Recovery

I am well aware that for some people it may sound daft to enter into a dialogue with yourself, and ask yourself questions to which the habitual, emotionally battered you does not have good answers. But that is only one part of you, the part that has been shaped by your negative experiences. It is by no means the only part of you. You too are endowed with the human spirit that has miraculous powers of healing and regeneration.

Abused women are so anxious to get their needs and wants met that they fall over themselves backwards to meet all of their partner’s needs and wants. (There is no point in suggesting that they try to get boundaries respected, because they don’t even know where they might like to put a boundary.) Underpinning this anxiety to please is the misguided hope that it is their partner’s turn first and then it will be theirs. Unfortunately, it’s like giving a small child a much desired toy ahead of his or her little friends and hoping that after a reasonable period of time he, or she will say: “Ok, I’ve had my turn. You can have it now.” It just doesn’t work like that.

The ‘l’ word – love – sanctions everything. ‘Love conquers everything’; ‘love means never having to say you’re sorry’; love gives rise to any number of justifications, feeble excuses, lame hopes. I’ve certainly been there, done that and worn the T shirt. Then one day I got the point and burned the T shirt.
Love is… a feeling you have for and about another person. That other person may say that they love you too. Does that mean that your love is reciprocated?

What you believe is what you get. It’s the old story that what you focus on increases or becomes more present. It’s like the way you really notice teenage boys when you are a teenage girl and then when you get older and have different interests, they become invisible. I believed my entitlement was a bad relationship, and I got it.