People pleasing is a trauma response.

This statement made me stop and pause. I’ve been on a mission lately to break out of the cycle of people pleasing, and this is one revelation that I somehow missed.

“It’s part of fawning,” my therapist explains. I hadn’t heard of that either. Apparently, flight, fight, freeze, or fawn are the four responses to trauma.

I’m learning a lot, and a lot of it makes sense.

Never too old to mend those broken places, apparently. Always something new to learn.

(Photo collage inspired by recent learning.)