When we meet someone who is very different from us, we can be quick to dismiss them because how they think and believe doesn't make sense to us. Sometimes, the differences are so fundamental that there can be no reconciliation or compromise.

Is it still possible to love those people?

You reach your wits’ end and your current way of being isn’t working for the life you want, so you decide to make a real change. You have built enough awareness to discover a pattern of self-sabotage you’ve been repeating throughout your life.

What I’ve discovered is that most people in any given community are there for the same reasons I am, to feel a sense of belonging. They’re hoping to find genuine connections, to share knowledge and interests, and create lasting friendships.

Our logic isn’t always reliable when faced with a decision that can affect our not-so-tangible faculties like our emotions, self-esteem or general well-being. Our mind could snap into survival mode to try and protect us from hurt and harm.

We have forgotten how to love and be loved, because love has become such a complicated matter. Many end up spending their life chasing the idea of love while putting up barriers to protect themselves from the pain of losing love.

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.

Many of us were raised to have the capacity to attract good things in life. Fewer of us have the capacity to attract a flow of good things into our life continuously. Yet, there are also many who were conditioned to sabotage or block good things from entering or staying in their lives.

Somehow, my traumatic past made me feel special in a way. I had been telling those stories for so long that without them, I feared, I would just be ordinary.

Who are we?… It’s tempting to go identity-shopping and look for the answers outside of ourselves, but this way, we only end up building more layers on top of who we really are.

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.

Experiencing triggered emotions is simply human. We each have our own specific pain points that others may not be aware of or understand. The speed and intensity of those reactions vary from person to person.

Forgive me, children,

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