You can’t quite remember when it started - the constant scanning, the tightening in your chest, the voice in your head rehearsing every conversation before you have it.

All you know is that it feels normal. Normal to anticipate disaster. Normal to hold your breath. Normal to keep yourself in check so you won’t say or do the wrong thing. Isn’t everyone hypervigilant nowadays?

Except, somewhere inside, you know it’s not normal. You've built a life around coping; but what if survival mode - a brilliant adaptation that helped you once - is keeping you from a freer, lighter and truer you?

This book is about finding your way out. Not by pushing yourself harder or pretending your difficult emotions don’t exist, but by recognising them, tending to them, and learning how to feel safe and free and happy in your own skin.