Stop Setting Emotional Traps for the People You Love

Disarm the hidden tripwires that sever trust and silence love

The only people who walk into traps are the ones who don’t expect them to be there. They are the trusting ones, who feel safe with you. Relaxed, feet bare on fertile ground… then snap.

That is what manipulation feels like: tripwires hidden beneath the innocent soil of ordinary conversation. I know, because I have both laid those traps and stepped on them.

Years ago, I was washing dishes in our little farm cottage, chatting to my sister in California. I was on pain-killers, recovering from illness, warm in the soft glow of sibling connection. Out of nowhere she asked, “May I ask you a favour?”

A pin dropped inside my chest. Something shifted underfoot. “Of course,” I said, “as long as it’s okay for me to say no.” I should have paused there, called for safer ground, but innocence is deaf to hidden clicks…

The ground split when she spoke her unexpected request, and what followed burned our bond to cinders. It still hasn’t recovered.

If these words stir something raw and real in you, step through the gate. Paid subscribers receive the private, unfiltered story - what my sister asked, why the earth cracked open, and the hard medicine I swallowed to heal. Plus a deeper share about a friend with a guru complex who I dare not name publicly…Join us on the inside 🗝️