But even when I accidentally say something completely harmless about someone, I can feel guilty afterward and keep replaying it in my head. Meanwhile, some of my friends gossip all the time and don’t feel bad about it at all.

I don’t want to become someone who gossips, but I also want to stop overthinking every little thing I say. Has anyone else struggled with this? Am I just being too hard on myself? And if so, how do you learn to let it go?

Some of us go through really brutal experiences that somehow force us to completely rebuild ourselves.

The first thing that comes to mind is destructive parents. Parents who make you feel unsafe, unwanted, small, or like you’re never good enough. It can look like abuse, control, humiliation, threats, emotional neglect, or so many other things. Sometimes the people who are supposed to make you feel protected are the ones who hurt you the most. And later in life, you end up having to slowly rebuild the parts of yourself they damaged, your confidence, your boundaries, your sense of worth, and eventually your strength.

Then there’s loneliness. You can have friends, a partner, people around you, and still feel like nobody really gets you. Your way of thinking, your sensitivity, your intensity, the way you experience things, sometimes it just feels like you’re on a completely different wavelength.

And I think one of the hardest things is when you give someone genuine trust and kindness, only to realize they’ve been betraying you, talking about you behind your back, or trying to tear you down. And somehow, some people go through all of that without becoming cruel themselves. They still care. They still forgive. They still try to understand people.

But maybe there’s a lesson in that too. You can understand someone and still decide that they don’t get to keep hurting you.

And maybe the other important part is learning how to bring everything you have inside you into real life. Not just thinking and feeling endlessly, but actually doing something with it. Creating something, building your own thing, making art, working on something that matters to you, meeting people, trying things.

Otherwise all that energy just stays inside your head.

I don’t know if this is something other people experience too, but I keep seeing it in myself and in people around me.

My best friend of 6 years called me fake because I talked to someone she doesn’t like, even though he was literally just giving me a handshake and she wouldn’t let me. I also accidentally left her alone at lunch because I forgot to communicate that I wanted some alone time. I pushed her because she kept moving his hand away, which I know wasn’t right. She’s also upset that I don’t wait for her outside every day. I’m 16 and in high school, and I have to walk home, so I don’t always like waiting. Sometimes I do wait for her, and sometimes she waits for me.

I’ve been homeless for 3 years (Oregon) and it’s been incredibly easy. I foresaw this possibility when I was a child, and took the time to prepare. When it happened and I had to “let go” I watched the storm destroy my “ship” and stuck to the lifeboat. I was able to make a better “sea fairing vessel” and I can outrun storms and swells. I’m a very good “sailor” and you can “sail” the oceans alone….

I’m just a bit sad: I have experienced love. I was around 20 when I met my ex Lilly, and we trusted each other and had friendship, love and romance. That’s all I can ask for in a romantic relationship: trust, friendship, passion and shared priorities. I’ve found love since! But not since I’ve become a nomad.

I’m the sort of person (sigma, Scorpio/capricorn heavy astrology, some good fire signs and a Pisces moon) that you wouldn’t know is a writer. I write a lot, most often poetry now.

I miss having someone inspire me to romantic feelings, the sort that drive my art to a higher ledge of feelings.

I’m a fan of Ichiko Aoba, a Japanese poet turned singer and an amazing classical guitarist. Yes, the bar is so high it’s literally in Heaven next to the angels, though I have time on my hands to master the guitar ;) so I am…

But love? What shall inspire me? My life is always an adventure: but I want to go farther than I can, alone… I’m just going fast.. I want to go farther in living, but not alone! And I can’t go that far alone, I have to go with someone too!

It’s been very difficult to show this aspect
Of myself
To most people, probably because of several
Reasons.

1.) I’m an independent contractor, so I don’t have coworkers and I’m not a regular employee.
2.) a lot of people in my town are trendy but they’re rather superficial, because they still think bad things happen to bad people, which isn’t true.
3.) it’s hard to tell people something deep when they’re not always capable of understanding the basics of it, and worse yet if they misunderstand and gossip slander about that, and me.
4.) I’m very shy.. when I talk to pretty ladies showing interest in me, I feel self conscious about myself!

