LivingOutLoud

Ok, so before we even get into it, let me be real clear... This is not my richest chapter, in fact I'm YET praying for the type of financial breakthrough that will create sure stability for my daughter and I. It's also not my most glamorous, don't let them IG photos fool you. I've been holed up in my house, hair standing up on top of my head, days where I can't remember when I took a good, long shower. So yeah...this isn't the chapter where everything is wrapped in a pretty bow. But it is, without question, my  best . For the first time, I’m not living on autopilot. I’m  present. I’m  intentional. I’m  invested  in every layer of who I am. Mentally? I know my triggers. I don’t let every thought run wild, and I check myself before I wreck myself. I intentionally choose clarity over chaos—daily. Emotionally? I’m not stuffing things down anymore. I feel what I feel, and I honor those emotions without being consumed by them. And that is HUGE for me. That’s growth. T...

I was holding the door open.  Leaving the light on.  Sitting in emotional limbo, hoping for a reconnection that the other party  clearly  said they didn’t want. They told me with their actions.  They told me with their silence.  Hell, sometimes they told me with their words — “This ain’t it for me.”  But I still held space. I still made room.  I still left the back door unlocked, like maybe...just maybe they’d come home again. That wasn’t love. That was bondage disguised as loyalty. That was hope weaponized against my own healing. And the truth is — it wasn't their fault. They released me.  I hadn’t released them. So when they moved on, they were walking in freedom. I was the one stuck in the loop — replaying conversations, misreading memories, romanticizing red flags. And that’s when it hit me:  I was participating in my own emotional abuse. I had to look in the mirror and ask, “What part of me agrees with being mistreated? What wound i...