Sometimes, keeping the peace doesn’t actually create peace. It just keeps you silently in survival mode.
Keeping your perspective to yourself in order to protect yourself from other people’s toxic, unskilled, reactive behavior does not serve you in the long run.
Instead of keeping the peace, you can practice developing skills to communicate your truth. You don’t have to communicate your truth to toxic people. Try first with someone you trust, or even someone you hire to trust, or start a blog.
You will grow stronger and stronger by practicing communicating your truth. Not as a battle strategy or as a revenge strategy, but for the sole purpose of representing who you are in the world—your values, your perspective, what’s meaningful to you. If someone is uncomfortable with your truth, let them be uncomfortable.
If it eventually costs you the relationship, then it wasn’t really a relationship—it was that younger version of yourself, still looking for validation and safety in spaces that will never be available for such things.
Not communicating your truth can cost you your relationship with yourself, with your lifelong agreement to honor your spirit.
It’s never too late to represent yourself in the world. Your self is always right here, wanting to share itself and be seen and heard. Kindly ask your fears to step out of the way and let yourself be the spokesperson for what matters to you.
-JLK
