Being Here – Day 50
Being Here – Poem Day 50
Poem – When I make myself smaller – Reflecting
Yesterday’s poem worked quietly with taking up space —
without dominance, without performance.
Today’s poem stays closer to the inner experience of shrinking.
Self-minimising can be subtle.
Lowering volume.
Holding back an opinion.
Letting others move ahead.
From the outside, this can look like modesty or flexibility.
From the inside, it may feel like calibration.
In some environments, being visible carried cost.
Standing out meant scrutiny.
Attention meant evaluation.
Over time, stepping back can become automatic —
a way of maintaining safety, harmony, or stability.
Today’s poem does not ask you to expand.
It does not suggest confidence or exposure.
It simply recognises
that staying smaller
has often been a learned survival strategy.
Pause.
If anything lingers after listening, you might try one small thing — only if it feels helpful.
Notice the outline of your body where it meets the chair.
Nothing else is required.
Warmly,
Per
Poem – When I make myself smaller – Reflecting
There are moments when staying unnoticed feels safer. Lowering your voice. Reducing your presence. Letting others take the lead.
Often this happens quietly. A habit rather than a decision. A way of moving through spaces without attracting attention.
For some, this began early. In environments where standing out invited criticism, or where taking space felt risky.
Making yourself smaller can be protective. It avoids conflict. It limits exposure. It keeps things manageable.
Over time, this adjustment can become familiar. Comfortable even. Visibility begins to feel like pressure rather than opportunity.
The cost may only appear later. A sense of being overlooked. Of contributions going unseen. Of having more to offer than is shown.
It’s easy to judge this pattern harshly. To wish it were different. To push yourself to be louder or bolder.
But self-minimising is not weakness. It is often intelligence — a response shaped by context, by experience, by what once worked.
Recognising this doesn’t suddenly change how much space you take. It doesn’t force visibility.
It simply allows the experience of making yourself smaller to be understood with more compassion, as a way of staying safe in a world that hasn’t always welcomed presence.
