Not to be rude, but.
“No.”
Yes, you heard me. I said, “No.”
What more do I have to say?
“No,” is a complete sentence.
When you feel bad because you can’t help a friend, are you comfortable giving a short, truthful explanation–or do you over-explain and go on, and on, and on, and on?
You may recognize this pattern but never stopped to think why you believe you are the only one who could help. It has to be you. It’s all up to you.
If you are a people pleaser like me, you may tend to over-explain when you aren’t available to be there for someone. The following codependent characteristic may be one of the reasons we have a hard time verbalizing a simple one-word sentence. “No.”
Trying to please people so others will like or love the codependent: Codependents will go out of their way to please another, hoping to receive love, approval, or be accepted and liked.
Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong (Matthew 5:37 MSG).
