In your family, were you taught that "wants" were demanding? Was it safer to appear self-reliant and independent? If so, you grew up trying to quell your wants and learned to take care of others while repressing your own.   Self-reliance and independence are highly valued in our culture. I received a lot of strokes in my family for taking care of myself. It wasn't as if my wants disappeared. They went underground, as the strategy I was trained to value, of always taking care of others, came to the foreground.   Tune in to hear about a different way to be with wants!   www.purejoyparenting.com