Move from Approval-Seeking to Self-Election.
Quietly, daily, on your own terms.
A grounded course for the part of you that has spent years auditioning for love. Not performing. Not waiting. Choosing yourself, and discovering that what follows is different from anything the performance ever produced.
The work beneath
Move from Approval-Seeking to Self-Election.
This course is designed to help you slow the pattern down, understand what is happening underneath it, and begin practising a steadier, kinder way forward. It does not ask you to become someone else. It helps you return to yourself with more clarity, language, and choice.
A grounded course for the part of you that has spent years auditioning for love. Not performing. Not waiting. Choosing yourself, and discovering that what follows is different from anything the performance ever produced.
4 Modules. Self-paced lessons
Each module is a place to understand one layer more clearly. Move slowly. Let the language meet the part of your life that has needed more care, more honesty, and a more hopeful way forward.
Explore expectations and experiences that may make receiving care difficult, without assuming a childhood injury or identifying a nervous-system cause.
Explore whether receiving care feels welcome, uncomfortable or unsafe in the present context. Your boundaries matter; the course does not require staying close or overriding discomfort.
The specific ways the wound becomes active in real relationships: the testing, the distance, the pre-emptive withdrawal that ends what was starting to be genuine. Naming them changes the relationship to them.
Optional everyday reflection: receiving a compliment, asking for help, or noticing your preferences. Choose only what feels appropriate and safe, without any promised biological effect.
Move from Approval-Seeking to Self-Election.
Quietly, daily, on your own terms.
Start the Course, Included with MembershipFrequently asked
Why do some people find it hard to receive love?
Receiving care can feel complicated for many reasons, including present circumstances, past experiences and personal preferences. The course offers reflection without assuming that discomfort is rooted in childhood or that closeness is safe.
What is love self-protection?
Some people notice themselves pulling away from closeness or feeling uneasy when care is offered. Reasons differ, and leaving can also be a valid response to an unsuitable or unsafe relationship. The course offers reflection on your experience without diagnosing a protective mechanism or requiring you to stay.
Is this course only about romantic relationships?
No. The pattern of difficulty receiving love shows up in all close relationships: with friends, family, colleagues. The course uses romantic relationships as its primary lens because that is where the pattern is most acute, but the principles apply across relationship types.
What does the 'practice' in the title refer to?
Being chosen, allowing yourself to be genuinely seen and valued, is a skill that is developed through practice, not a state that arrives through understanding. The fourth pillar of the course focuses specifically on the practices that build the capacity to receive, including how to tolerate the vulnerability of being known and valued without contracting.
A course by Olivia Fox, founder of My Inner Foundation. She writes about what she has lived, worked through herself, and sat with in others, translating real inner work and years of supporting people through these exact struggles into language that is precise, honest, and genuinely useful.
Written with care
A gentle note before you begin
My Inner Foundation courses are educational and reflective. They are not therapy, diagnosis, medical advice, or crisis support. If you are in immediate danger or need urgent mental-health support, please contact local emergency services or a qualified professional.