Could your needs for connection actually be a hungry ghost?

Today I'm going to talk about hungry ghosts. Now maybe you've heard this concept before, but I'm going to explain what I mean in terms of wanting connection in relationships. So a longing for connection might actually be a hungry ghost. Dr. Gabor Mate made this concept popular in recent years working with trauma and addiction, but it's actually the concept traces back to early Buddhist and Taoist origin. It's actually all over Asia and different cultures have different understandings of what a hungry ghost is. Basically a hungry ghost is a being that has intense attachments, cravings, needs that can't be satisfied. It's this chasing of Maybe it's feeling unseen as a child or unloved in a past relationship. And so now you crave constant validation and attention and love, but it never quite feels like enough. This is different from a genuine need because when a genuine need is met, it nourishes you and you feel satisfied. A hungry ghost, on the other hand, will not feel satisfied. A hungry ghost might be like a wounded part of you that craves validation and appreciation. And so, for example, you go overboard to do things for other people to get that need met, but you end up feeling depleted and resentful. Or it might look like never fully trusting people after a betrayal that you experienced earlier in life. And so in relationships, you're desperate for this love, but always looking for reasons why they don't really love you. These wounds feel so strong and so real that we confuse them for actual needs, but they're not. We keep looking outside of ourselves for someone to fill these needs for us, when in reality, some wounds can only be tended to by us through our awareness, our self-compassion, our boundaries, and our inner work. Helping people overcome these hungry ghosts is something that I specialize in, specifically in my coaching. So if you need any support in this area, please DM me, coaching, and I'll send you a link to set up a 15-minute introductory call. And I'm going to do another video coming up on how to differentiate between a real genuine need and a hungry ghost. And I'm also going to share my own story of my own battles with hungry ghosts.