A Free Fall — and Finding Your Way Back

It feels like we are living through the hardest stage since the beginning of the war. Those of us who remain in Ukraine — especially closer to the front, or in cities that are hit more often — feel it deeply.

This winter has stretched on for months. Long periods without steady electricity, sometimes without water — without the basic things that quietly hold life together. Odesa. Kharkiv. Kherson. Kyiv. Dnipro. The shelling doesn’t stop.

At some point, you stop counting days or weeks. It’s just one long winter.

It feels like running a race with no markers and no finish line in sight. A distance that drains you simply because you don’t know where it ends. Many of us have fallen into a deep hole of uncertainty about tomorrow. In conditions like these, it’s hard to look ahead — almost impossible to plan beyond today.

And yet, strangely, when you reach the lowest point, something shifts.

Anyone familiar with life in all its forms — birth, struggle, death — recognizes the pattern. Even if we don’t name it, we feel it. Every process has stages. Nothing moves forward without passing through them.

When you are in total darkness, in that deep place where everything feels finished, something really is ending — but it’s the stage you’re in, not your life. It’s like passing through fire. It burns, it strips away what is unnecessary, and when you come out the other side, there is clarity. There is relief.

You step into the abyss — and somehow, you find your way back.

It will get easier. At least we are allowed to believe that.

But for now, we are here. And the real question is:

How do we survive this long free fall?

The same way we survive anything.

First, stop fighting reality. Resistance will drain what little strength you have left. Acceptance doesn’t mean approval. It means saving your energy. This is where you are right now.

Second, switch to energy-saving mode. Remove what destabilizes you. Protect your mental balance — that is your responsibility. Anything that shakes it (and you know what that is for you) needs to step aside. This is not the time to tolerate what goes against your core. Energy is precious. Without it, there is no you.

What isn’t truly yours will fall away on its own. Why spend strength holding on to it?

Third, take off the masks. Social masks. Polite masks. “I’m fine” masks. War strips everything down quickly. It exposes what is real.

Wearing masks costs energy because they aren’t natural. And when energy is already scarce, there’s nothing left for pretending. You return to your default settings — to being yourself.

And most importantly: hold your balance. Your inner steadiness. Call it what you want.

Simply put — don’t lose yourself. Stay human. Keep living.

Holding that balance is your task. Everything else is a tool. Tools help — sometimes we desperately need them — but the core is your orientation toward life. Your will to live. Only you can generate it. Only you can find it inside yourself.

That is your inner foundation.

Some people build it over years. Some search their whole lives. Some already have it.

What is it made of?

It is faith in yourself — that you can handle whatever comes, even the unimaginable. It may also be faith in God, if that is part of your life. And it is faith in tomorrow. If you reject tomorrow out of fear, you are rejecting life itself.

So how do you build that inner support?

1. Learn to hear yourself.

Listen to your inner voice, even when the outside world is loud. When you feel that you must take a certain path — even if it goes against advice or expectations — trust that feeling. No one knows better than you what is right for you.

Advice doesn’t always work. Inner clarity does.

Yes, it can be scary to move forward guided only by instinct. But every time you do, you strengthen that ability. You train your inner compass.

Trust yourself. Trust your senses.

2. Know many ways to return to balance.

Work. Meditate. Move your body. Write. Bake. Walk. Sit in silence. You know what brings you back into your body. Almost any activity can become grounding if it reconnects you to yourself.

What worked for twenty years may suddenly stop working. Life changes. We adapt. Stay open.

Balance matters because one unstable person affects everyone around them. First the closest ones. Then the ripple spreads.

It’s like diffusion — particles naturally influence each other when they’re close. People do the same. When we share space, when we share emotional fields, we affect one another.

Different words. Same principle.

Your steadiness strengthens the steadiness of those around you.

3. Work.

Any kind of work where you contribute something useful. When you focus only on yourself, the world narrows. Life is built on exchange. We discover who we are through interaction.

It’s easy to feel whole when you’re alone. You truly meet yourself through other people.

4. Be honest — with yourself and with the world.

See things as they are, not as you wish they were. We often hear only what we want to hear. We interpret reality through our assumptions.

But when we do that, the world becomes flat.

A wide, clear perspective — on the world and on yourself within it — is honesty. It is a direct relationship with reality. Not easy. But closer to truth.

When you see clearly, many questions disappear.

And keep moving. Keep creating. Keep connecting. Don’t abandon your dreams. Without dreams, we are half-alive.

Humans are built to adapt. The body can endure more than we imagine. People survive conditions that once seemed impossible.

But survival is not only physical. It is psychological.

Just as we train our bodies, we must strengthen our minds. Inner strength, resilience, the ability to live even in difficult circumstances — these are not built in a day. It is careful, lifelong work.

If you’ve stepped onto that path, there is no turning back.

Keep going.

You will find your way back.