Burdens

Imported beliefs, emotions, and energies that cling to parts but aren’t intrinsic to them.

Description

Burdens arrive through trauma, family, and culture. From the inside they feel like plain truth, which is what makes them hard to spot — nobody experiences “I must be perfect or be rejected” as an opinion. But they behave like cargo: with enough safety and witnessing, they can be put down.

A test we find useful: a burden usually can’t tell you where it came from, and it doesn’t update when the facts change. Your own conclusions tend to shift a bit when you learn something new. Burdens just repeat.

What Burdens is NOT:

Not original sin, not a personality trait, and not the part carrying it. That last one matters most in practice — the part is not the burden, which is exactly why the burden can go and the part can stay.

Examples:

“I must be perfect or be rejected.”
“Anger is only ever dangerous.”
A dread about money that turns out to belong to your grandparents.

see also:

Personal vs. Legacy Burdens ; Unburdening; Exiles; Cultural Trauma; Trailheads