What We Did Just Then

We probably did not notice it. Most of us do not. I did not either, not for a very long time. And sometimes still don't.

Someone asked us something, and we answered the way the room needed us to answer. Someone needed something, and we said yes before we finished hearing the question. We walked in, read the temperature, and adjusted. Automatically. Reliably. Without deciding to.

We have been doing it so long that it does not feel like doing anything at all. It just feels like us.

Here is the thing about that. It is not us. Or rather, it is not all of who we are. It is something we learned to do so early and practiced so thoroughly that it started to feel like the same thing. But it is not. There is the us that walked into the hallway. And there is the us that walked into the room. And somewhere between those two doors, something shifted. We just did not notice because we never had to. It was how we learned to protect ourselves. Our armor.

Just the quiet, practiced protection we reach for when the situation calls for it. The adjustment. The accommodation. The version of us that knows exactly what the room needs and delivers it before anyone has to ask.

We are good. Very good. And we have been on the job for a long time.

We are going to spend some time with this this month. Not to take it apart. Just to look at it. To ask how it got here and whether everything it is carrying still belongs to us.

That is enough for this week. Just notice. The next time we walk into a room and feel ourselves shift, just notice it. We do not have to do anything with it yet.

Find out where you are in your returning right now at thereturningproject.com/journey. The workbook is at thereturningproject.com/let-it-stand.

The Returning Project is a space where women reclaim who they truly are, beyond who they were told to be. New posts every Sunday.

Inward. Onward. Go.