Seeing the World Anew: When Self-Forgiveness Clears More Than the Mind

One of the joys of working at Live Well is witnessing those almost magical moments when a client’s inner world shifts so deeply that their outer world suddenly looks different too. Recently, a woman in her late 30’s gave me a perfect example — the kind that reminds me why I do this work… and the kind I secretly wish I had on camera.

She came into our session carrying what many of us know too well: years of childhood trauma, self-blame, people-pleasing, and emotional tension in her shoulders so heavy, they would have incurred excess baggage fees. She’d spent a lifetime trying to heal but her nervous system had other ideas. Her body lived as if someone had installed a smoke alarm in her chest that went off every time she tried to rest or detected a threat.

During our latest session, she reached a profound moment of true self-forgiveness — not the polite “I guess I’ll let that go” kind, but the full-bodied “oh… it was never my fault at all” kind. As the somatic work unfolded, her breath deepened, her muscles softened, and her whole system recalibrated. If she had been a phone, this was the moment the screen finally stopped glitching.

And then it happened. She opened her eyes, blinked a few times, wiped some tears and said:

“Everything looks different… like I’m seeing the world for the first time.”

This wasn’t poetic exaggeration. When the nervous system shifts from survival to safety, the senses literally open up. Colours brighten, vision widens, details return, and the world looks less like a threat and more like… well, this beautiful world. Shame and self-blame act like smudges on the glasses of perception. Remove them, and suddenly life is in high-definition again.

Her transformation is a powerful reminder that healing isn’t just emotional — it’s deeply physical and sensory. When the body finally feels safe, people often tell me they feel taller, lighter, or as if someone adjusted the brightness setting on reality. Some feel they can breathe for the first time in years. And some, like this client, literally see life anew.

This is the essence of compassionate enquiry and somatic therapy: helping people move out of long-held survival patterns and into a state where clarity, connection, and genuine self-compassion can emerge — often with surprising side effects, such as noticing the dust on your bookshelf!

If you’re curious about how this kind of embodied work might support your own healing, I’m always happy to chat. Transformation doesn’t have to be dramatic — but sometimes, delightfully, it is.

Learn more about Trauma and Chronic Pain Therapy with Carole and book online