Something that helps me when I start drifting away from myself and getting too caught up in other people is to remind myself of these two things:

1. My needs/boundaries/experiences are valid even if others do not understand, agree with, or respect them.

2. It’s not necessary to convince others of the validity of my needs/boundaries/experiences.

There is so much freedom in these realizations. It puts me back in my own power instead of leaking out energy everywhere and becoming an exhausted anxious wreck.

There’s always going to be a ton of people who will never “get it”. I cannot put my life on hold to help them understand my perspective, because my life would then be on hold for its entire duration. A lot of people just don’t want to see another perspective. Others simply don’t have the capacity to understand even when they try (and that’s ok). While I’ll always keep attempting to hone my communications to find the best and most concise way of expressing myself (I’m a writer afterall, this is what I do), it’s more important that I delegate most of my energy to actually living.