Approval Is a Gift, Not a Source of Worth
Other people's approval matters. So do affection, acknowledgment, encouragement, appreciation, and love.
Pretending we should be completely independent of them misunderstands how relational human life is. The problem is not receiving these things. It is assigning them sole authority over our worth.
When approval becomes the source rather than a gift, self-worth becomes vulnerable to every change in audience. Praise raises it. Silence lowers it. Disagreement becomes rejection. Criticism becomes a verdict on the person rather than information about an action.
A more stable distinction keeps relationship without surrendering authorship. Other people can reflect something valuable back to us. They can know us in ways we cannot know ourselves. They can also misunderstand us, withdraw, manipulate, or simply have different preferences.
Their response matters without becoming the whole measure. Self-worth is not isolation from others. It is refusing to make another person's approval the only place from which our right to care for ourselves can come.