The Echo of Approval

Soulvia Musings

We’re taught that love is the answer.

That love will heal us. Save us. Complete us.

But sometimes, what we’re really chasing isn’t love at all.

It’s approval.

Not the loud kind—cheers, applause, titles.

The quiet kind. The nod. The soft “you did good.”

The echo we hope will finally quiet the noise inside.

For a long time, I thought I was searching for love.

But when I slowed down enough to really listen……

I realized I was listening for something else.

You did it right. You are right. You’re okay now.

That whisper.

That subtle confirmation.

That’s what I kept reaching for—through effort,

through achievement,

through trying to “be enough.”

Until something broke.

And in the stillness,

I saw it: I had been performing for a ghost.

An echo of someone I could never satisfy.

An imprint from somewhere deep in childhood or culture or past lives

—maybe all three.

And then I stopped.

I didn’t try to impress.

I didn’t prove.

I just stood still.

And in that stillness… I didn’t die.

The world didn’t fall apart.

No one came to rescue me—but no one needed to.

Because something even quieter than approval emerged:

Self-acceptance.

Not because I got everything right—

But because I finally stopped needing to.

💫 Walking with You

If this feels familiar—

if you’ve spent a lifetime trying to earn someone’s nod,I see you. I am you.

And I’m here to say… the nod you were waiting for?

It’s yours to give now.