It probably goes without saying that anyone raised in a stressful, traumatizing, or otherwise dysfunctional household (hello, everyone) are probably not very in touch with their values.

There’s a lot of talk in the therapeutic and self-help worlds about creating a “safe space.” Many of us who have experienced trauma or stressed out childhoods think about a “safe space” and think you gotta be BLEEPING me.

Meditation is how we change our relationship with the internal voice of worry or fear, so that we can turn the volume down on it (ideally through kindness and compassion) and turn the volume up on intuition (i.e. the presence of Good or God in our lives).

It’s very difficult to make sound decisions if we’re operating with an inner demon that is questioning, deriding, criticizing, or taunting our every move.

I don’t know exactly how faith works, but it does.

And I know that there is peace, calm, love, and care beyond the quiet of prayer and meditation.

Call it whatever you want - socially inept, a bull in a social china shop (my personal favorite), confusing, confused, an imposter, masking, a wolf in sheep’s clothing - many of us are working very hard at getting it right (whatever it may be) while inadvertently acting like a robot wearing human skin.