When we’ve been betrayed—by the people we trusted most—the pain can feel like it’s shattered us into pieces. It’s so deep, so raw, that we start to believe we’re broken. And that hopelessness? It’s so heavy that we’ll do just about anything to numb the pain. We reach for whatever helps us escape—whether it’s overworking, drinking, or trying to be perfect—because feeling that kind of hurt seems impossible to bear. But here’s the thing: numbing doesn’t just take away the pain. It takes away everything. It shuts us off from joy, from connection, from love. And most importantly, it reinforces the lie that we’re broken. But we’re not broken. We only think we are. We think we’re broken because the betrayal told us we weren’t enough. We think we’re broken because we’ve learned to hide our pain, to pretend we don’t need love, to believe that something’s wrong with us. But the truth is, we’re not broken. We’re hurt. And there’s a big difference. The antidote to that hurt? It’s letting love in. I know, after betrayal, letting love in feels like the most terrifying thing you could do. But love is the very thing that will heal those wounds. When we open ourselves up to love—real, unconditional love—we begin to see that we’ve been whole all along. The love we let in doesn’t fix us because we were never broken to begin with. Instead, it reminds us of our worthiness. It reminds us that we’re enough, even with the scars, even with the mess. Letting love in is about daring to be vulnerable again. It’s about believing that, even though we’ve been hurt, we are still worthy of connection, still worthy of love. When we stop numbing, when we stop hiding, we give love the space to reach us. And love? It doesn’t ask for perfection. It asks for authenticity, for the real, messy, beautiful parts of us that we’ve been hiding. So, no—you’re not broken. You’ve just been carrying around the weight of that belief for too long. And when you start to let love in, when you let yourself be seen, that’s when healing begins.