Just a thing. People always make these posts about people who constantly apologize for everything saying “Stop apologizing.” But saying that just triggers the weird little guilt thing in the brain and leaves a bad impression. I recommend saying “You don’t need to apologize,” tends to have better results with the people I talk to and with me when my brain is stupid. I’m sure some people don’t care but like, the first sounds like a command (you don’t react positively to that), the second is an affirmation that they can talk or whatever.
yes yes this
I mean, as a person who has been socialized to apologize a lot, I have taken some life advice from those lists of “things you can say instead of ‘I’m sorry’”
BUT as a person who also has sympathy for such people, i feel like we might also need lists of “things you can say instead of 'don’t apologize!’”
for example:
instead of “stop saying you’re sorry!” …you can say “That’s ok!” or “that’s cool!”
instead of “don’t call yourself annoying for asking that question! I’m not annoyed by it!” …you can say “ooh, actually that’s a really neat question, I’m glad to answer!”
instead of “don’t ever apologize for giving me lots of technical details!” …you can say “hey awesome, I’m always happy to get more details about that!”
feel free to think of more!