By Catherine Moore — 2020
A look at what being self-reliant really refers to, and how we can develop it within ourselves.
Read on positivepsychology.com
CLEAR ALL
Done right, individualism has tremendous benefits for our senses of competence, effectiveness, and life direction.
I’m the first to admit that for many years, I was a bit emotionally needy. Not in a crazy, desperate way, but in the way that many of us are. I wanted someone else to make me happy, blamed others for my unhappiness, sought to fulfill my emotional needs through others.
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No one has made more beautiful nor more convincing a case for trusting our inner voice than Ralph Waldo Emerson.
It's not that I'm blind to life's fragility or the dangers around me. It's just that I possess a gift offered by many mistake-filled years: At my age, I have a pretty good idea what and whom to trust.
Still clinging to the fears and fury of childhood? You can unarrest your development once and for all.
More than a century ago, William James explained how to combat passivity.