If you are in a relationship, you must be treated with respect, which means your boyfriend or partner:

* is willing to compromise
* lets you feel comfortable being yourself
* is able to admit to being wrong
* tries to resolve conflict by talking honestly
* respects your feelings, your opinions and your friends
* accepts you saying no to things you don’t want to do (like sex)
* accepts you changing your mind
* respects your wishes if you want to end the relationship

When someone loves you; you feel valued, respected and free to be yourself. You shouldn’t be made to feel intimidated or controlled.

So, once you've left your abuser, you might wonder how you'll be able to survive since you've been dependent on your abusive partner for so long. For starters, you re-build from the inside out. You will find that as you do what you love, you glow, and you long to do more of it. As you do more of it, you shine and become a magnet for people to support your doing more and more of it.

What does this have to do with your self-worth? When you are having fun doing what you love and this is making you self-sufficient, your "lack of self-worth" is no longer an issue, as you so clearly feel and see your worth, and so do those around you.

If you have left an abusive relationship or are contemplating doing so, do not let your capacity to earn cause you to descend into a state of depression. Pick yourself up and look in the mirror and ask yourself: "What would I be doing, if I were financially free?"

Once you have the answer to that question, all of the other pieces can come together to enable your doing this. And as you do, you will be on your road to obtaining inner and outer wealth.

National Domestic Violence Hotline
Help is available to callers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Hotline advocates are available for victims and anyone calling on their behalf to provide crisis intervention, safety planning, information and referrals to agencies in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Assistance is available in English and Spanish with access to more than 170 languages through interpreter services. If you or someone you know is frightened about something in your relationship, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or TTY 1-800-787-3224.