When Peace Becomes Avoidance
How do you tell the difference between calm and hiding away?
I’m the type of person who goes inward and tends to retreat when life gets stressful, sad, or difficult. My instinct is to lock myself away, bury my head in the sand, and wait it out.
By now, you know I’ve been in a grounding phase of life. I’ve been putting in the work with my coach Eva, I moved flats last summer to a much more spacious, suburban lifestyle, and I intentionally gave myself space to think and process after a few very hectic years. I softened my life by becoming less social and there have been real positives to that. Fewer opinions, less friction. In many ways, this time has been deeply supportive. I feel steadier, more regulated and generally less reactive.
Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about my patterns in friendships and relationships, and what I want them to look like going forward. I know I want inner peace - don’t we all? But I’ve now realised that for a long time, I thought inner peace meant retreating. Wanting less. Needing less. Taking up less space.
Examples of taking up less space could be things like:
