker

My Lifetime Journey From Busy Brain To Loving Heart

Confessions of a Problem Seeker is a raw and unflinchingly honest memoir of one man's midlife reckoning and search to find his soul. As a childhood shaped by trauma and illness gave way to an illusion of adult success and purpose, marriage, fatherhood, entrepreneurial achievement, the author finds himself grappling with the unshakable feeling that he has lived a life shaped more by fear and survival instincts than by inner truth.