@darewithdrea: Save this for the next time someone’s behavior makes you question yourself. Someone can misunderstand you without you being wrong. They can be disappointed in your boundary without your boundary being unfair. They can withhold the validation you wanted without that saying anything definitive about your value. We spend so much energy trying to control how other people experience us. We explain more. Give more. Make ourselves easier to understand. Sometimes we even shrink ourselves hoping that if we get it just right, they’ll finally respond differently. But other people bring their own experiences, expectations, capacity, and patterns into every relationship. You can listen. You can take accountability when it’s yours. You can care deeply about how you affect people. And you can still refuse to make someone else’s reaction the final authority on who you are. That’s a very different kind of peace. #survivalmode #burnoutrecovery #peoplepleasing #highachievingwomen #HealingJourney
