Real Love Claps. Fake Love Clings ๐
"If someone canโt celebrate your healing, they were invested in your brokenness." โ Anonymous
โReal love respects your growth; toxic love fears it.โ
There was a time in my life where I measured love by intensity. By how jealous someone got. By how tightly they held on when I tried to change.
I thought that meant they cared.
It didnโt.
It meant they were threatened.
When I started changingโฆ
Reading more. Setting boundaries. Spending time alone. I wasnโt trying to hurt anyone. I was just trying to heal. To become someone I could live with. Someone I could trust.
But that version of me didnโt fit inside the story someone else had written about me. And they didnโt want to rewrite it. They wanted the old script. The old me. The one who stayed small, agreeable, and emotionally available on command.
So they resisted. They blamed. They called it selfish.
But growth doesnโt destroy love. It reveals the foundation it was built on.
If it was control, it crumbles. If it was real, it adapts.
Ask yourself this today:
โDoes the love Iโm receiving make room for who Iโm becoming, or does it only feel safe when I shrink back to who I was?โ
No guilt. Just honesty.
Then flip the question inward:
โDo I give others that same freedom to evolve, even when it makes me uncomfortable?โ
Growth is a mirror. What it reflects isnโt always easy to see. But itโs always revealing.
"If someone canโt celebrate your healing, they were invested in your brokenness." โ Anonymous
Not everyone who says โI love youโ actually means, โI want you to be free.โ
Choose the ones who do.
Have you ever felt punished for changing?
Or found yourself holding someone back because their growth scared you?
These moments are uncomfortable. But theyโre where maturity is forged.
Letโs talk about it.
Not just the clean version.
The messy middle. The guilt. The confusion. The boundaries you had to build that broke your own heart.
This space is built for that honesty.
Growth doesnโt always come with applause.
Sometimes it comes with silence. Distance. Blame.
Not because you did something wrong, but because your evolution disrupted someoneโs illusion.
Let them keep their version of you if they need to. But donโt go back just to make them comfortable.
You were never meant to stay small just because someone loved the older version of you.
Keep expanding. Keep walking.
The ones who truly love you will make room at the table for who youโre becoming.
Thanks for reading todayโs Healing Text.
If youโre here, youโre part of something honest, something that makes space for healing without the performance. And I donโt take that lightly.
If todayโs message met you where you are, and youโd like to support the work, here are a few simple ways to do that:
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And if youโre craving deeper reflections, long-form stories, raw journal entries, and shadow work tales that cut through the noise, I write those in my other newsletter, Healing Thoughts.
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With gratitude,
โ Ryan Puusaari โ๐