Living in your own shelter:

Lo que "Somewhere Only We Know" nos recuerda sobre la libertad interior

Sometimes the unconscious has very subtle ways of calling us to order. He doesn't believe in coincidences. A few days ago I woke up singing a melody that insisted on staying with me. I went to look for the lyrics calmly and found myself again with a classic that you surely know: Somewhere Only We Know, by Keane.

It is a beautiful song, but stripped of everyday noise, I was shocked by how it portrays a reality that I constantly observe in mentoring processes: the danger of living automatically and the challenge of meeting again when the scenarios of our life change. It is not a topic about the nostalgia of a lost love; it is a direct and honest conversation with our own essence, the one that we so often leave in the back seat while we take care of the demands of the environment.

1. The landscape of inertia

LThe song begins with a phrase that perfectly describes the beginning of many vital transitions:

"I walked through an empty land / I knew the road like the back of my hand."

Oslo_September 2024

There is a stage in life in which we already dominate the terrain. We know how to manage day to day, how to support those around us, how to solve unforeseen events and how to move with solvency in the roles we chose or that touched us. We know the route by heart.

The problem arises when, despite that "dexterity", the landscape feels empty.

Knowing exactly how to handle your reality does not mean that that reality continues to fill you. Operating from pure inertia and duty to be makes us excellent administrators of a routine, but it distances us from being the true sovereigns of our existence. Automatism is a silent enemy: it makes us believe that we are moving forward just because we are busy.

2. When the structures wobble

Halfway through, the lyrics throw an awkward question: "Is this the place we used to love? / Is this the place I've been dreaming of?", and adds a powerful image: an old tree that has been cut down.

That tree represents the pillars that we considered immovable: our certainties, the family or professional structures that we build, and the identity that we put ourselves for years. When the rhythm of the environment pushes us to always be exposed, attending to the transitions of others or holding roles that have already fulfilled their cycle (such as when children leave, personal projects are closed), the first thing we neglect is the axis itself.

Looking in the mirror and wondering at what point you changed intuition for habit is not a failure; it is a sign of lucidity. Great crises do not always warn with thunders; they are noticeable in the subtle loss of connection with what truly moves us today, in the present.

3. The claim of the simple

There comes a point where the text gets rid of artifices and goes to the point:

"Oh, simple thing, where have you gone? / I'm getting old and I need something to trust."

Over the years, life accumulates layers of complexity. We are filled with responsibilities, labels and strategies to make everything work. However, in the face of fatigue or emptiness, the elaborate formulas are not enough. The body and mind begin to demand basic certainties, naked truths.

That "place that only we know" does not appear on any map or is it bought. It is the mental and emotional state where you don't have to hold any facade, where you don't have to prove anything to anyone. It is the space where you return to inhabit your own skin without asking permission or apologies.

For some it is the absolute silence of the morning, for others it is writing without a specific purpose, walking without a fixed destination or contemplating a horizon without the rush of having to produce something with it. It is, in short, your personal sovereignty.

Inhabit the present

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If this song has also resonated in your life lately, don't miss it as a simple background entertainment. Look at it as a sign of your own internal compass. The current environment saturates us with noise, external demands and a fictitious urgency that pushes us out. But you will never find the clarity you need to define your next steps in the hustle and bustle. It's in the inner eye, calm.

I invite you to reflect today:

• What is that space, habit or moment that returns gravity to you when the environment threatens to destabilize you?

  
  

  How long has it been since you allowed yourself to inhabit it completely, with full presence and without guilt?

  
  

  Don't wait for your bases to wear out completely to look for shelter. At the end of the day, the most honest Accompaniment is not the one that gives you prefabricated answers, but the one that accompanies you to listen to the silences where your true decisions reside.

Isabel Ruiz-LifeCoach  Mentora 🦋🦋🦋

 Panamá , june 28 de 2026