Self Acceptance: Step One on the Path to Empowerment and Love
Yes… you can be vulnerable and safe at the same time. You have everything you need inside you. You are enough!
Marvin’s relationships never lasted. Even if they did, they were a series of unacceptable compromises and fraught with dissatisfaction. He could not, he said, find real love, the kind that transported a person and created a cocoon of unconditional acceptance. Upon further questioning, it became clear to me that Marvin was actually afraid of that kind of love. His very first love had cheated on him after they were engaged. He was also a veteran who had lost many friends to the brutality of war. Marvin knew how much it hurt to love and lose. So he gradually withdrew his affection and attention from every relationship when things got intense, and finally, in every case, the women ended things. Marvin could not accept his role in these outcomes, and truly believed that the women’s leaving was simply proof that love did not exist. He was unable to admit his fear, or his own inability to stay the course. Until he accepted where he was, who he was, and why, he would never grow or change… or find the love he said he wanted.
