Shame Doesn't Survive Contact

Shame grows in silence. In the moments we feel too much, too messy, too wrong, and no one is there to meet us. Shame makes us doubt not just what we've done, but who we are. It teaches us to turn inward, to hide the parts of ourselves we fear will be rejected.

But shame doesn’t survive real contact.

When another person sits with you without flinching or trying to fix, something softens. When your story is met with eyes that don’t turn away, shame loses its power.

You don’t heal shame by reasoning with it. You heal it through feeling seen and accepted without judgement, just as you are, and through finding that you're still welcome when you feared you wouldn't be.

It's not about being told you’re okay. It’s about discovering, in relationship, that you were never not okay to begin with.

In the steady presence of someone who stays, shame begins to fall away, and something truer can begin to take root.