Why Change Feels Lonely (and How to Move Through It)

(bright music) Headspace Studios. (gentle music) Hi, it's Dora, and you are listening to Radio Headspace. Have you ever gone through a season of personal growth where you're journaling more, going to therapy, minding your business, drinking your water, and yet somehow it feels less like freedom and more like heartbreak? You're evolving, doing all the right things, but underneath it there's a strange sense of loss, like you're saying goodbye to something you didn't even know you'd miss. And that's the part that no one really talks about when it comes to growth. Sometimes becoming your fullest self means grieving who you used to be and who others expected you to stay. We usually think of grief as something tied to endings, like a breakup, job loss, or someone passing away. But grief can show up in the beginnings too, especially when we start growing into a new version of ourselves. Because when you change, even for the better, things shift, relationships shift, what you tolerate shifts. How you spend your time, how you show up, even what you laugh at, it all starts to evolve. And as beautiful as that is, it can also feel lonely because while you're stepping into alignment, you might also be letting go of people, patterns or places that once felt like home. There was a time in my life when I had just started going to therapy regularly, really diving deep into my healing. I was learning how to set real boundaries, the kind that aren't just about saying no, but are about honoring what I actually needed instead of trying to keep the peace. Around that time, I had a close friend who I used to talk to every day. We'd send voice notes back and forth constantly, memes, jokes, venting about work, what we were cooking for dinner, all of it. There was a real comfort in that connection, like having someone in your back pocket at all times. But as I started shifting internally, I noticed that our dynamics started to feel a little off. I was becoming more aware of how much I had been performing, always giving advice, always available, even when I was drained. So one day I gently said, "Hey, I love talking to you, and I also realized I've been needing more quiet lately, just some space to process and recharge." It wasn't dramatic and I wasn't cutting them off. I just needed to take care of myself differently. And that's when the distance began, the voice notes stopped, the meme stopped. Eventually the friendship faded out, not with a blowout, just a slow unraveling. And at first I felt guilty, like maybe I was asking for too much, maybe my growth had made me too serious or too distant. But then I realized I was changing. And not everyone is going to recognize you in your next chapter, especially if they only knew you from your last. What I lost was a sense...