The Pathway Back To Good Enough
Imagine walking through life, physically carrying a heavy metal chain. It’s cold steel wrapped around your heart, body and mind.
Every step you take, every move you make, accompanied by its weight, dragging behind you like an anchor. It clinks and scrapes against the ground for the world to see. As you drudge along struggling to gain momentum and reach your destination.
Now imagine this chain is internal.
The heaviest shackles we carry in our internal world is the stress and turmoil created by the core belief that we are not enough. This chain is forged from years of self-doubt, fear, and the whispered echoes of voices past. Each link is a memory, a moment where you felt small, unworthy, unseen. You may not even remember when it was first placed upon you as it was woven in your childhood, shaped by the words of others and reinforced through comparison and unattainable expectations. But now, it is there, pulling at your every step. a constant reminder of something unseen but deeply felt. No external force or source, be it food, drink, or distraction, can truly ease the burden of its weight, in fact, these coping mechanisms often reinforce the very pain you feel under its weight as these are mere bandages over wounds that need deeper tending.
You try to ignore it.
You try to move forward despite it. Some days, you even convince yourself that you don’t feel its presence. But in the quiet moments, when the world stills and you are left with nothing but yourself, you hear it rattling in the background.
The weight of “not enough” is not just in your mind it carves itself into your body. It tightens in our chest, clouds our mind, stiffens your shoulders, knots your stomach, and bellows through every tired sigh. No temporary escape can truly break its hold. The only way to free yourself is not to resist it, but to look inward and face it.
So stop.
Breathe.
Place your hand on this chain, not in anger or frustration, but with understanding.
Recognise it for what it is a story, not a truth. A narrative that was never yours to begin with and then one by one, begin to unhook the links.
The Journey Back to Wholeness
The truth is, you were never broken. You were never unworthy. The idea that you were “not enough” was never yours to carry, it was given to you by the world, by experiences and expectations that were never truly yours. Healing is not about becoming someone new. It is about returning home to yourself. To the true self that has always been there beneath the layers of doubt, fear, and negative beliefs.
With each piece you release, you will begin to see…
You are enough.
You always have been and you always will be.
Speaking Kindly To The Wounded Parts Of Yourself
Within us all is a child one who has been shamed, criticised, and told they are not enough. This inner child does not need fixing they need to be heard. Instead of letting your inner critic tighten its grip, imagine cradling this part of yourself with the compassion of a mother holding a weeping child.
What would you say to someone you love if they were hurting?
Speak those words to yourself.
Let your inner voice become a soothing balm rather than a blade.
Leaning Into Your Inner Fire
Our pain has a way of demanding attention. We often try to smoulder it, escape it, or cover it up, but what if we learned to lean into it? What if, instead of running from discomfort, we sat with it like an old friend, asking:
- What are you here to teach me?
- What story am I telling myself that keeps this belief alive?
- How can I meet myself with love instead of judgment?
This is not about fixing. It is about feeling. When we allow ourselves to fully experience an emotion, it flows through us like a river, rather than getting stuck like a stagnant pond.
Discover Your Power
Rather than avoiding painful emotions, learn to listen to them with curiosity. Ask yourself:
- What is this feeling trying to tell me?
- Where did this belief of “not enough” come from?
- How can I nurture and support myself through this?
By engaging with our emotions instead of suppressing them, we begin to transform our inner world and break free from the chains of the past. Healing begins with awareness, compassion, and a willingness to meet ourselves exactly where we are not with judgment or shame, but with the love and acceptance we so readily give to others.
The Knots Prayer
Please untie the knots that are in my mind, my heart and my life.
Remove the have nots the can nots and the do nots that I have in my mind.
Erase the will nots may nots might nots that might find a home in my heart .
Release me from the could nots would nots and should nots that obstruct my life.
And most of all, I ask that you remove from my mind my heart and my life all of the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back, especially the thought that I am not enough.
~Author Unknown
Main – Photo by Toby Dagenhart on Unsplash
