There’s a version of me that only lived to get through the day.
I don’t mean that in some poetic, metaphorical way. I mean literally—I was waking up, doing what needed to be done, biting my tongue, carrying the weight, and collapsing into bed like I just made it out of a war zone. That’s survival mode. It’s not glamorous. It’s not empowering. It’s running on fumes, emotionally overdrafting, and pretending like you're fine when you're so far from fine, you're fluent in fake smiles.
Let’s be real: survival mode is not a lifestyle. It’s a last resort.
But the thing no one really talks about? When you’ve lived in that state for too long, peace doesn’t feel peaceful—it feels unfamiliar. Unsafe, even. Stillness makes you itchy. Quiet makes you anxious. And when things finally slow down… you don’t know who you are without the chaos.
That’s where the soft reset comes in.
You Don’t Need a Reinvention, You Need a Reintroduction
I used to think healing meant becoming some evolved, serene, yoga-doing version of myself who never raised her voice and floated through life in linen. Nah. That’s not me.
A soft reset isn’t about reinventing yourself. It's about reintroducing yourself to yourself—the version that existed before survival mode became your default setting.
Before the gaslighting.
Before the betrayal.
Before you had to toughen up just to get through your own damn life.
It’s peeling back the armor, not because you’re suddenly soft, but because you’re tired of carrying metal on your skin when all you really want is to breathe again.
Peace Isn’t a Luxury—It’s a Boundary
Let me say it louder for the people in the back who are still people-pleasing on autopilot:
Your peace is not negotiable.
Reclaiming your peace doesn’t mean you’re dramatic. It means you’re done tolerating things that drain you. It means the group chats might stay on mute. It means some folks won’t get callbacks. It means you’re choosing yourself—not because you’re selfish, but because you’re finally awake.
Soft resetting means drawing boundaries so hard they echo.
It means resting without guilt.
It means saying no and not writing a damn TED Talk afterward to justify it.
Healing Isn’t Pretty, But It’s Yours
Listen, the soft reset isn’t glamorous. You’ll cry. You’ll rage. You’ll delete texts and rewrite the same journal entry five times trying to make sense of why you're still holding on to people who let you down. You’ll go silent for a while. You’ll unfollow. You’ll remember that you actually love silence, sunrises, and sleeping in your own bed without being touched.
You’ll sit in your own company and realize…
This isn’t lonely. This is mine.
This peace? It’s unfamiliar at first. But it’s also addictive. And baby, you’ve earned it.
You’re Not Starting Over. You’re Starting From Experience.
So no, this isn’t some fluffy self-help guide wrapped in affirmations and bubble baths. This is real. Raw. A little messy. But it’s yours.
You’re not broken. You’re just in the in-between. And when you decide it’s time for a soft reset—when you finally choose to reclaim your peace after survival mode—you’ll start to feel something again. Not fear. Not pressure.
Freedom.
And honestly? That’s the loudest kind of healing there is.
