Mind Musings: Refinement through Reflection
- Innasya Mackenzie
- Jan 29
- 4 min read
If you were to ask me what my biggest takeaway from 2025 was, I would say mastery of emotional regulation and learning that silence paired with private forgiveness is the classiest response.
I’ve always been one to share all of my feelings with the internet and after my online ‘crash out’ back in June I realised that the world does not need a front-row seat to my pain.
Posting online can feel comforting — the validation is immediate, the reassurance tangible — but it comes at a cost: your peace.
Energy is too expensive for bad investments.
As someone who sees beauty in everything—even pain—and content creation as a creative outlet, navigating my newfound realisation of no longer wanting to broadcast my emotions to the world led me to finding new solutions that honoured my feelings without performing them.
Firstly, making use of TikTok's ‘only you’ post feature—I can still make the TikToks I want; they just don’t need to be posted publicly! Secondly, creating a ‘silent reposts’ folder in my TikTok collections. And finally, learning that the most dangerous addiction is the approval of others.
Instead of seeking external validation, I found it within. I sat with my thoughts, devoting time to deep introspection and mastering self-concept clarity. The strongest people are deeply sensitive — courageous enough to feel fully, accept their emotions, and move through them consciously. To heal, to move on, is to let every feeling exist fully and then letting them go.
Silence, especially when your name is being slandered online, takes a lot of self control and discipline but I believe that a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. In the end, time will tell. I have no need to defend myself against lies. When someone has to destroy you to feel relevant, they’ve already lost.
I spent a lot of time last year journaling and some of those diary entries actually ended up on my blog. I came to realise, being able to put my thoughts and feelings into well thought out, carefully chosen words was the only creative outlet I needed. No one was diminished or “exposed” in the process. My blog articles were curated with the intention to help and give advice rather than airing out my issues to strangers on the internet.
What stayed with me most, and continues to guide me in my everyday life, were a handful of quotes I heard. I’d like to pass them on.
