They don’t have to like it

Saying the words I’m sorry or I aologise are pretty easy to do.

But something I learnt recently is that it is important not to apologise for the wrong thing.

If you express how you feel and someone doesn’t like it, apologising teaches a very unhealthy lesson*. Some people will encourage this kind of behaviour because it suits them and it’s convenient to shut you down in the hopes that you’ll feel enough that you revert to people pleasing.

And the thing about this is, they don’t have to agree or coddle you, in fact they don’t even have to like it. They simply have to accept that you are choosing to say how you feel.

*It teaches you to invalidate your own feelings.