This is a lesson I had to learn myself and in the past few years I’ve been given ample opportunities to learn it. We are socialized to believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness, but it isn’t! We also believe that if we ask for help, it will be thrown back in our faces, so we do not trust help when it is offered and reject it.
The truth is that we all need help at some point in time in our lives. You are not less valuable, worthy or capable because someone stepped in to help you. Also, what I’ve found is that the people who really cared about me were so happy to help.... they felt that I really appreciated them as friends. That made our relationships even stronger. If you need help, ask for it. If help comes your way, accept graciously. And then do the same for others. As a friend of mine told me recently: We are all in this together.