We have been taught to see ourselves through a lens sharpened by guilt, fear, and obligation. To punish ourselves for not doing more, being more, perfecting the impossible. That voice—the “I should have” or “I must”—is not yours. It is the echo of brainwashing, the culture’s chains, the conditioning we all inherited.
When you act to appease that voice, you are not becoming more yourself. You are abandoning yourself. You are bending to “them,” to the pressures that demand obedience, compliance, and shame. When you feel resistance, when your body screams No! Don’t leave me!, listen. That is the self speaking. That is the sacred self calling you home.
Clarity, desire, pleasure, purpose—these are your true guides. Make choices from them, and reclaim the power that was never theirs to take.
Start small. List what you think you “have” to do. Ask yourself: Am I choosing this? Whose need does this serve? When your actions are rooted in your own desire, when they serve you, the chains of control begin to break.
Other people can trigger feelings, but they are never the source. The source is always within you. Power exists only where you grant it, knowingly or unknowingly. Blame, judgment, self-punishment—they fragment the soul. Step into the power of your choice, and you step into your own sovereignty.
Break the lens. Hear the self. Reclaim the life that is yours alone.
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