Living in the Light

I didn’t always live in the light.

For years, my life felt like a series of foggy rooms—dim, cluttered, and hard to navigate. I wasn’t unhappy on the outside. In fact, people often told me I seemed confident, calm, and well put together. But internally, I felt lost, unsure, and weighed down by the noise of life and the expectations of others.

It wasn’t until a breaking point came—quiet and internal, not loud or dramatic—that I realized I couldn’t go on autopilot anymore. I had to make a conscious shift. I had to stop just existing and start living. And to do that, I needed to live in the light.

This is the story of how I embraced personal transformation, one small shift at a time, and how you can too.

The Wake-Up Moment

My shift didn’t come from a self-help book or a viral TED Talk. It came one morning in my tiny kitchen as I stared blankly at my reflection in the microwave door.

I was burnt out. Not just from work, but from being everything for everyone except myself. I realized I couldn’t even answer a simple question: “What do I want?”

I didn’t know. And that scared me.

So I started asking deeper questions. Why did I constantly feel exhausted? Why did I seek validation so often? Why did I stay silent about what I truly needed?

The answer was simple: I had spent my whole life in survival mode, in the shadows. I had never chosen the light. It was time.

Step 1: Radical Self-Honesty

Transformation began with telling the truth—to myself.

I sat down with a journal and wrote three simple questions:

What do I believe about myself?

Where did these beliefs come from?

Are they serving me?

The answers cracked me open.

I discovered I believed I wasn’t “enough” unless I was achieving. That I couldn’t rest without guilt. That speaking up for myself was selfish.

Where did this come from? Childhood. Culture. Work. Society. But mostly? Me.

The act of recognizing these beliefs was the first real step into the light.

Step 2: Letting Go of Shame

Shame had followed me like a shadow—telling me I was wrong for being sensitive, too emotional, not productive enough.

But light doesn’t mix with shame.

So I started gently separating what I did from who I was. I made peace with my past mistakes. I stopped labeling myself as broken.

Instead, I saw myself as becoming. And that reframed everything.

Step 3: Practicing Stillness

To change your life, you need to hear yourself. And to hear yourself, you need silence.

I began taking 10 minutes each day to sit in quiet—no phone, no music, no agenda. At first, it was uncomfortable. My mind raced. But slowly, the noise faded.

In stillness, I discovered what peace actually felt like. Not perfect. Not productive. But whole.

And I realized: the light isn’t always loud. Often, it whispers.

Step 4: Choosing What Feeds You

I began asking: What feeds me? What drains me?

I let go of relationships that felt performative. I stopped saying “yes” to things that hurt my soul just to be polite. I turned off content that made me feel less-than.

And I leaned into nourishment: meaningful conversations, morning sun, movement, books that made me feel alive, and people who saw the real me.

Light loves to grow where it is fed.

Step 5: Living with Intention

This part changed everything.

I stopped moving through life by default and started choosing by design.

Every Sunday, I asked myself:

What matters this week?

How do I want to feel?

What can I let go of?

This weekly check-in helped me stop chasing, and start aligning.

Living in the light means asking, what is true for me—and then honoring that truth, even if it's inconvenient, even if others don’t understand.

Step 6: Becoming Who I Already Am

The most beautiful part of personal transformation?

It’s not about becoming someone else. It’s about becoming who you already are—before the world told you who to be.

I stopped hiding my softness. I stopped apologizing for needing rest. I stopped proving myself. And in that space, I found something I didn’t know I was missing: freedom.

Moral of the Story

Transformation isn’t a loud moment. It’s a quiet decision repeated daily.

To live in the light is to stop hiding—from pain, from truth, from possibility.

It means choosing yourself, gently but boldly.

It means forgiving your past, honoring your present, and believing in your future.

You don’t have to earn the light.

You are already worthy of it.

--------------------------------------

Thank you for reading...

Regards: Fazal Hadi