I was a pleasing child and cared too much. Then I learned it was more important to please myself that in fact I needed to care less.

When we care less that doesn’t mean we care less about the people who are important in our lives, but caring less means letting go of concerns about caring what other people think, about the people who don’t care about us, about the friendships we struggle with and caring less about having to fit in.

I cared too much about being there for others, when others clearly weren’t there for me. After years of living my life this way, I came to realise that when it came to my own life, I needed to care less about the things I cared too much about and needed to care more about myself.

Not caring in other areas of our lives doesn’t mean we stop caring about ourselves, or doesn’t mean we stop trying to achieve our goals, or strive for personal growth. But it does mean we get to put our priorities in place. On the contrary caring less means we will no longer base our happiness on semi-permanent things.

As soon as I stopped caring my life began to change. My priorities and focus began to change, I became happier, like a weight had been lifted. I finally let go of years of stress of needing to care so much.