What does it mean to be present with your most core self? This will elicit as many answers as people you ask. Just like when asking people to define poetry, each person will present an operational definition specific to them, and each answer is the truth. Sometimes connection with ourselves can come through access to our emotions.
There's a particular kind of loss that doesn't get much space in conversations about growth — the loss of who you used to be. Not the parts you're glad to be rid of, but the ones that genuinely served you. The coping strategies, the protective patterns, the version of yourself that was built carefully and deliberately around what you needed to survive at the time.
