Real Love Claps. Fake Love Clings 👏

"If someone can’t celebrate your healing, they were invested in your brokenness." — Anonymous

“Real love respects your growth; toxic love fears it.”

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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 didn’t.

It meant they were threatened.

“Subject shows signs of self-awareness. Promising.”

When I started changing…

Reading more. Setting boundaries. Spending time alone. I wasn’t 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 didn’t fit inside the story someone else had written about me. And they didn’t 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 doesn’t destroy love. It reveals the foundation it was built on.

If it was control, it crumbles. If it was real, it adapts.

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Ask yourself this today:

“Does the love I’m receiving make room for who I’m becoming, or does it only feel safe when I shrink back to who I was?”

No guilt. Just honesty.

Then flip the question inward:

“Do I give others that same freedom to evolve, even when it makes me uncomfortable?”

Growth is a mirror. What it reflects isn’t always easy to see. But it’s always revealing.

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"If someone can’t celebrate your healing, they were invested in your brokenness." — Anonymous

Not everyone who says “I love you” actually means, “I want you to be free.”

Choose the ones who do.

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Have you ever felt punished for changing?

Or found yourself holding someone back because their growth scared you?

These moments are uncomfortable. But they’re where maturity is forged.

Let’s 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.

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Growth doesn’t always come with applause.

Sometimes it comes with silence. Distance. Blame.

Not because you did something wrong, but because your evolution disrupted someone’s illusion.

Let them keep their version of you if they need to. But don’t 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 you’re becoming.

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Thanks for reading today’s Healing Text.

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With gratitude,
— Ryan Puusaari ☕💛