We All Unravel Sometimes

We all have moments when something happening right now touches something old, and suddenly we're not fully here anymore. We're back there. Smaller, more scared, and it feels like the whole world.

There's a name for this. An emotional flashback. No pictures or memories necessarily, just the old feelings, experiences and beliefs flooding in as if they belong to today.

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That pull is so fast. One moment you're a grown woman with skills and words, and the next you're swirling in something you thought you'd left behind.

But there's a part of us that can watch. When we slow down and notice, we can see ourselves in the swirl. And seeing is already the beginning of coming back. Back to choices. Back to kindness for the little one who got so scared.

Good therapy can also help change how old memories are held and how much influence they have on our internal operating systems. We can discover choices now that we didn't have then. We can even begin to update the rules of life we learned back then, making room for new rules that better support the lives we're living now.

The yarn may still be there. But we don't need to stay unraveled forever.

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