Strong & Centered Blog
Learning
Content to inspire and motivate you, truths to lean on when life feels overwhelming.
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Love Bombing vs. Healthy Beginnings
Love bombing and healthy connection can feel deceptively similar—especially if you carry abandonment wounds. This piece explores how intensity gets mistaken for intimacy, why calm can feel unfamiliar, and how to recognize real emotional safety at the start of a relationship.
If It’s Confusing, It’s a ‘No’
Dating someone who’s “almost” available can be more painful than dating someone who’s clearly not. This piece explores why emotionally unavailable men feel so magnetic—and how to choose clarity and emotional safety without becoming guarded or bitter.
When Betrayal Defies Logic
Betrayal from a narcissist doesn’t make sense because it was never rooted in empathy, conscience, or real connection. This piece explores why your mind can’t “understand” their cruelty — and why the only clarity you need is the truth about your own worth.
Staying Calm to a Cruel Face
Malignant narcissists thrive on chaos. Your calm is their kryptonite. This post breaks down how to detach from their cruelty, hold your ground, and reclaim your emotional power — no matter how hard they try to destabilize you.
Can You Detect Narcissism?
Spotting narcissism while dating isn’t simple—not even therapists can offer a concrete test. Survivors are especially vulnerable, balancing hope and fear after abuse. This post explores why it’s so hard to detect, what subtle patterns to watch for, and how to trust your instincts as you move forward with more wisdom and strength.
The Physical Cost of Toxicity
Toxic love doesn’t just hurt your heart — it leaves an imprint on your body. Stress, exhaustion, and illness without a name are often the silent consequences of staying too long, and healing means listening to what your body has been trying to tell you.
When You Wait Too Long
Hope can be comforting, but it can also keep us stuck. We keep thinking, “if we just give it a little more time, the story will turn.” Sometimes the greatest grief is not losing another person — it’s losing yourself in the waiting.
Potential Isn’t Partnership
Believing in someone’s best self can be beautiful. But when we confuse potential with partnership, we risk losing ourselves in nurturing a version of our person that may never come.
Release What’s Held
We all carry stories about love — the ones we write in our heads about how things will turn out. For me, the hardest part was realizing the story I was holding onto wasn’t real.
When the Dream No Longer Serves
Dreams keep us going, but they can also keep us bound. There comes a moment when holding onto the dream costs more than releasing it — and that’s when the real healing begins.
When Friendship Turns Toxic
Friendship breakup broke me open — and taught me everything I didn’t want to learn about loyalty, loss, and boundaries. When the people I trusted most turned away, I learned that healing isn’t about getting closure from others — it’s about finding peace within yourself.
Living with Jekyll & Hyde
Dating a narcissist feels like living with Jekyll and Hyde. One moment, they’re showering you with love. The next, they treat you like you don’t matter at all. Both sides are real—and that’s what makes it so confusing, and so painful. 💔
The Closure You’ll Never Get
Closure feels impossible after narcissistic abuse because you’re waiting for it from the one person least capable of giving it. Narcissists don’t end things cleanly—they end them with confusion. The truth? Closure isn’t in their hands. It’s in yours.
Narcissists Never Apologize
Narcissists never actually apologize—not because you don’t deserve it, but because they can’t risk admitting fault. Real apologies require empathy, accountability, and change. Their “sorry” will always be performance, not repair. The closure you’re waiting for won’t come from them—it comes from you.
When Apologies Are a Lie
A narcissist’s apology isn’t about remorse—it’s about control. It’s not “I’m sorry I hurt you,” it’s “I’m sorry you noticed.” Their “sorry” is bait, not closure—and the real power comes when you stop believing the performance.
Surviving the Workday
Breakups are hard. Breakups with narcissists? Brutal. You’re grieving the relationship and detoxing from the chaos. And while your heart is in shards, work still demands your attention. Some days survival is the win—and that’s okay.
How to Say YES to Love Again
Love after narcissistic abuse feels like walking into a minefield—you want it, but you’re terrified of getting blown apart again. That fear is real, but so is this truth: love didn’t hurt you, the narcissist did. Real love is steady, respectful, and safe. It doesn’t demand you shrink. It doesn’t punish you for boundaries. Saying yes to love again isn’t about rushing into romance—it’s about reclaiming your right to believe in it.
Saying YES to (Messy) Growth
Narcissists shrink you. They make your world small so they can dominate it, convincing you to dim your light and doubt your worth. Leaving means saying yes to growth—messy, awkward, scary growth. Not giant leaps overnight, but small yesses that plant seeds: a new hobby, a new friend, a new dream. Each one is proof you’re not broken—you’re expanding. And growth, in its rawest form, is rebellion.
Saying YES to (Terrifying) Peace
After narcissistic abuse, peace doesn’t feel peaceful at first—it feels threatening. Silence used to mean punishment, calm was just the storm’s intermission. So when life finally quiets down, your nervous system doesn’t know what to do with it. But here’s the truth: peace isn’t boring. Peace is the reset. It’s your nervous system learning safety again, your soul remembering that calm can be home.
Find Peace: Stop Explaining
Boundaries aren’t walls—they’re fences with gates. You decide who comes in, how long they stay, and whether they get snacks. Without them, chaos runs wild. Boundaries don’t just protect you from others—they protect you from the old you who accepted less than you deserved.