Learning to Live Again

A reflection on alignment There was a time I chased things that felt uncertain. People. Situations. Connections that left me questioning myself. I thought if I tried harder… if I explained myself better… or if I gave just a little more… everything would finally settle. But it never did. Many of us were taught to keep fixing relationships, especially with family. To keep trying. To keep forgiving. To keep showing up, even when it hurts. But healing taught me that love doesn’t

A reflection on emotional safety In the last few years, I’ve noticed how much I pause before responding to people. Not because my voice doesn’t matter. Not because I don’t have something to say. But because I’m learning where my voice feels safe, respected, and aligned. There was a time I felt the need to respond to everything. To explain. To engage. To correct. But not every situation requires your voice. Healing taught me that silence can be protection. Not avoidance. Not w

A reflection on self-worth Choosing myself didn’t come naturally at first. It came with guilt. Questioning. Overthinking. Wondering if I was being selfish. Because so many of us are raised to believe we are meant to take care of everyone else before ourselves. That our role is to carry others. To hold everything together. To keep giving, even when we’re exhausted. But constantly pouring into everyone else while abandoning yourself… isn’t balance. It drains you. Mentally. Emot

A reflection on soft release I used to think letting go had to come with anger. With closure. With answers. With something that made it make sense. But not everything ends that way. Some things just… complete. Without a conversation. Without an explanation. Without a clear ending. And healing taught me that’s okay. I’ve learned that sometimes we don’t get the answer. And even though that can feel hard, it doesn’t always mean something bad happened. Sometimes when doors close,

A reflection on growth and identity There was a version of me that stayed longer than she should have. She gave more chances. She waited. She hoped things would change. And I don’t judge her. She did what she knew at the time. But I’m not her anymore. Healing showed me that growth doesn’t always look like adding something new. Sometimes it looks like recognizing… you’ve outgrown what you once tolerated. And that realization changes everything. I don’t stay where I feel misali

A reflection on choosing calm over validation There was a time I wanted to be understood. To be heard. To be seen clearly. I wanted people to get where I was coming from. But I realized something over time… Not everyone will. And trying to make them understand… often took more from me than it gave. It left me drained. Over-explaining. Replaying conversations in my head. Healing shifted that for me. Peace became more important. More important than proving my point. More import

A reflection on boundaries and self-respect There was a time I felt like I had to explain everything. Why I felt the way I did. Why I made certain choices. Why something no longer felt right. I thought if I explained it well enough… people would understand. And if they understood… they would accept it. But that wasn’t always true. And honestly… it became exhausting. Healing showed me something different. Not everyone needs an explanation. Not everyone will understand. And tha

A reflection on intuition, self-trust, and inner knowing There was a time I didn’t trust myself. Even when I felt something clearly… I would question it. Second guess it. Talk myself out of it. Look for reassurance outside of me. I thought other people knew better. I thought I needed confirmation. I thought I needed to be sure. But deep down… I already knew. Healing didn’t just teach me awareness. It taught me trust. Trust in what I feel. Trust in what my body tells me. Trust

A reflection on boundaries, self-respect, and choosing yourself Some relationships didn’t fade quietly. They had to end. Not because I lacked compassion — but because staying meant continuing to abandon myself. There were relatives and people in my life who never valued me. Who minimized my pain. Who crossed boundaries and called it love. Who expected access without respect. Healing made that impossible to ignore. I tried explaining. I tried understanding. I tried giving chan

A reflection on connection, regulation, and trust There was a time when I chose people based on familiarity. History. Shared experiences. Who had been there the longest. But healing shifted something fundamental. I began choosing people through my body instead. Through safety. Safety didn’t feel exciting. It didn’t feel intense. It didn’t come with urgency or pull. It felt calm. It felt like my shoulders dropping. My breath slowing. My nervous system not needing to brace. I n

A reflection on growth, boundaries, and choosing peace When you change, your relationships change too. Not because you’ve become cold. Not because you stopped loving. But because you stopped abandoning yourself. Healing has a way of rearranging things — gently at first, then honestly. What once felt familiar may begin to feel heavy. What once felt normal may begin to feel misaligned. And that can be uncomfortable. For a long time, I believed that keeping relationships intact

A reflection on safety, trust, and coming home to yourself Feeling safe again didn’t happen all at once. It didn’t arrive as a moment or a milestone. It came quietly — in my body, in my breath, and in my ability to say no without guilt. For a long time, safety felt like something outside of me. Something dependent on circumstances. On people. On outcomes. Something fragile. Healing showed me otherwise. Feeling safe again wasn’t about controlling my environment. It was about l

A reflection on grief, remembrance, and love beyond form Love doesn’t end when someone leaves this world. It changes shape — but it continues. For a long time, I thought honoring love meant holding tightly to what was lost. Replaying memories. Gripping moments. Measuring love by absence. But healing taught me something softer. Truer. Far more grounding. Honoring love isn’t about living in the past. It’s about allowing love to keep moving — through memory, through presence, th

When Grief Becomes a Teacher Each day, I am still learning new things about my own grief. There is no right or wrong way to walk with it. There is only the way it unfolds inside each of us. Grief did not arrive to break me. It arrived to slow me down. At first, I resisted it. I thought grief was something to survive — something to push through, something that would eventually loosen its grip if I stayed strong enough. But grief had other plans. What grief taught me — slowly a

= The Healing Journey Series was the telling of my story. How I survived. How I integrated. How I learned to live again. What comes next isn’t a continuation of that story. It’s a pause. A breath. A space for reflection, presence, and lived wisdom. From here on, I write about healing as it actually unfolds — through my body, through the nervous system, through intuition, through grief, through boundaries, through rest, and through meaning. Not as a destination. Not as somethi