By: Ingy Diab

You owe yourself an apology when:

  • You don’t treat it well.
  • You accept humiliation.
  • You lose yourself in the process of loving someone else.
  • You trust blindly and become susceptible to constant disappointment and heartache.
  • You ruin your present and future by giving in to hardships and bad luck.
  • You become a part of someone else’s plan – which does not serve your interests or well-being.
  • You go with the flow, forgetting your own aims and principles.
  • You become the worst version of yourself merely because others induced or provoked you to do so.
  • You waste your precious time trying to fix what you did not destroy yourself.
  • You don’t realize your worth and value.
  • You allow negative and destructive people to enter your life and wreck havoc.
  • You allow toxic people to bring you down or tear you apart.
  • You give countless chances to someone knowing that the end result will be the same each time.
  • You don’t take good care of yourself or invest heavily in it.
  • You agree to blindfold your eyes, close your mind and silence your mouth to please others.
  • You allow someone to suppress and marginalize you to cover their insecurity and incompetency.
  • You stay close to someone who is not proud or lucky to have you.
  • You lose your peace in an argument or in reaction to someone’s bad behavior.
  • You hold on to misery, unfairness and man-made hell.
  • You don’t forgive yourself, turn the page, close the chapter, move on and never look backward.
  • You don’t leave when all the signs said that you must do it to save yourself.
  • You acquiesce to other people’s power, while what they merely want is to dominate and obliterate you.
  • You agree to fight someone else’s battles.
  • You don’t believe in your own abilities and capabilities to improve, achieve and excel.
  • You don’t collect yourself, stand up, start all over again, and face life with a smile after you fall or fail.
  • You don’t nurture, pamper or pay attention to yourself.
  • You hook yourself with people who are not on the same wavelength.
  • You flip or breakdown over things that you can’t control, can’t change, or over things you didn’t create or cause.
  • You don’t put your happiness and prosperity above everything else.
  • You stick to someone who sold your relationship, friendship, or any kind of bonds you once had.
  • You believe in a lie you know deep down inside how evil and cruel it is.
  • You allow yourself to wilt, fade or go astray.
  • You suffocate it, strangulate yourself and kneel to a human being.
  • You remain mired in the past, carrying its heavy luggage with you wherever you go.
  • You remain captive of old mistakes, faults or traumas.

Silver Lining

You won’t owe yourself an apology when:

  • You look in the mirror, find your own reflection and shadow, and when you listen carefully to your echo and guts.
  • You put yourself first knowing that you were granted this self to fulfill a certain mission that no one else could do on behalf of you.
  • You strive to become the best version of yourself every day, while undergoing the conventional yet confined stages of metamorphosis and rebirth.

You were granted this self to seek, learn, explore, grow, thrive, and live. Yourself is a treasure that you won’t decipher except through your very own journey.