23/05/2026
You love them.
That's what makes it so exhausting.
If you didn't care, it would be easy to walk away.
But you do care — and so you stay in rooms that shrink you.
You answer calls that leave you hollow.
You contort yourself into shapes that keep the peace
but slowly lose the person you were trying to become.
And then you feel guilty for even thinking about distance.
Because they're family.
Because they need you.
Because what kind of person pulls away from their own blood?
The Gita — written in a culture that understood family obligation better than most — says this:
"One who rejoices only in the self,
who is satisfied in the self alone —
for such a person, there is no obligatory duty."
— Gita 3.17
This is not permission to abandon people.
It is something quieter and more radical:
When you are rooted in yourself —
truly, deeply rooted —
your relationships stop being transactions of guilt
and become genuine choices.
Detachment from family is not coldness.
It is the refusal to let love become a leash.
You can love them and need less from them.
You can care and still choose your peace.
You can be a good son, daughter, sibling
without disappearing inside the role.
The Gita has never asked you to shrink for anyone.
Not even for the people who raised you.
✦ Follow for Day 13 tomorrow ✦
📿 Read Gita 3.17 in Sanskrit, Hindi & English — free on Shloka. Link in bio.