Estrangement can shape our inner world in ways that can be hard to describe, sometimes it feels loud with thoughts circling, emotions rising, a kind of internal noise that doesn’t quite settle. At other times it can feel very quiet, a flatness, a sense of disconnection, like everything has gone a bit distant and there is this humming sound of longing and loss in the background.

This month, the advice columnist addresses how to handle conversations about your estrangement with other people in your social circle.

Estrangement has a way of sneaking into your life and triggering memories. And it may come in the form of flashbacks, déjà vu, or you may just catch yourself imitating a parent even though you swore up and down that you would never be like him or her. And all this has gotten me to think about our memories. The painful ones we try to conceal that always manage to surface. Can we trust them?

"To be an Earth Pilgrim is to revere Nature as our sacred home, and see all our life as a sacred journey to become at one with ourselves, with others and with Nature." Satish Kumar

If you had asked me what my most prevailing emotion has been related to my almost 10 years of complete estrangement, it would be anger. And it has taken me many years to come to this realization.