Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Oct/Nov2019 Aspire Magazine | Page 57
BREATHING ROOM
H
BY FELICIA BAUCOM
ave you ever felt guilty about
canceling plans or not responding to your
best friend’s text message? You shouldn’t,
but most women put so much pressure on
themselves to do more that saying ‘no’ often
feels like failure.
But taking mental breaks to refill your cup
and reduce your chances of burning out
isn’t defeat — rather, it’s an investment
in your body and mind that can make you
more successful than a continuous chain of
‘yesses’ ever could.
The trick is getting the people around you
to realize that taking a little breathing room
is normal, healthy, and necessary. To set
effective boundaries, you need to strike the
right balance of being polite yet assertive so
you don’t risk ruining relationships.
This is a complex issue for many people,
because our society prizes selflessness and
abhors selfishness, effectively setting one
way of being against the other.
“The alternatives are either to love others,
which is a virtue, or to love oneself,
which is a sin,” wrote social scientist
and philosopher Erich Fromm, in his
essay titled “Selfishness and Self-
Love.”
While few people would argue
about being considerate of
others, it could be worthwhile to
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4 Ways to Communicate
that You Need a Little