pain

Sometimes what you take refuge in becomes the thing that hurts you and confines you the most. Conversely, the most challenging times can be empowering and life-changing. 

I've always believed in the value of challenges but seeing challenging times as literally a transition to a better me - to a new life - is something I've only learnt recently. I never had this sense before, when I went through episodes of depression or intense worry or struggles with anxiety. I was always most aware of the pain, and then later, when I thought about it, I had a sense that that pain had been somehow enriching. 

But with the challenges I've been going through in the last few years (especially the last year), I've been really captured by the idea that I am becoming something other than what I was - something better - and that I'm starting a new life.