#sorrynotsorry

Welcome to Chronic Apologizer's Anonymous. 

Me: Hi, I'm Meagan and I'm an apologizing addict.

Everyone: Hellloooo, Meagan.

Y'all. For real. I find myself apologizing in the weirdest situations. If someone says they don't feel well, I say, "I'm sorry". Someone tells me their car broke down. I'm sorry. Someone mentions how hot it is outside. I'm sorry. Someone tells me to stop apologizing. I'm sorry...oopppss...sorry...I mean...I even find myself preemptively apologizing-ya know, just in case. Took me more than 10 hours to email you back...good chance that email is going to start out with my favorite two words.

I think this is a female issue. I don't see many men walking around with the "I'm sorry" phrase locked and loaded on their lips. I recognized this in myself about six months ago when I was up perusing articles at 1:00am on facebook. The one I happened upon discussed how prone women are to apologizing and the deep physiological effects of constantly assuming blame. If you think about it, engaging in a daily mindset of blame and guilt has to have a long-term impact.

Of course, after reading that I couldn't NOT hear how many hundreds of times throughout the day I apologized for things well outside of my realm of control. It's kinda like when someone points out how much people say "like" in daily speech. Or when someone points out vocal fry. Your brain immediately makes a career out of seeking out those exact things.

Sadly, I began to notice how many of my clients are also chronic apologizers. I hear them apologizing about about how they don't photograph well or how their hair will be terrible to work with because it doesn't hold curl and even on behalf of parts of their body. As in, "I'm sorry, I have the ugliest feet" or "I'm so sorry, I'm on my period" or "I thought I'd get a little skinnier before the shoot-sorry!!"

*steps up to soapbox with giant megaphone* You. NEVER. Need. To. Apologize. For. Anything. On. Your. Body! EVER! And this is coming from a (recovering) chronic apologizer. Part of the beauty of the human race lies in our diversity. There are so many shapes/colors/sizes/textures/differences from woman to woman. Embrace the things that are unique to you. See them as something that sets you apart-distinguishing you from everyone else so we aren't a race of walking clones. And if you can't embrace them...at least try to stop apologizing for them. Baby steps. #sorrynotsorry