Originally Posted by keepingthefaith

In my case, friendship has been just as much about learning how to connect as it has finding healthy people to connect with. I've been breaking down the protective shell around myself and then actively learning to open my heart to others. Within this, I'm learning how to connect and care about others. I used to wonder how to make friends, and there's that old adage is to the best ways to make friends is to be one, but I never internally knew how. It sounds like you do, but for me it was a foreign concept. Even in school when I had plenty of friends, I always felt like the outsider. That's not how my friends would describe me, but it's how I always felt inside. That's changing.

Learning to live in the moment, to accept myself, my family and others as we are and as we are not, is bringing a transformation within me. I'm starting to connect with others. It's a slow process for me, yet internally it's been a major shift that I need to work at every day to keep and grow from. As my self-worth and self-esteem grow, so do friendships with healthy people.