Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Stories you take in do not just describe how people behave. They supply the shapes. You learn what heartbreak looks like, what courage sounds like, how a family argues, largely from portrayals, and then you find yourself living inside those shapes without having chosen them. The copying runs the opposite way from what people assume.

Look at one strong feeling you had this week and ask where you learned to have it that way. Notice whose script you were following. You do not have to abandon it, but knowing it is borrowed gives you the option of putting it down.