Classifieds

An excerpt from psychologist Nancy Colier’s newly released book, “The Emotionally Exhausted Woman: Why You’re Feeling Depleted & How to Get What You Need.” (New Harbinger Publications, 2022)



My Needs—Whose Job?
Most of us believe, at least at some level, that it's someone else's responsibility to figure out our needs—and not just figure them out, but also satisfy them. But in reality, if you're no longer a child, then that responsibility, that privilege, is yours and, to some degree, yours alone. This is not to suggest that your needs won't be taken care of by others. They will be, at times. But contrary to what you perhaps wish were true, and certainly the fantasy you've been sold, it's no one else's mandate—not your partner's, friends', family's, employer's, or anyone else's—to intuit your needs, nor to fulfill them (or to fulfill you, for that matter). It's lovely when it happens, but the task of taking care of and sustaining yourself ultimately belongs to you. When you take on this responsibility wholeheartedly, without resistance or resentment and without imagining it should be otherwise, then you are ready to live self-care in its most mature incarnation....