I stopped asking to become the woman I was before and started trying to care properly for the woman I am now

Dear Delyara, For years, healing meant return in my mind. Back to the body before this. The marriage before that. The confidence before those experiences. The lighter self who had not yet carried quite so much. Now I think that fantasy kept me disrespecting the person who actually survived. So I’m trying something else. Care without comparison. Rest without earning it. Food without punishment. Limits without shame. A life that suits the woman I am now instead of one I keep holding against a ghost of who I used to be. This is quieter than the kind of healing people like to post quotes about. It is also far more useful. It changes the day. That’s the kind I trust.