Belonging Starts With You: Healing the Disconnect

"You are your ancestors’ wildest dreams. You don’t need permission to remember."

Belonging doesn’t start when someone hands you a seat at their table. It starts when you claim your place in your own story. For many of us, especially those navigating identity in multicultural or diaspora contexts, culture can feel like both home and heartache. We crave connection to our roots, but we’ve been taught to distance ourselves in order to succeed, be accepted, or just avoid uncomfortable questions.

So this week, we’re talking about something tender: the disconnect. That subtle ache of not knowing where you fit. The awkward pause when someone asks where you’re "really" from. The internal battle of code-switching between spaces. The shame we’ve been conditioned to carry about our mother tongue, our names, our food, our music.

The Wounds of Disconnection

Cultural disconnection is not accidental. It is the result of colonisation, assimilation, racism, and systems that reward proximity to the dominant culture. If you feel like you’ve had to dim parts of yourself to survive, you’re not alone.

But survival is not the same as thriving. Healing begins with remembrance.

Reconnecting as an Act of Rebellion

At REESET, we believe that reclaiming your culture is one of the most powerful acts of self-love and rebellion. It’s not about perfection. It’s about intention. You don’t have to know the full history or speak the language fluently. You just have to start listening.

Here are some ways to begin:

📚 Learn on Your Terms Read stories by authors from your heritage. Watch documentaries. Ask questions. Cultural knowledge doesn’t expire—and it’s never too late to come back.

🎧 Let the Music Lead Create a playlist of songs from your culture or your childhood. Sound is memory. Let it soften you.

🌱 Practice Without Performance Make the food. Light the incense. Try the dance. You don’t have to be good at it. You just have to feel it.

🫶 Talk to Elders If You Can And if not, talk to others on a similar journey. Community healing is real.

🧘🏽‍♀️ Integrate it Into Wellness Swap the imported rituals for those that come from your roots. Your culture is not an obstacle to your wellbeing—it’s the access point.

You Already Belong

This month is all about culture—and this week, we invite you to turn inward. To ask yourself what parts of your heritage you’ve been missing. To give yourself permission to come home.

Because the truth is, you’ve always belonged. Even when you were made to feel othered. Even when you were told to tone it down. Even when you forgot.

You are your ancestors’ wildest dreams. You don’t need permission to remember.