One of the ways I got through my childhood was by constantly fantasizing that one day… someone would come along who would give me all the warmth and nurturing I craved–like magic! This is called a “healing fantasy” and it’s pretty common.

Unfortunately… what helped me cope as a child also set me up to be an emotionally demanding partner (and to be attracted to people who were,… in various ways…emotionally unavailable and completely unequipped to meet those demands).

It has taken me a long time to try to let go of that fantasy… and accept that it’s really up to me to heal these missing pieces… Nobody is going to rescue me from my feelings… Nobody is going to see through my anger and criticalness to my hurt and scared Inner Child. Other people just want me to deal with things like a grown-up, the same I want them to deal with things.

OK, but how do you do that?

One day I decided to just Google, “How to meet your own emotional needs”… I mean, why not?

I found some ways suggested… one of them being journaling… hey if that worked… I’d be immortal… I’ve been writing my way through life all of my life … My mind… for whatever reason … is very prone to fantasy and magical thinking as a coping mechanism.

For most of my life… my primary means of motivating myself was to project myself into a better future in my mind… and use the feelings of that dream as leverage to propel myself forward. I would throw a hook into that dream and pull myself toward it like I was climbing a mountain.

But eventually… after enough of these fantasies crumbled to dust or disillusionment… I realized… Because I had to focused so hard on just getting to the future… I hadn’t paid any attention to creating a better present…. While I had developed resilience in the process of climbing so many mountains… I always thought I was headed somewhere amazing… when I was really just stuck in a repetitive cycle.

And that’s when I finally realized that all futures are created out of the present… Anything you are doing right now is practice for how your future will look.

it’s literally how the brain works.
Every action you take,…every thought you think…… the only time and place that change happens is right here and right now.

Without the borrowed energy of a fantasy … I had to face my utter exhaustion. I didn’t know how to make my present-day life nourishing and enjoyable…. And I had a backlog of healing that I had put off until the magical future arrived…One of my favorite phrases is “I am waiting to be discovered!!” I need to rebuild and I’m doing that work.

But in finally giving up the idea that I would be happy and healed by-and-by when such-and-such happened…I was able to reach a level of integrity I could be proud of… and because I’m more present… I started paying attention to my current surroundings… and made choices for what I wanted those to be… who I would have in my day… or present situation…. Based on where they were in theirs… without the yesterdays or one days. I don’t have this skill down well… and I am constantly trying to move things around to how “They should be” to meet my fantasy of healing…. But I am making progress… progress… not perfection.

I get frustrated when people aren’t playing their character the way I fantasized… this is reflection of me and my self awareness (or lack of) not theirs…. And I am very critical… mistakenly of them… when in truth it is me.

So when I invite you into my day… or choose to spend my life along side you for any amount of time… even if I am so critical (again mistakenly) please know it is because I think you are amazing… right now… not based on what you have… what you’ve done… what you could do.

some days I’m really good and expressing that… other days not… especially when there is any change in my life… so most of the time lately.
I love myself though… flaws and all…

And I love you… exactly the same way

I apologize for not standing in my truth… but this is the truth… and I’m working on it.

and I can’t speak… and you can’t listen… because we are all running these side healing fantasies… of if I say this/this will happen… or what I am saying is so important/you will hear it and be amazed…

so I wrote it down