Dr. Gabor Maté

And then I ask them this question,

Do you value me?

Talk about myself as a human being.

And they say, yeah, of course.

I say, okay, what if, God forbid, tomorrow I'd have a stroke and I couldn't speak and I couldn't move and I couldn't give anything to anybody?

Would you say to me then, Gabor, you're worthless?

And they said, of course not.

I said, then why are you saying it to yourself?

Why are you saying to yourself that you're only as valuable as what you do?

So that there's this inner concept that I'm only as valuable as what I do or how I show up.

There's a tremendous lack of self-compassion.

Yeah, well, I can't say that I fully worked it out, but two things come to mind when I hear your question.

One is, would you say to a one-day-old baby who can't do a thing, would you ever say to them or believe about them, you are not enough?

And of course you wouldn't.

Then why are you saying it to yourself?

Okay?

So that's the first answer.

And then the second answer is,

Who's even asking?

I can totally relate.