never apologize for being me

I recently was in a situation in which a friend had done something that really hurt me, though the hurt was unintentional. In the past I would have covered up my feelings and told them it was ok. This time, though, I wrote an email explaining how it felt, and why it hurt. It upset her a bit, but she wrote back explaining her actions further, and understanding where she was coming from better made me feel a lot less hurt. In addition, I felt proud of myself for, as another friend put it, “having a backbone.” :)

“How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World” by Harry Browne. It contains some amazing ideas, and really helped me get back to liking myself after a very bad relationship. Now I’m much more direct about who I am and what I want, I accept and like who I am, and I am better at seeing others for who they are, instead of trying to change them into who I want them to be.

Of course, before you can stop apologizing for who you are, you have to KNOW who that is. I think once you really know and accept who you are, being proud of it will come naturally. :)

between being true to yourself and using “that’s the way I am” as an excuse. I have a hard time finding that line sometimes, and determining whether a given trait is something negative that I really need and want to change about myself, or whether it’s truly a part of who I am and who I want to be, even if others dislike it.

I seem to have fallen into the habit of, well, not literally apologizing, but adapting the way I speak and act, somewhere along the way, and have only recently noticed it. I find that it sometimes takes a conscious effort NOT to change, say, the way I talk to someone, based on my perception of that person. But the more I do it, the easier it gets, and the better the results seem to be!