Your Needs Are Your Needs

Your needs are our needs. Your needs can't be bargained with or ignored indefinitely. Your needs just are.

Your needs deserve to be regarded with curiosity and met with compassion. Even (especially) the needs that feel childish, feral and extra needy.

Your value does not come from being without needs. Hyper-self-reliance and an insistence on total independence is actually a sign that we have been too long all on our own, our needs continually disregarded and unmet.

Ever noticed how shaming and shoving away your inner crybaby, your inner whiny brat, your inner pissed off tween, your inner rebellious teen... just makes them louder and more insistent?

Ever noticed how much needy, whiny, angry, selfish, chaotic people seem to bother you?

Can you turn toward your own needy selves and ask: “What do you need from me right now?”

What if you needing whatever you need isn’t a problem?

What if you needing whatever you need doesn't mean anything about your value or goodness?

How might you move toward meeting your need with some neutrality and tenderness today?