Extremely thought-provoking, Patrícia - So much so, I read it twice!

I've never considered myself powerful. Mentally strong when I've needed to be and resilient, perhaps. I think that's important and you allude to this.

For me, one of the most important points about your article is that it raises the awareness and danger of getting too entrenched in painful emotions from our past.

It's not healthy and limits our potential in so many ways.

Using our past 'hurts' as lessons, is such sound advice - Learning from mistakes.

We don't need to be victims of our past circumstances.

It also helps if we're not too tough on ourselves. We're human.

It also helps me to consider myself 'work-in-progress', continuing to learn about myself and how to be better than I was yesterday. Learning again.

Excellent piece, Patrícia.