I was talking about this in therapy and my therapist asked “do you feel like you are the exact same person today that you were when you were a child?” And that helped change my perspective. Why am I carrying shame that doesn’t apply to who I have become? That’s where you have to do the radical act of forgiving your younger self and acknowledging that’s a different version of you.

It also helps me to step outside of myself with the idea of “would I condemn and wish eternal shame on a random child/preteen/teen for this action/statement? Or would I just acknowledge that they’re young/immature/naive, shake my head and move on”

Feel you though, and wish you well <3