There is a strange kind of pain that comes from changing. But there is also a deeper pain that comes from refusing to change. At first, clinging to an old identity can feel safe. It gives us something familiar to hold onto. It tells us who we are, where we belong, what people expect from [...]
There is a romantic idea that changing your identity is beautiful. We imagine a person stepping into the light, leaving the old life behind, finally becoming free. And sometimes it does feel like that. There are moments of clarity, courage, excitement and deep inner knowing. But there is another side to identity change that is [...]
There comes a point in life when we have to ask a difficult question: Am I defending who I really am, or am I defending who I learned to be? For many of us, identity is not something we consciously choose. It is built slowly through family expectations, work, responsibility, success, fear, praise, criticism, and [...]
