Knowing what your core wounds are.

For a long time, I struggled with not only trusting others but also trusting myself. It wasn't a huge issue until adult responsibilities came into play. When you don’t trust yourself, every decision becomes an interrogation. Each choice is met with a series of questions, doubts, and second-guessing. This takes up a lot of mental bandwidth, and if you're juggling a lot, burnout is close by. It doesn't have to be today or even next year, but it will catch up sooner or later.

Now, one of the ways I rebuilt trust within myself was by choosing me, even if it was hard. As an ex-people pleaser, this wasn't easy. What helped me was understanding that all I was doing was perpetuating my core wound. The rationale to continue this was, "Helping others makes me feel good."

At what cost? How many unequal relationships do you have to go through in order to understand that it doesn't matter if you're useful? They will choose themselves and reap the rewards of your labor. Proving your worth by overextension doesn't prevent people from leaving... If you couldn't tell, a core wound of mine was abandonment.

Honestly, rebuilding trust within yourself is complicated. Healing starts with knowing what your core wounds are.