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anita
ParticipantDear Lucidity:
It’s so lovely to hear from you—I was genuinely touched that you thought of me. It’s wonderful to see you stepping into that creative space, sharing your reflections on YouTube in your own voice.
I just watched “Healing and grit: bouncing back with authenticity.” What a beautiful offering! It was a joy to see you, your home, your dogs—and to hear your voice, which carries such softness and calm. The audio was a little difficult for me to follow, so I’m looking forward to returning to it when I have a quieter moment next week. I have a full Thursday to Sunday ahead, but I’ll be back.
Thank you for sharing your work with me. It’s inspiring to see you explore healing in this way.
And I wanted to mention—I’m afraid I won’t be able to comment directly on your videos. I’m so technologically challenged that I wouldn’t even know how to sign myself into a Google account! But I’ll be watching, quietly cheering you on from here.
Warm wishes, Anita 🤍
July 3, 2025 at 9:00 am in reply to: Should I Forget about him, or was he the one that got away? #447310anita
ParticipantDear Emma:
I want to begin by saying how much strength I see in you. The fact that you’re still reflecting, still feeling, still reaching for understanding—that’s not weakness. That’s courage. And even though this part of the journey hurts, the way you’re walking through it tells me you’re already growing. You’re not broken—you’re becoming.
You wrote: “I don’t want to lose these thoughts, cause they are all I have of him.”-
In ROCD—and in heartbreak generally—the mind often becomes the keeper of memory when the heart is still reaching. Your thoughts are acting like quiet memorials, helping you stay close to something that mattered. That makes sense. You’re not obsessing because you’re irrational—you’re doing what humans do when they’re hurting and don’t want to say goodbye.
Later, you asked: “What do you think he will be thinking of me? I guess I’m asking to think of what chances I still have left… none I guess.”-
Sometimes couples do find each other again after a breakup, when something shifts and reconnection becomes possible. But in Philip’s case, the way he responded—the words he used, the emotion behind them—suggests he’s protecting a very strong boundary right now. As hard as it is to hear, reactions like that often mean someone doesn’t feel safe re-engaging, even if their feelings are mixed.
That doesn’t mean you didn’t matter. You did. The connection, the long calls, the closeness—they were real. But not all real things are meant to last. Sometimes love teaches us through departure.
His thoughts are not the only mirror of your worth, Emma. You are not defined by his silence or his rejection. You are still becoming—still discovering who you are when you’re not wrapped around someone else.
You asked if I’ve ever felt similar regret. What comes to mind is something from high school. I used to fantasize endlessly about a boy in my class named Robert. I’d never had a boyfriend, never kissed anyone, never dated. One night after a youth group meeting, he offered to walk me home so I wouldn’t be alone in the dark. It was my first chance to be alone with him—and I said “no.” Not because I didn’t want to, but because fear took over. And afterwards, the part of me that had dreamed of that moment deeply regretted saying no.
You asked about my mother—whether she doubted me to help me improve. The truth is, I don’t remember her wanting me to improve. What I remember is her punishing me for thinking “wrong,” feeling “wrong,” doing “wrong.” If I said nothing, she’d accuse me of thinking something she disapproved of, just from my facial expression. If I spoke, she’d dissect my words—pointing out contradictions with things I’d said days, months, even years earlier. The voice in my head still echoes her sometimes: You thought this wrong. You weren’t exact. Make it exact. Make it uncriticizable. But like I said—it’s getting softer.
And back to you again, Emma. You wrote: “I hate myself for breaking up with him.”-
Please don’t meet your pain with hate. Meet it with compassion. You were afraid, overwhelmed, trying to protect something inside you. You didn’t fail. You responded with the tools you had at the time. Hate will deepen the wound. Compassion makes room for healing. It truly changes everything.
I’ve carried self-hate and rejection for years. But the shift toward self-compassion—still relatively recent—is making all the difference in my life. If I could go back to that night with Robert, things might have unfolded differently. Back then, I didn’t like myself. I thought, If he walks me home, he’ll find out how unacceptable I am. So I said no.
But if I had thought well of myself—if I’d liked myself—I might’ve thought, Maybe Robert will like me too. And I would have said yes.
It’s never too late to say yes to ourselves, Emma. Start there. Gently.
I’m here with you.
Warmly, Anita 🤍
anita
Participant“A hope that if I understood I would no longer fear and no longer feel lost or alone. I would instead be in control and safe… That has proven to be a fool’s game and one I played badly.”-
Yes, ditto!
You’ve been talking here, peter, in these forums, since May 27, 2016, and yet- it’s like I am hearing you for the first time this very night, July 2, 2025, 11:30 pm.
How can we not-be-seen, not-be-heard, even though we’ve been showing, expressing.. how..
No-lysis.
In the core of it is Peter-the-boy, Anita-the-girl.. making a human, spiritual (the beyond-kind) connection.
I hope this is not too much.. Too Much for you, Peter?
Anita (last post of the night, 11:35 pm)
anita
Participant“No analysis. No conclusion. Just the afterglow of being fully present, of having held paradox without collapsing into certainty.”-
Relaxing into Uncertainty.
No longer trying to (like you say, Peter)- measure, label, name.. fix.
There’s freedom in it, a lightening of the weight.
I take air in, relax. Nothing to do. No one to convince. No one to impress.
Nothing to fix, nothing to figure out, nothing to do.
Nothing but to be.
From analysis to no-lysis.
Just be. Sh.. time to rest. Let go of the tension…
Nothing to run after, nothing to run away from.
Surrender- not to any one person, not to any ideology, any one politics- but to the timeless reality of something out there, something within, independent of all that mattered so much before.
A transcending.
