This week, a family member sent me a text with a screenshot of one of my recent posts.

The post itself was about a thought-provoking conversation I had with someone and the invaluable lesson that came from it. But that’s not what they were pointing out.

They zoomed in on the “like” count and playfully poked fun at the fact that one of the likes had come from the author of the post… me.

In the past, something like that would have triggered me deeply.

Not because of the screenshot itself.
Not even because of the joking.

But because I would have made it mean something bigger.

I would have taken it as proof that I wasn’t being supported by the people closest to me. I would have fixated on the fact that they had enough time to notice, screenshot, and message me on my post… but seemingly not enough time to simply support it with a "like" of their own.

But here’s what I see now that I didn’t see then:

In all fairness, they were probably busy.
They likely meant no harm.
And it may not have even crossed their mind to “like” the post—not out of resistance, but simply because they were moving through their own day, their own world, their own internal reality.

That realization matters.

Because one of my deepest wounds used to be reading into people’s actions—especially the ones I could measure.

What they did.
What they didn’t do.
How quickly they responded.
Whether they supported me publicly.
Whether they showed up in the way I thought they should.

And every time I interpreted those actions through the lens of my wound, I ended up in the same place:

Hurt.
Resentful.
Disconnected from myself.

There are two major problems with living this way.

First:

Why would you hand your power to another person and let their behavior determine your peace?

Why should someone else’s “like,” acknowledgment, approval, or support become the thing that validates you?

That is far too expensive a price to pay for self-worth.

Only you can validate you.
Only you can anchor your value.
Only you can decide that who you are and what you create is worthy—before anyone else claps for it.

Second:

Judging someone purely by their actions only gives you a fraction of the picture.

You have no idea what they’re carrying internally.
No idea what they intended.
No idea what your success, your visibility, or your expression may have stirred in them.
No idea what lens they are seeing life through in that moment.

And when we make someone else’s action mean something absolute about us, we collapse a very complex reality into a painful, often inaccurate story.

That is how we suffer unnecessarily.

We are all on a journey.

Every single one of us is navigating life through our own wounds, fears, hopes, and level of awareness. Every path is unique. Every response is filtered through experiences we cannot see.

So perhaps the deeper work is this:

To stop looking outside ourselves for confirmation.
To stop assigning meaning so quickly.
To stop giving our power away in exchange for crumbs of validation.

And instead…

To be deeply anchored in who we are.
To be proud of how we show up.
To trust our own heart, our own intention, our own path.

And then, from that place, to extend compassion to others—
the same compassion we so desperately need to extend to ourselves.

So I’ll leave you with this today:

Where are you giving your power away?

To whose opinion?
To whose support?
To whose silence?
To whose behavior?

Because the moment you reclaim your power, you reclaim your peace.