Accepted At Last By People Who Care

It certainly is relaxing and those two hours flew past! Thank you for your suggestion, painting would be something I am not ready to touch upon, in that I prefer to use coloured pencils, I don't know I just don't feel comfortable or happy with using paints, well at least for the time being.

Paint might be the next step. Anyway, just enjoy yourself!

At last I can be somewhere where I am truly accepted for who I am without being judged. I hope it's going to be a regular thing, it's like an escape.

Certainly sounds like great fun my friend!

but... The thought I had as I posted that comment was that I feel very accepted and wanted online though.

You are certainly accepted by me my friend ;0) and I certainly feel accepted here too!

Thank you my friend, I always appreciate your words of wisdom, praise and encouragement. This has come at the right time for me and I hope to reap the benefits of reaching out to people and finding that I am not so isolated.

It's helping me to reach out to people and feel wanted and needed again. I am so glad I went and I am looking forward to going again. Thank you!

Hello my friend, wonderful to see you, I hope you are well. I am feeling better and happier now that I have found inner strength and talents I never knew I had. I haven't got a digital camera any more my last one gave up on me, I do need to get a new one, maybe from Santa!

I admire you being able to study another language, I don't have the acumen or brains to do it, but I am doing pyschology, art and meditation at college which I enjoy and do well in.

Yes my friend it's exactly what I need, it's opened my artistic talent inside me, I am not the next Piccaso but hey it's therapeutic both drawing and being around people who accept me for who I am.

I got to the stage where I was going to give up on people totally, I was tarring everyone with the same brush, but I feel I have made a breakthrough and I can be in a place where I feel safe, secure and wanted. I think it is also fate working and being able to reach out and find somewhere I can be me.

Thank you my friend, finding my inner strengths and talents is making me feel stronger within myself.

Hi my friend, it is free! They run art classes, woodwork classes, lifeskills and they have a couple of coach tours to the seaside each year, there is one tomorrow to Brighton but I don't like Brighton and I feel it's a bit too soon, as I have only just started going along there.

Hi wolfie. Do you have details of this group? I can then maybe carry out some research on them and possibly sign up somewhere that's local to me. If you don't want to post them in a response to this discussion then you can send them to me in a private message. Many thanks. Andrew

I am doing a lot of work on myself at the moment, my self esteem needs lifting and being able to build it up brick by brick without someone coming along every time and knocking it over. I will build it up so far, something happens a nasty word or a comment and down it comes. So I am getting all the help I can through Mylot, through this group, through therapy, even courses etc so I can build it up and for it to stay up! It's a long arduous trek and at times it's like climbing six Mount Everests but I won't give up, I have found inner strengths and inner talents I never knew I had. I am a survivor and I refuse to be a victim.

Wolfie...Thanks for the info, and you may be right, not being in the US. I am sorry to hear that you are as happy going there on Thursdays as you were the first week. In some ways, you and I are alot alike, when it comes to people..not just my son. He, too, has much difficulty with people, and isolates himself. While I don't isolate myself as much, people do get on my nerves quite often, and I would often rather stay home. The more I am with the same people over and over, I see their character flaws, and then I realize that they're not perfect, therefore they can not be trusted I think we want people to be exactly what we want them to be, we want them to be honest, but not forthright in their judgement of us; we don't want to be controlled by them, but in the same tone, we want to control their behavior towards us; we want them to agree with what we say, but we often don't agree with what they say; we want them to be supportive of us, but we often don't want them to demand too much of our time; we expect people to know exactly who we are, and how we should be treated, to have an immediate instinct into our personality; we, in all our flaws, want to be accepted by all, yet, we often don't accept the flaws of other people. Unfortunately, that is the ultimate step to failure in our lives. I used to belong to a support group many years ago, and the big thing I learned is that I cannot change people to fit my expectations, or expect them to fit the mold that I have dreamed up for a perfect person. I have to accept their flaws as they do me. Therefore, in order to develop a friendship, I have to be willing to give of myself and not be afraid to. If they don't like anything that they see in me, then that is their loss, that is their failure to see the good. But I also must do the same for them. I cannot concentrate on their flaws, because certainly, they have good things about them also. I don't know what kind of questions they ask of you, but it is possible they just want to get to know you. Unfortunately, you are amongst women, who tend to be more interested in people's lives than men, therefore they are more inquisitive. Certainly you don't have to tell them everything, but you should try opening up and sharing a little at a time, ease into it. Don't be afraid that they are not going to like what they see...if you had more self esteem, you would realize that there is much good in you. Not everyone is looking to find your flaws and if they are, then it is a friendship that you don't need. And maybe just consider them an aquaintance, you can socialize with them, talk to them, but you don't have to personalize your conversation. After awhile, it does get easier to just converse without attachements. Have you ever heard of the Serenity Prayer? I have lived by this for a good portion of my life. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right. As usual, I talk too much.

Once I get round to getting myself a new digital camera then I will, so that will give me a bit of time to get my pieces ready! It takes me a long time to get used to people because I am not a people person, I really prefer my own company

I hope so my friend, it has come at the right time for me. Hope you are well dear friend

I was finding I was spending too much time indoors, mind you I do get more tired in the Summer months so prefer to spend time at home, now the winter is nearly upon us I have more courses to go to and I will be out more.

Thank you my friend, I felt so 'uplifted' on Thursday and it was nice to be able to walk out with a big smile on my face, smiles are not something I am familiar with. This has definitely come at the right time for me.

Hi sis, I should be quite proud of myself too, my therapist is, she says I have come a long way since I first saw her, I have had 11 sessions with her so far and she said she has seen a different me in the short time and I have achieved so much. I have found an inner strength that refuses to give up. xxx

I am a loner too, I prefer my own company, I prefer to be free like the bird and not caged like I have been. I like to express myself creatively through different mediums and I have found that art is a great one for me to find my hidden talents.