My journey of "No"

I grew up in a middle class nuclear family. A day in life would be wake up, get ready, study for a while, eat and go off to school. Spend 8 hours at school trying to understand things which you would realize are not required much in "real life" (I mean, where on earth are we using Pythagoras Theorem in our daily lives?). Come back from school and then starts the grind of homework, study, eat, sleep. Pretty mundane — if you think about it.

So why am I writing about this?

Well, those formative years and trying to meet everybody's expectation of being a "achha bachcha" (translates to: good child) is what made me the person I am today.

Who am I? I am a simple introvert girl who loves Bollywood songs and finds joy in little gestures. I love to read, bake, do yoga and I am a total "beachaholic." Leave me by the beach and I would never need to think about anything else!

I am also someone who has a "saying no phobia."

I have realized over a period of time that I struggle to say no to people in authority or people who are important to me. I will go all out of my way to plan, re-plan, over-plan, re-plan again and try to go over and beyond what is expected of me. Why? I have a fear of rejection and not meeting expectations of people.

This often leads to me being overburdened, stressed, depressed and often I overthink about everything and become a prisoner of my mind.

The "authoritative/important person" who I am doing all this for is completely oblivious to how I am torturing myself — and more often than not they are happy or ok with what has been presented to them. (And I know that!)

So I decided to start my journey of No. One small no at a time. Politely, firmly, kindly.

And reader — it is the most liberating thing I have ever done.