Nobody warns you about this part. That feeling you have, the one that whispers you’re not enough, that you’re too much, that you’re fundamentally unlovable? That’s not you. Not the real you, anyway. It’s the ghost of a small child, your younger self, tugging at your sleeve, desperate to be seen. You feel it, don’t you? A hollowness in the chest, a tightness in the throat when you’re about to ask for what you need. You find yourself apologizing for your very existence, shrinking to make others comfortable, or maybe you swing the other way, building walls of anger and defiance to keep anyone from getting too close. These aren’t personality traits. They are survival strategies. They are the echoes of a time when your needs went unmet, when your voice was silenced, when your heart was broken in a thousand tiny ways that no one ever acknowledged. We walk around in our adult suits, pretending we’re in control, pretending we’re making rational decisions. It’s a lie. For more on this, see guidance for the healing journey. A collective delusion. The truth is, for most of us, there’s a little kid running the show. A kid who is still hurting,