Releasing each piece of your truth is like dropping a brick you’ve been carrying in your chest. Except you didn’t know you were carrying it until it was dropped and you all of a sudden felt lighter in the heart.

Emotional abandonment is leaving our emotional needs unattended, often without acknowledging or addressing it with a response. That can leave us feeling confused, unsettled and unloved for a long time.

Knowing we are whole and complete takes us out of the mentality of not being good enough when pursuing self-improvement, and puts us in the mindset of empowerment instead. This way, we are on a journey of discovery rather than a search for something we don’t have.

As someone who grew up in Hong Kong during the 80’s and 90’s and has been living in Australia for nearly three decades, I often ponder questions regarding my identity: Who am I? Chinese, British overseas citizen, or Australian?

Forgive me, children,

in my stained-glassed pride
I tried to hold us all together,
masking a disfigurement of peace—

While I am glad I have healers to look up to, healing inherently is an individualized journey. My healing will not look like anyone else’s, but I often fail to miss this important distinction.