A lot of the ways we turn away from ourselves began as protection. At some point it really did feel safer not to feel too much, not to look too closely, not to stay with what hurt. These were the strategies that helped us get through things we didn’t yet have the support or capacity to face.

And they worked — until they didn’t. Over time, the very things that once kept us safe can start to hold us back. The turning away that protected us can become the thing that keeps us stuck, cut off from our feelings, our needs, and the parts of us that have been waiting to be met.

Awareness starts when we begin to turn back toward ourselves, slowly, gently, with as little judgment as possible. Acceptance isn’t about agreeing with what’s happening; it’s more like letting ourselves be with our experience as it is. When we stop pushing parts of ourselves away, something often shifts. The body softens. There’s a bit more room to breathe.

And in that space, change becomes possible. Not the big dramatic kind, but the quieter shifts that come from feeling met and understood. New choices show up. Old patterns loosen their grip. Ways of being that once felt out of reach start to feel a little closer.

We don’t transform by forcing ourselves to be different. We transform by understanding how we learned to protect ourselves — and by discovering what becomes possible when we no longer have to hold everything alone.