We give our power away when we assume that someone else will look after our needs, will validate our (often unnamed) experience. But the ignorance of the other is often what pushes us to reach for language, make meaning where there was chaos.
We must ultimately be our own gatekeeper. This is not a task we can outsource. When we allow this to happen we see that our feelings and emotions can unconsciously be used against us, that a sacred thing can be manipulated.
When we rely on our own knowing, the path to identifying our needs becomes clearer. We no longer get lost in the sea of co-dependency because we follow our own rhythms and we trust what we feel. And with this comes responsibility.
Reclaiming our true self starts with accepting that our process, our way of navigating our life, is rarely linear. We let ourselves off the hook when we allow that to be okay and release ourselves from perfection or martyrdom.
Gatekeeping means that we choose when to open and close, that we are able to stand in wisdom while meeting our states of mind with equanimity. That we have a right to say yes or to say no. And because we trust that our intentions are pure, we become the authors of our embodied expression.