Hi @calmsoul 

It’s so lovely to hear from you 💜

I really enjoyed listening to this part of your story and I just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing these parts of your life with me 💜

Absolutely! It can take a little bit of time to become tech savvy 😆 When I first joined the forums I really struggled to understand how to tag people and so I think that you’re doing really great!

I’m so sorry to hear that the people who trigger your PTSD are members of your family and just from what you’ve shared, it’s completely understandable that you use ‘silence’ and ‘distance’ to protect yourself and keep yourself safe 💜

With that being said, I really love how you’ve chosen who will be a part of your life and it sounds like you’re surrounded by some really beautiful souls who build you up and nurture you 💜

Actually, what you said makes so much sense to me 😊 Once upon a time, I thought that the more people I had in my life the less alone I would feel. However over time, I’ve realised that (for me) what really helps to ease the loneliness is the quality of my relationships - not the number of people that I have in my life 💜

Oh wow! I love how you can knit! Some years ago, my best friend’s mum knitted me a beautiful patchwork blanket for my Birthday 💜 The blanket itself it quite large and it’s made up of hundreds of pink knitted squares as pink is my favourite colour 😊 It would have taken her such a long time to put it altogether and I absolutely treasure it - to the point where it never leaves my bed 😆 I just wondered do you knit anything in particular?

Absolutely! Fighting the past can become all consuming and utterly exhausting and as such, it makes so much sense that you’ve decided to use your strength and energy to create a different type of future for yourself 😊

I really loved how you said, ‘I want to continue to shine in my life’ and I just ever so gently wondered what this looks like for you?

I hope that the week ahead is kind to you 💜

Take care,

ShiningStar 💜