Welcome back, my beautiful friend.

If you've ever been hurt by someone you loved...

If you've ever been criticised, rejected or made to feel like you weren't enough...

There's a good chance you believed something that was never true.

You believed...

"There must be something wrong with me."

It's one of the deepest stories many of us carry.

But today I'd love to offer you another possibility.

What if...

It was never about you?

One of the greatest understandings I've received on my own healing journey is this:

People don't give what they don't have.

The way someone treats another person is almost always a reflection of what is happening within them.

Someone who feels peaceful often responds with patience.

Someone who feels loved naturally finds it easier to offer love.

Someone who is deeply hurting may unintentionally pass that hurt on to others.

Not because they want to...

But because pain often speaks before love has had the chance.

You've probably heard the saying:

"Hurt people hurt people."

While it has become a familiar phrase, there's profound truth within it.

When someone lashes out...

When they criticise...

Reject...

Control...

Or withdraw...

They're often expressing something they haven't yet healed within themselves.

Their behaviour is revealing their inner world.

Not your worth.

As children, we naturally make everything about ourselves.

If a parent is angry...

We assume we've done something wrong.

If someone withdraws their love...

We assume we're unlovable.

If we're criticised repeatedly...

We begin believing we're not enough.

But children aren't meant to carry the responsibility for an adult's emotional world.

You were trying to make sense of experiences that were far bigger than you.

The conclusions you reached made sense at the time.

They just weren't the truth.

One of the most beautiful realisations I've had is this:

The love you brought into the world was never too much.

It was never not enough.

It was never wrong.

If someone couldn't receive your love...

That doesn't mean your love was flawed.

It simply means they may not have known how to receive it.

Just as someone who has lived in darkness for years may struggle to recognise the light...

Someone who has never experienced unconditional love may not know how to accept it.

That has nothing to do with the beauty of what you were offering.

Beneath every story you've ever believed...

Beneath every wound...

Every fear...

Every layer of self-doubt...

You are still the same beautiful love you've always been.

Nothing that happened in your childhood could change that.

Nothing anyone said about you could erase it.

Nothing anyone did to you could take it away.

It may have been hidden beneath years of hurt...

But it has never left you.

Because love isn't something you have.

Love is who you are.

Maybe today is the day you stop carrying a story that was never yours to carry.

Maybe today is the day you stop believing you were the problem.

Because you weren't.

The way someone treated you reflected the pain they were living with.

Not the person you were becoming.

Not your value.

Not your heart.

Not your love.

You have always been enough.

You have always been worthy.

And perhaps...

Remembering that is the beginning of everything.

• What stories have I believed about myself because of the way others treated me?

• Are those stories actually true?

• What changes when I remember that another person's behaviour reflects their inner world,

  not my worth?

• How would I live differently if I truly believed I had always been enough?