Anita
anita
ParticipantYour post, Peter, is so meaningful to me, so special, it’s difficult for me to put it to rest till the morrow.
You wrote, “I see I have named a fear – to be misunderstood… I have named other fears, to be lost and alone… the tension of feeling separate from the world I know I’m not separate from.”-
A lost and alone boy, misunderstood (your shyness misunderstood as being conceited, I remember from what you shared July 3, 2018). I get a glimpse of how it was for you, way back then.
And I feel honored that you shared this with me.
Anita
anita
ParticipantAnd the way you ended your post: “So, scream. If it comes, let it come. Not as a symptom but as a signal that you are alive, unhidden, and unwilling to mute what is most vital. Even the soul needs a sound sometimes. Let it be wild. Let it be true. Let it be yours. The sound and mirror of AUM.”-
I never read anything more meaningful, more personal, more… These are your words, spoken to me, for me…(This is making me emotional).
No, NO, out of the parenthesis- A scream: thank you for being here with me!
Anita
anita
ParticipantDear Peter:
“I may still scream… just not in desperation… a holy scream. Not a scream of ‘save me!’, but the scream ‘I am here!’ Not desperation, but declaration. Not collapse, but liberation. Not trying to flee the fire but becoming the flame.”-
I’m in awe of these words—they’re so powerful. My scream has long been “save me!” Oh, how much trouble that cry has brought me.
I was desperate. For a long, long… long time.
But now—not fleeing the fire but becoming the flame—this is what’s beginning to take place within me. I’m open to more of it. More of becoming the flame.
I’ll be back in the morning to continue the conversation. Looking forward to it.
And thank you, Peter.
Warmly, Anita 🤍
anita
Participant… Be back tomorrow (Wed night here)
July 2, 2025 at 9:05 pm in reply to: Should I Forget about him, or was he the one that got away? #447284anita
ParticipantDear Emma, Thank you for your empathy and support—it means so much. It’s nighttime here, and I’ll need the focus I hope to have in the morning to reply to you with the care your message deserves.
Wishing you all the best, Anita
July 2, 2025 at 1:24 pm in reply to: Should I Forget about him, or was he the one that got away? #447280anita
ParticipantDear Emma, I’ll be back at the computer in a few hours to read your message carefully and reply with the attention it deserves 🤍
Anita
anita
ParticipantI submitted the post above before seeing the song you shared 🙂. I’ll be back at the computer in a few hours and will respond more fully then.
Anita
anita
ParticipantDear Gerald:
Your words moved me more than I can say. Thank you—not only for your kindness, but for caring enough to write in my thread. That gesture alone speaks of such generosity, and it brought the first smile to my face this Wednesday afternoon (here in the U.S.).
That Beatles line feels like the perfect seal to your message. I’ll carry it with me.
Please know, Gerald, that you’re always warmly welcome here—to share your thoughts, feelings, questions, contradictions, and hopes. Your presence adds richness to this space and warmth to my heart.
With appreciation, Anita 🤍
anita
ParticipantDear Peter:
“The pull between detachment and engagement, between Yes and No to Life as it is. (common theme to my posts)… How do we remain present in the fire that is Life without being consumed?… Not seeking to silence the tension, but to let it sing through us.”-
These words struck something deep in me. They made me wonder:
How do we stay present with emotion—without clinging to it, numbing ourselves, or rushing to fix it? How do we let difficult feelings sing through us… instead of scream “Danger! Danger!” at every turn?
My earliest memory of fear came when I was five or six. It was the middle of the night, and I heard my mother scream at my father that she was going to kill herself. Then she left—into the dark. I believed her. I didn’t yet have the tools to understand whether it was a threat or a certainty.
What was objectively dangerous was the possibility of her death. But the fear of that danger became my constant companion. That fear grew too big to hold, too loud to hear clearly, so I did what many do—I tried to detach from it, numb it, or fix it. And I carried that habit with me for decades.
What I’m trying to say is: for some of us, especially when we’re young and vulnerable, emotion itself—especially fear—becomes what we fear. It becomes the danger. When it starts too early and lasts too long, we internalize that fear as something unbearable. And we spend our lives trying to outrun it.
Your words made me wonder whether you’ve ever written anything on July 2nd (I have a thing for numbers). I found a post from July 3, 2018:
“I was very shy and fearful growing up.”-
Like me, you were a fearful child. And from what I’ve lived, we don’t simply outgrow fear—we learn to dress it differently. Sometimes in intellectual clothing. Sometimes in silence.
Also, while scrolling through your posts, I noticed you’re a couple years younger than me 🙂
Back to that same post, you wrote: “The anxiety we feel is of our own making and all of it based on illusion.”-
I understand the illusion piece. But sometimes, the origin of anxiety isn’t illusion—especially when it’s rooted in real moments that overwhelmed a young nervous system. The loss of a parent—whether through abandonment, threat, or emotional absence—is biologically coded as dangerous. A child can’t be expected to sort imagined threat from actual danger.
You also wrote back then: “Every moment… every breath every moment a reincarnation.”- That line made me pause. I may not be able to kill the old fear, but maybe I can live beside it. Maybe I can make peace with it.
Your meditative practice offered a structure I want to try—not to silence the fear, but to witness it. Maybe I’ll meditate on it and let it sing rather than scream. I’d love to share what comes up here in your thread, if that’s okay with you. And if not, I completely understand—I’ll find space for it elsewhere.
I wonder, too: have you named your own fear—the one born in your own childhood? Might it help to let that voice be heard?
And before I close: congratulations on doing something new. Sharing a practice like this is a beautiful step forward—not just as a writer, but as someone living through the tension, rather than standing outside it.
Warmly, Anita 🤍
anita
ParticipantOOPSIE, 11:32
anita
Participant11:31 PM
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