Being Needed Isn't Being Loved

I spent years showing up for people. Giving advice and carrying weight that was never mine to carry. And I told myself that was just who I am. It wasn't generosity. It was fear dressed up as generosity. And the moment I stopped being useful, I found out exactly what I meant to the people I'd spent years pouring into. Not who I was. What I provided. This video is about the specific exhaustion of confusing being needed with being loved. Carl Jung called it the persona: the mask you wear long enough that you forget you put it on. I wore mine for a very long time. I'm still figuring out how to take it off. Maybe you are too.