APX-IV-0008
“I've been playing small so others don't feel threatened.”
Shrinking yourself to manage someone else's insecurity is not kindness. It's a slow erasure of who you are — and it helps no one. People are not lifted by watching you disappear.
Your Practice
Name the specific relationship where you shrink. Answer honestly: does your smallness actually help them, or does it just keep the peace at your expense? This week, show up fully in one interaction where you would normally pull back. Write down what actually happens. Reality is almost always less punishing than the fear that made you shrink.
The Architects
“Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations