One of my clients in his sixties, told me:

“You know, after all these years I am stuck in my own ways. I live in my own box. I don’t know if I can change. I am too used to be this way. I feel safe in my box!”

“I hear you”, I said. “We all have our own boxes. Different shapes and sizes. And it’s safe to live in them because it is so familiar.”

“But also it’s so lonely. Being in my box I isolated myself from all people. But I don’t know how to get out from there.”

“What if we start by just opening the box.”

“That, I can do.”

Sometimes just a first step starts a whole journey.

And change is built by small steps, one after another.

And it’s possible even when we built on patterns for decades.

Change is possible.

It’s not easy. But it’s possible.

And that’s where we begin. Not with big leaps. But with the quiet, powerful decision to try.

To look at the box. To see it for what it is.

To name the fear. To feel the longing.

To not shame ourselves for how long we’ve lived this way, but to gently ask:

“Is there more for me now?”

In my work as a therapist, I’ve learned that even the most rigid patterns carry stories.

Stories of survival.

Stories of love once withheld.

Stories of pain we didn’t know how to feel, so we tucked them away, safely behind the walls we built.

The box becomes a home. A predictable space.

But over time, what once felt like safety can begin to feel like a cage.

And loneliness whispers louder than fear.

So, in our Journey we start small.

We don’t dismantle the whole thing in a day.

We just open a little corner. Let some light in. Let the air move.

We learn to sit with discomfort.

We learn to stretch, gently, patiently.

And what I’ve seen again and again is this:

The box doesn’t need to be destroyed.

It just needs to be outgrown.

Because healing isn’t about forcing ourselves to be different.

It’s about allowing ourselves to become.

At any age. At any stage.

And it always starts the same way:

“That, I can do.”

May you open the box slowly, without shame, without rush.

May you meet the parts of you that stayed hidden with tenderness, not judgment.

May you trust that even one small breath of courage can begin a lifetime of change.

You don’t have to know the whole path.

You just have to say:

“That, I can do.”

And let that be enough for today.

With care,🤍

Aniela

www.MindfulTherapist.us

Photo: Pinterest