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Many of the stories we grow up with follow the same arc. A hero feels out of step with the world around them, a quiet ache that they don’t quite fit. So they leave. They cut ties with everything familiar, set off on a journey, and eventually arrive somewhere that finally feels right. Many of us know this arc from animated films about heroes searching for where they truly belong, and it makes for a satisfying story.

When we are emotionally unsettled, our interpretations of experience shift. Something that produces a strong emotional response, a place, a person, an idea, can feel disproportionately significant. It can feel like a sign. Like confirmation that this is what we were looking for. Like we have, finally, found something.

There is a particular kind of dissatisfaction that is difficult to justify. Life is functioning. The bills are paid, the relationships are intact, the responsibilities are being met. And yet something feels hollow. A sense that the colour has drained out of things. That you are moving through your days competently but without any real sense of being present in them.