Transcript
Michele Martin: My therapist once looked me dead in the eye and said, if you really need to save someone, adopt a fucking dog. And in that one brutally honest moment, I felt seen and called the hell out.
Michele Martin: Because what I thought was helping was actually self-abandonment dressed up as compassion. And like so many women, I wore the rescuer role like it was a badge of honor, right? The good girl, the fixer, the emotional translator.
Michele Martin: I thought if I could just give enough, heal enough, support enough, maybe then I'd finally feel safe or loved or worthy.
Michele Martin: But beneath all of that, i was drained, disconnected, and burned the hell out. And that therapy session, it cracked something wide open.
Michele Martin: Because for the first time, someone named it for what it really was. Not compassion, not love, codependency. And wow, did that sting.
Michele Martin: That truth really stung. It made me question everything. Like, why was I more comfortable managing someone else's chaos than feeling my own discomfort?
Michele Martin: And why did I believe that my value came from being needed?
Michele Martin: And another question, why was I afraid to just sit still and let people live their own lives, even if they crashed? And that moment cracked me open.
Michele Martin: I started asking myself different questions. Where am I confusing love with control? Where Am I over giving to avoid my own pain?
Michele Martin: And who would I be without someone to rescue? And the answers to those questions led me back to myself because rescuing others wasn't saving me.
Michele Martin: It was costing me.
Michele Martin: So where in your life are you still rescuing others at the expense of your own energy, truth, and freedom?
Michele Martin: If this episode landed because you see yourself in the rescuer role and you're ready to break that cycle, grab your free copy of the Good Girl Detox Toolkit.
Michele Martin: The link is in the show notes.
Michele Martin: So if you're exhausted from holding it all together, if you're the strong one, the wise one, the helper, then let this be your permission slip.
Michele Martin: You don't have to save them. You don't have to fix it. You don't even have to adopt a dog unless you want to. I mean, dogs are freaking amazing. You just have to come home to yourself because the woman who rescues herself, she's unstoppable.
Michele Martin: You're not broken. You're waking up and I'll see you in the next episode.
