Whether you know it or not, YOU are your own source of love, permission, power, and validation. And it feels so good to realize that.
This level of self sufficiency is not alienating; it is attractive.
When you reach the point at which you are a healthy & happy & self-sustaining individual, you won’t be stuck seeking validation and approval and proof of worth from external sources (and discovering that it’s never enough).
Ask yourself this: what are you seeking from other people or things that you would do better to give yourself? What have you clung to from others that, if you could get that thing from within, would leave you in a much more stable and self assured place?
The answer for me was always approval and permission (among other things).
What is it for you? And how can you go about giving yourself the gift of whatever this is so that you can live a full life regardless of what others do or don’t do?