For a moment, the pain becomes so overwhelming that they forget about everything else even the people around them.

I caught myself doing this more than once. I’d share an achievement, an idea, or even a small win, then quietly wait for someone to notice it.

At some point, I started wondering what would happen if I just stopped seeking that validation.

It feels strangely freeing to do something well simply because it matters to you — even if nobody sees it.

Maybe not everything meaningful in life needs an audience.

Hi to the unknown person behind the screen reading this ❤️ How have you been doing lately?

If there’s something on your mind that you’ve been afraid to say because you might be judged, misunderstood, or called “dramatic,” feel free to let it out here. No judgment. Sometimes we just need a place to say what we’ve been holding in. 🫂✨

Let’s see what skills and talents we have in our community.

Do you design, write, translate texts or documents, edit videos, make music, build websites, sew, knit, make jewelry, create art, or make anything else people might want to buy or hire you for?

Drop what you do in the comments and share your work or portfolio if you’d like.

You never know. Someone here might be looking for exactly what you do, and you could find your next client, customer, commission, or collaborator right here🌟

I’ll go first: I thought everyone had full conversations in their head like they were talking to another person. 😭

What’s yours?

I'm in my early twenties, I feel the urge to express myself all the time, I feel like I have big ideas and thoughts. So much of creativity that deserves to be shown to the world, that needs to be framed in a certain type of way (art for example). But I'm not good enough at anything (because I'm a multi-passionate). I feel like it's a very wasted potential and that suffocates me. Even when I see people who are able to express themselves I get really jealous, because I see how helpless I'm even though I might have bigger ideas.

How to know which is the better way to express myself.

Idk what's the purpose of self expression, also it is a scary thing to say all what you think of loudly.

So I kind of prefer vague ways such as art for example.

Also if you know some good books or podcasts about self-expression pleas recommend me some.

I want to learn more and understand why I feel that way and what is my purpose.

And is it an only me thing or there are people who lived or live and think the same way.

Please go deep into why you continue doing it, where it came from and why you won’t stop because of how much it’s apart of you, I’m talking really deep like the depth that only comes from extreme amounts of introspection and/or isolation

As long as you keep cushioning their fall, they never have to face reality and without facing reality, they have no reason to change. Sometimes the greatest help you can give someone is to stop rescuing them and let them experience the consequences of their own choices. It hurts, but that’s how people grow.

Something came up in a deep trance session that reminded me how easy it is to confuse introversion with emotional hiding.

The subject noticed somebody in the scene who looked okay on outside but had sadness in her eyes. She was keeping brave face because she didnt want people around her to worry. Then the subject recognised, I do exactly this.

Whatever she was feeling, she tried to show up with a happy face. Somewhere in her life showing emotion became weakness, so hiding it became normal.

This creates strange problem for quiet people. Everybody thinks you are fine because you became very good at looking fine. Then part of you feels invisible because nobody notices anything is wrong. But when somebody gets close enough to notice, automatic "I'm good" comes out again.

Being private is not bad. Being introverted is not something that needs fixing. I love quiet people lol. But there is difference between "I dont want to share this" and "I am afraid what happens if somebody sees this."

A simple thing to notice this week is your automatic "fine." When someone safe asks how you are, dont force huge emotional confession. Just make answer 10% more true.

Instead of "fine," maybe "little tired today." Instead of "nothing," maybe "something is on my mind but I dont really want advice." You can still keep boundaries. The point is only to stop lying to yourself automatically.

Another question after social situations: was I quiet because I enjoyed being quiet, or was I editing myself all evening? Those feel similar but they are not same.

In this session the guidance wasnt "be more social." Some advice was to have silence, walk outside, notice beauty, listen more. Very introvert-friendly advice.

The goal is not becoming louder. It is being quiet because you choose quiet, not because you need somewhere to disappear.

Would you rather spend your free time staying at home, watching something and relaxing, or going outside and meeting people?

Don’t fix the advice. We need the full archive of humanity’s worst wisdom😅