How we truly heal…

Sometimes I’ll admit to using AI and ChatGPT to start some of these articles/blogs…

To be honest, it feels as I am reading some of the context it creates it’s another version of myself typing it out.

It provided valuable content at times.

But the truth is, we lose a lot when it comes to writing when we allow AI to take over.

Some say it will contribute to a “hive mind” of some sort as we all reframe our minds to an all encompassed database.

Maybe that future has begun already. But I believe we will one day come back to what we once knew. The emotions behind the writing. The depth of the writer that gave their soul to have the courage to take the pen to paper.

AI might help us become more efficient, but it will never take us closer to what is needed in a world built by technology.

And that is ourselves.

Our true self.

The one that was seeing the world in a brand new lens before the world told you who to be.

Before the bills had to be paid…
Before the child cried across the table…
Before responsibility carved lines into the soft places of your life…

There was a light in you that didn’t ask for permission to shine.
A spark that danced before you ever learned the choreography of survival.

Before you chased desires handed to you by a world that profits from your longing…
Before you believed that happiness lived somewhere “out there,” just beyond the next achievement, the next purchase, the next badge of success…

There was a version of you that simply was.
Unedited. Unfiltered. Unafraid.

A light that didn’t know the language of comparison.
A softness untouched by deadlines, expectations, or the grind.
A flame that flickered with curiosity, not exhaustion.

But life has a way of molding us…shaping us in its image until we forget our own.
The world pushes, pulls, demands…and slowly we trade wonder for worry, presence for productivity, truth for validation.

Yet the light never leaves.
It hides beneath the noise, the roles, the titles of pride, the armor…waiting for the moment you remember you were meant to glow, not just get through the day.

So somewhere along the way, we stopped asking who we are and started obsessing over what’s next.

Next promotion to chase after. Next vacation to take a few pictures to post while we slowly pull into anxiety thinking about when it’s all over.

We traded inner truth for outer trophies, as if meaning could be earned, bought, or achieved.

And we sprint through days, through years, through entire seasons of our life…chasing something we can’t even name.

This emptiness in us that never seems to die. To fill. To even come to surface.

Is it success? Is it approval? Is it the feeling of “enough” that always seems one step ahead of us?

What is it we are really running toward?
A title?
A number in a bank account?
A version of ourselves shaped by expectation, not authenticity?

Or are we chasing the light we lost…hoping the next milestone will hand it back to us?

We keep running to try and chase something that never seems attainable.

When the whole time we were looking for ourself.

Deep down.

That inner child.

The one who lost his or her way.

Before the trauma.

The heartbreak.

The weight that you never asked to carry.

But behind it all we still keep going.

Knowing this truth that there is this hidden part in you waiting to resurface.

To let go of the past and all that has been seen. And done.

Sometimes I wonder if the pain will ever go away.

But then I think about it again.

The suffering got me to where I am today.

To this point writing these words I type out today.

And I am grateful for it. Each and every moment of it.

Some I never want to relive in my mind again. But each moment they do is a reminder for how grateful I am today.

I don’t know where this journey is meant to take us. I am done trying to guess. To control it.

What I do know is I am going to spend all my efforts helping those around me, to help fight through the pain…the suffering…and the battles they endure in their head and in the external.

Because we don’t have to go through this alone.

From what I have learned over the years of meditation, sound healing, breathwork classes, mindset training, and ceremonies surrounded by people with pain in their eyes…

Is that although we all may endure different types of suffering and pain, there is a commonality to it all.

It’s about love.

Love that was lost. Love that was taken away. Love that was manipulated...cheated. Love that was abandoned. Love that was abusive. Love that never existed. And the love that once burned fiercely within us that flickered under the pressure of the world.

Each story may carry a different perspective, a different weight. But as humans we all seek this love.

And it starts within.

We are all here to figure out our path. To endure the moments of joy that subside to moments of sorrow. But we wouldn’t truly understand one without the other.

But to understand this means to understand that in those moments of sorrow…of pain…a darkness that won’t loosen its grip.

That these moments too will past. And if you keep putting your best foot forward each and every day…you will find that light. That joy once again.

Maybe it comes with a different shine. A different tune.

But it will come.

There are things we can do each day to help make sure we are in the best state to take on all times. The good, the bad, and everything in between.

They’ve always been there all along. We just have lost our way.

But like any hero’s journey.

There is a return.

A return to what was once ours.

A return to a belief so strong it can never be shaken.

A return to you. A belief in you.

Your heart.

Your inner child.

Your soul that has been whispering in your ear each step of the way.

So it is time to go home.

Reconnect to your true state.

And light the fire within so you can carry it on to the next.

Because one day, there will be someone else that needs it.

And it will be all worth it.

Your suffering becomes someone else’s teacher.

After you understand it yourself first.

But here’s the truth most of us forget…the light never actually leaves.

It waits.

Patiently.

Beneath the noise.

Underneath every version of you that life forced you to become.

And when you finally decide to turn inward instead of outward… it rises again.

And as it returns, something beautiful happens…

You begin to see that your light was never meant just for you.

It becomes a lantern for others still stumbling through their own darkness.

Because when you remember your light, you give others permission to remember theirs too.

And that is how we heal…

One regained glow at a time.