Women over apologize. Somehow, “sorry” became our default – beyond what we say to remedy a wrong we did. It became the way to keep the peace, to defer authority to another, to placate others’ emotions. Because we are taught and expected to be small, sorry feels aligned.
However, when we are ready to shed that smallness, “sorry” needs to be the first to go. The sorry’s that automatically spill out when we want to share an idea, to counter someone’s thoughts, to take up space literally and figuratively.
It is not quite as simple as releasing it from our vocabulary. It is a mindset, and shifting to the not sorry mindset requires for us to embrace our existence, see beyond who we are as compared to others, and own the parts of us that want to make bold declarations and spread our wings.
