🌿 BELONGING
“True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” – Brené Brown
Belonging is the soft ground under your feet when you finally find a clearing where you can breathe, speak, and simply be—without apology. For people with ADHD, it’s not just a desire, it’s a survival need. So much of our terrain is shaped by feeling out of sync, too much, or not enough. Belonging is the antidote to that ache.
When you live with ADHD, you often feel like a puzzle piece in the wrong box. You work hard to fit in—to mask, to overcompensate, to read the room and contort yourself accordingly. But masking isn’t belonging. It’s bargaining.
Real belonging happens when you’re seen in your tangles, your brilliance, your unevenness—and still welcomed. It’s when you can forget to text back and still be loved. When you can show up with messy thoughts and still be invited in. When you stop trying to earn your space and start trusting that you have one.
Belonging also starts with self-acceptance. The more you live as your real self, the easier it is to find your people—those who meet you with resonance instead of resistance. The goal isn’t to fit in everywhere. It’s to find the circles, relationships, and environments where your presence feels like home.
🧭 The HOPE Trail Map
- Helps or Harms: Am I shaping myself to be accepted—or standing as I am and letting the right connections find me?
- Own My Values: I want to be someone who seeks connection without abandoning myself.
- People and Pursuits: Who makes me feel like I don’t have to explain or edit myself? Where do I feel most at home?
- Enact and Evaluate: Today, I’ll take one small risk to be real—and see who meets me there.
⚠️ Trail Challenges
- Rejection Sensitivity makes authenticity feel dangerous.
- Past exclusion or bullying can seed deep mistrust.
- Trying to belong “everywhere” often leaves us nowhere.
🪧 Trail Markers: Small Steps Toward Belonging
- Share something slightly vulnerable with someone you trust.
- Seek spaces designed for neurodivergent or creative minds.
- Affirm yourself: “I belong here, even when I’m struggling.”
🔥 Campfire Questions for Reflection
- Where in my life do I feel safest to be fully myself?
- When was the last time I felt I had to earn belonging—and what did that cost me?
- What might shift if I stopped auditioning and started arriving?
Belonging is not something you find by becoming someone else. It’s the moment you arrive, exactly as you are—and realize there’s still a seat at the fire for you.
