https://www.aHappyHippie.com/books When we first arrive in this world, we are a blank slate. We have no knowledge of how life is “supposed” to be. Everything we come to understand about the world—how to behave, how to relate to others, how to view ourselves—is taught to us through the training we receive from those around us. Our parents, siblings, family members, friends, teachers, classmates, neighbors, community members, bosses, and partners—all of them become teachers in their own way. Even the media that floods our daily lives sends constant messages about how we should think, feel, act, and even love. Every interaction, every experience adds a thread to the fabric of our understanding. However, not all of us are given loving or nurturing environments in which to grow. Often, the people responsible for raising and shaping us were themselves carrying the weight of their own programming—the lessons, wounds, and patterns they absorbed from those before them. In many cases, the ways they treated us were reflections of their own unhealed pain and unconscious beliefs. Because this programming can be so deeply ingrained, dysfunction and even abuse can feel “normal” to those who pass it on—and to those who receive it. What is familiar often feels safe, even when it is harmful. Without realizing it, many of us internalize the pain we experience, building our sense of self around it.