16/03/2026
As human beings, we often wonder if our internal experiences are normal. Those might be anything, really. Maybe you experience:
- Chronic anxiety
- Strong triggers in social situations
- Body image struggles
- Spiritual awakening
- Phobias
- Chronic shame
- Unexplained physical symptoms
- Paranoia
- A feeling that you’re the worst person in the entire world
- Mystical experiences
The first thing that most people want to know is if anyone else is going through the same challenging or unique experience. Especially if we keep struggling with it and have a hard time understanding what is happening to us.
We subsequently search for answers and meaning in difficult and unique experiences. When we are finally able to understand what is happening to us, and when we are understood by a compassionate other, the internal conflict slowly subsides and eventually dissipates.
However, we tend to spend so much time in that internal conflict. Feeling less than. Feeling totally alone. Weird. Pressing ourselves to figure things out quickly and fixing ourselves as soon as possible. Feeling angry about others minimising or invalidating our experiences. Wasting our precious energy resources…
It is important for all of us to acknowledge that we are never alone in our struggles. Whatever you’re currently going through, someone else is going through a similar experience. It will never be exactly the same, but it will be very similar. Imagine having a conversation with that person and finally being understood. That would heal at least one of your wounded inner children! This is the power of human connection.
Another important thing to understand is that whatever internal experience you are going through, it is normal. And by ‘normal’ I mean that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with you for experiencing whatever you are experiencing.
We are often afraid of being different in some way or abnormal because most people are afraid of being ridiculed, shamed, hated and ostracised. But what if there is nothing abnormal about you? And what if there is nothing pathological in your internal experience? What if it all makes sense and is normal considering your past experiences, unique personal traits and current life situation?
When we focus on being abnormal in some way and/or pathologize our experiences, we bring more tension into our life and hinder the possibility of healing. What first was just a thought becomes a cage limiting our understanding of ourselves and the reality we live in. A cage that subsequently creates more struggle and division in our already complicated and heavy world.