Women are said to do this more than men, but a lot of people do this. What am I talking about? Oh, I'm sorry -- I did not say this in the first place...over-apologizing (or saying sorry too often) has become a new norm to some people.

Why do we do this? We do nothing wrong, but yet we feel the need to apologize. We feel that if we just say that five letter word it will make everything better. I have come to realize that it does just the opposite of making things better. It makes the situation worse. When you apologize when a friend is sad, it does not help anything. It was not your fault in the first place, but now you have apologized. So, they wonder what you are sorry for. And because you apologized, they start to feel even worse because they think that they made you feel like you had to apologize. Then you both are completely miserable when it was not even your fault in the first place. That sucks, right?

What about when someone you know is doing something that you do not agree with. Maybe making you feel bad about yourself, making fun of someone else, doing illegal things, etc. You see these things happening and you finally get up enough courage to talk to them about it and tell them how you are feeling. After you tell them what you are feeling about the situation, they react negatively, and then you apologize. Why did you do that? You had nothing to be sorry for. You just finally stood up for yourself and what you believe in and as soon as they show that their feelings are hurt or they are offended that you called them out, you give in and apologize.

This is not the way that you should be living. This is not the way that any of us should be living. I know that I live this life every single day, and I am sure many others do as well. You apologize for every little thing and it makes you feel like everything you do is wrong. You stood up for yourself. You apologize. You spoke when someone else was going to say something. You apologize. Someone is having a rough day for random reasons (none of which are your fault). You apologize. You say sorry too much. You apologize.

We live in a time where there are too many people (myself included) who are so afraid of what everyone else is feeling and thinking, that we are scared to share pieces of ourselves. The moment we let out our thoughts or feelings, we want to take it right back, because we are afraid others will judge us. We need to stop saying sorry for things that we do not need to be apologizing for. Do not apologize for being who you are. Do not apologize for saying what you think. Do not apologize for standing up for yourself. These are good things and we need to remember that not everything is our fault!