It may sound simple and easy, and it’s very much underestimated. If you truly believe you deserve something, you just get it. And if you don’t go get it, if you don’t work for it, believe me—you don’t actually think you deserve it. It’s as simple as that.
I visited my child self. I told him “I’m freeing you from the guilt you carried for others, the escaping, the coping. The guilt, the constant daydreaming to avoid reality, the need to control everything. Because if you couldn’t, you’d be blamed, and blame was never easy with them
You got used to the criticism, to feeling inadequate. You absorbed it all, blaming yourself for everything. When you do one thing, you blame yourself for not doing another, so you escape into the same coping mechanisms you relied on in the past. But it’s time to get rid of this.
You heal when you take all those toxic coping mechanisms and turn them into something that actually gives you life. Maybe they served a purpose before, maybe you needed them to get through, but now, you’re free.