When Impostor Feelings Rise

Some time ago, I sat in a women's circle where one of the participants shared her life story intertwined with healing, transitions, and the subtle yet persistent presence of impostor feelings. As she spoke, I felt how complex this terrain truly is. How often we question ourselves when we accomplish something, how often we believe we don’t belong… or that somehow, we are a fraud.

I recognized her story. In fact, I recognized myself.

The Many Times I Asked: “Do I Belong Here?”

The impostor visited me through different chapters of my life. When I earned my PhD, I questioned whether I truly deserved it. When I was promoted in academia, I found myself doubting my ability to lead. Even in moments with my students, I sometimes wondered whether I truly belonged in that role at all.

These feelings were never random. They were echoes, echoes of internal wounds and echoes of the cultural conditioning I grew up with. Growing up in a patriarchal culture, in a household where being a girl was not always easy, I learned early how silence shapes identity and how doubt can creep in through the smallest cracks.

Healing, for me, became not a destination but a lifelong companion. Some wounds require healing for years, perhaps even an entire lifetime.

Impostor Syndrome in Times of Transition

Recently, impostor syndrome surfaced again.

I realized it was intertwined with a major life transition, moving to yet another new country.

When I see financial stability and abundance around me, so different from where I grew up, the old comparisons awaken. Comparison between the place where I was raised, still shaped by post-war realities, and the country where I now live. Comparison between the girl I once was and the woman I am now.

And impostor feelings creep in with their familiar questions: Should I even be here?Am I faking something about who I am? Do these people really want to interact with me?

On a conscious level, I can dismantle these fears, understand where they come from, and remind myself of the strength within me.

But on the emotional level, where the memories of a war zone and teenager years in chaos still live, the triggers can be intense.

And this is where impostor feelings become more than thoughts, they become sensations in the body, waves rising from old wounds that still seek healing.

During my deep reflections, I came across conversations and podcasts exploring impostor syndrome through the lens of identity, belonging, and humanity. One insight struck me deeply: Impostor feelings often appear when we are exactly where we are supposed to be. They arise when we stretch, when we grow, when life invites us into new spaces that our past did not prepare us for.

In that sense, impostor syndrome is not a sign of inadequacy, it is a sign of expansion.

Healing Through Soil, Grit, and Branches

In my own healing journey, I have learned this: No matter how loud the inner doubts become, the most important thing is to keep moving.

Through the inner dialogues. Through insecurities. Through the thick layers of old stories. Through the soil, grit, and tangled branches of our becoming.

Just keep moving.

Because healing is not linear. Because belonging is not handed to us, it is grown.
And because every step forward, no matter how small, is a step toward ourselves.

Impostor feelings do not mean we are broken. They mean we are human.

And sometimes, they mean we are stepping into a life bigger than the one we once believed we were allowed to have.