From Rage to Reclamation: The words that set me free
- Dec 1, 2025
- 3 min read
By Ariel Balfour
It felt like a lifetime carrying all the pain, so much so that victimhood began to feel like armour, yet it was suffocating me, killing my authenticity one moment at a time. I had not realized how much of my identity was wrapped up and rooted in the things that had happened to me. I would say it was just the story of who I was; a hurt, betrayed and abandoned little girl. I said this repeatedly until it felt like me truth and my identity.
But the something unexpected happened. I saw an opportunity to share just a fraction of my story in an anthology, so I took it and let the words pour out of me like a burst pipe. It was then I knew my words held weight.
I did not writer clean and polished, it was messy and raw, the truth tearing you apart raw. The type of writing where your pen moves faster then your thoughts can form or even filter. I was not just drafting a story, I was releasing years of pent-up rage and pain, the pen becoming my unpaid therapist.
The first draft was ugly. Pages filled with hatred, self blame, rage and the ever so taunting, shame. However, the more I revised and rewrite the more beautiful, clear, and concise it became. With each revision came a lightness on my heart, a freeing of my mind and an acceptance of self. The words I wrote became the antidote for the poison I drank.
Writing became medicine. It healed the unseen.
Every time I write, I give life and meaning to the emotions that try to remain hidden. I remove their power over me, giving shape to the chaos within. I began to see patterns in how I played small, how I masked for others comfortability and how I had abandoned the very truth of who I was all in the name of silence. Writing allowed me to step into the light; to witness my pain and meet my inner child so I could understand her and release what was no longer needed.
You see, what you write becomes a motion of movement within you, allowing the pain or pleasure to transmute into something bigger than yourself.
That is the shift. The moment you move from victimhood into empowerment. Broken to healed.
When I finally release my full story in 2026, “Born for The Fire”, I full anticipate the ultimate quantum leap of my life. Each chapter moves through me with intention. I intend to reclaim and lead those who read it to do that same. Because once your pain becomes purpose it loses its death grip on you, fr4eeing you from yourself.
And here is what I want you to take away from all of this,
you do not need to be a writer with a fancy degree or even something to teach to make true impact in the world. Your story, your pain turned into purpose will move mountains. It is about the simple start, the release of words without fear, without judgment and most of all without shame. This is a meeting of your truest self and although it is messy, it is uniquely beautiful.
If you wait until you feel ready, you will wait lifetimes to heal. As Elsa in frozen said and sung daily in my home, LET IT GO.
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