Independence is knowing companionship should add to your life, not become your oxygen.

Companionship works best as addition. When it becomes the thing you cannot function without, every ordinary difficulty in the relationship turns into a survival matter, and you lose the ability to make clear choices inside it. Needing someone that much tends to be hard on both people.

Build something that is yours and does not involve them. A friendship, a practice, an interest. Not as a hedge against loss, but because a full life makes you better company than a dependent one.