Maybe you were never too sensitive. Maybe you spent too long around people who made you feel that being hurt was a flaw and asking for kindness was asking for too much.
So you learned to excuse what hurt you. You called it overthinking when something stayed with you, maturity when you swallowed your words, and understanding when you kept accepting what needed to change.
Eventually, you began questioning your feelings more than the behaviour that caused them.
Perhaps that was the saddest part: not that others misunderstood you, but that you started believing them.
You tried to become easier to love by becoming harder to hurt. But there is no peace in constantly negotiating against yourself, and no intimacy in a relationship where your feelings matter only when they are convenient.
People will make mistakes. What matters is whether they care enough to acknowledge the hurt they cause, or make you feel guilty for admitting that you are hurt.
Learn to recognise the difference.
You can understand someone’s pain without making yourself responsible for it. You can forgive without returning to what hurt you. You can love someone without sacrificing yourself to keep them.
You do not have to become cold to protect your softness. You simply have to stop abandoning yourself to keep others comfortable.
Perhaps healing begins when you stop asking how much more you can tolerate and start asking why you believe you must.
Some people will resent the boundaries they never expected you to set. Let them.
You were never meant to prove your worth by showing how much pain you could endure.
Maybe you were never too sensitive. Maybe you simply offered everyone else a compassion you forgot to give yourself.
You can remain soft without remaining unprotected. You can love deeply without losing yourself. And you can finally understand that you never had to become smaller to deserve love.
About Lovely Basantwani
Some writers write to tell a story. Some write to make you pause and listen to the conversation within.
Lovely Basantwani is a reflective writer whose words often explore the quieter sides of being human — self-discovery, solitude, healing, relationships, resilience and the courage to keep becoming.
His writing has a simple yet powerful quality. He speaks directly to the reader, reminding them that solitude does not always mean loneliness, silence is not always strength, and rejection does not have to define our worth. Whether he is writing about happiness, inner conversations, karma or resilience, his message often comes back to one simple truth — growth begins when we stop running away from ourselves.
Lovely Basantwani’s writing invites us to slow down, look within and listen to the voice we often overlook — our own.
About Story of Souls
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