Those of us with healthy self-esteem, hold our friends to high standards. We expect these relationships to feel reciprocal and balanced, and as committed to our emotional, spiritual and physical well-being, as we are to theirs. The expectation of reciprocal caring from our friends is typically based on many years of being able to solidly sense that these (relatively few) individuals are willing to give-back to us, as good as they GET from us. Over time, we gradually learn to trust them with our hearts~ often in ways we’ve never been able to solidly trust our parents or siblings.

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