balance

So the next time you feel pressured to respond, try taking pause and reminding yourself that you don’t owe anyone an interaction. Revel in the reality that you get to choose. You have the authority to decide how to spend your time and energy.

As a person who writes about relationships for a living, I might be one of the people least in need of all this well-meaning advice, which usually amounts to clichés and can even veer into the territory of outright insults. What I need – what most of us need – is for people to hear me, and to trust me.