what did you pretend not to hear because you couldn’t carry it?
you heard it. you just decided, somewhere in your body before your mind caught up, that you couldn't hold it right then. that's not the same as not caring. sometimes it's the opposite.
every day there's one live question, the same for everyone. answer it anonymously, see what other people said. it's all gone in seven days.
answer today's question →let the moment surface. it might be something someone said to you directly, or something you overheard, or something said in a tone that carried more than the words. write down what was said, as close to the exact words as you can remember. then write what you did instead of responding. did you change the subject. did you laugh. did you go quiet. now write about what it would have meant to take it in fully at that moment. what would you have had to feel. what would you have had to do. this isn't about blame. it's about recognising that sometimes self preservation looks like looking away.
- write about the exact moment you made the decision to let it pass, and what your body felt like.
- think about whether you've carried it anyway, just silently, despite choosing not to pick it up.
- ask yourself if there's still time to go back to it, and what that would cost.
this is for people who are good at absorbing other people's pain and who learned, at some point, that they had to stop. especially if the guilt of that choice still visits you.