A few weeks ago, I shared something on Facebook that hit home for a lot of people. It was shared 22 times and I have gotten several messages from people who said things like, “You just read my mail”.
Maybe you already follow along on social media but in case you don’t, I wanted to share it with you here too. BTW…here’s the link to my FB page, I’d love for you to join me there!
It starts with something that a wise friend told me many years ago…”you aren’t responsible for someone else’s happiness.” The flip side of this is that you ARE responsible for your own happiness. I think many of us have gotten this idea backwards for so long. We try so hard to make others happy, to keep the peace….meanwhile, giving away our own power and responsibility for ourselves.
I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts. And here is the message:
You are NOT responsible for their happiness.
Somewhere along the way, you learned to do the dance. To do just the right things to keep the peace.
You apologized quickly.
You made jokes to lighten the mood.
You overextended yourself to keep them from being overwhelmed.
You learned to achieve enough to keep from disappointing them, but not so much to outshine them.
It’s not that you haven’t found ways to take on the responsibility of someone else’s happiness. It’s that it was never your job in the first place.
Yes! You can be kind. Yes! You can be helpful to others.
But shouldering the full responsibility of someone else’s emotional state means you have to disconnect from your own emotions and needs. You lose yourself and your own desires become shushed.
Until…you no longer know who you are, what you want or even what you need.
You ARE responsible for your own happiness. And if you’ve lost your way, you can always come back.
Back to yourself. And THAT is what the world really needs…YOU. The true and authentic YOU.
You deserve the joy and peace you desire!
All my love,
Stacey