Coming home to yourself is the truest form of belonging. Sound Matters: The Crisis of Self-Alienation The week of Christmas can be beautiful, but it can also be complicated. For many people, this season brings a mixture of warmth, memories, overstimulation, emotion, joy, and quiet aches that only surface when life slows down. And in this stillness, something deeper often rises to the surface: a sense of disconnection from oneself. This is the crisis of self-alienation. It happens when you become distant from your own needs, numb to your own emotions, or unfamiliar with the person you feel you are becoming. It does not happen all at once. It builds quietly over time through overgiving, people-pleasing, self-abandonment, unspoken expectations, and long seasons of survival. The holidays tend to magnify this because they ask you to be present, even when presence feels complicated. You can be surrounded by people and still feel far from yourself. Sound has a way of softening that dista...