09/13/2026
I spent for what seemed like my entire life.. handing other people the power to decide whether I was worthy.
I searched for validation through praise, attention, acceptance, and being chosen. I learned to shrink, overexplain, and abandon pieces of myself just to feel seen.
Even after countless ego deaths, I still catch myself looking outside of me for confirmation that I am enough. But I am beginning to understand that whenever I am struggling, the answer is never truly outside of me. Something external may trigger the wound, but the struggle always leads me back to something within myself that is asking to be witnessed, held, and healed.
Yoga became the place where I learned to return inward.
I never started yoga to lose weight, build muscle, or become more flexible. I started because I needed to come home to myself and create a bond within me that no person, rejection, or disappointment could ever break.
My body became my temple. A sacred space where I could rebuild trust, confront my limits, honor my strength, and remember my power. Through discipline, I learned that self-love is not merely something we feel. It is something we practice. Every time I unrolled my mat, I was choosing not to abandon myself.
Because when everything is stripped away, the people, the roles, the praise, the plans, and everything we believed defined us, all that remains is the Self.
Now, I am learning to root for myself.
I validate the growth no one witnessed. I celebrate the battles I fought silently. I honor every version of myself that kept going when no one understood how difficult it was.
External validation may feel beautiful, but it can never replace the relationship we have with ourselves. Our own validation is quite literally the only validation we truly need.
Maybe healing is not never wanting to be seen.
Maybe healing is finally learning not to disappear when no one is watching.
The applause I spent my life waiting for was my own.
