It’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.

“How do I say no? People are not going to like me if I reject them.  Will it sound rude if I say no? 

These are the problems many of us face in our daily life. Many people struggle with saying no. If someone asks you for a commitment, you may feel obligated to say yes. Learning to say no is an important skill that helps us to master for both personal and professional growth. 

 Saying no is realizing that we are valuable and choosing our own opinion about our self over others. If we feel compelled to help people even at the expense of other higher priorities, we may suffer. So we need to structure ourselves in such a way so we can stay in balance.

 In most of the situation, our normal tendency is to respond to the request by saying yes, but sometimes it may overload us with work and distract us from our top priorities. It is important to refrain from offering services if you have no time in order to maintain a balanced schedule.   

When saying no, we must decline gracefully but authoritatively so that we don’t offend anyone but they get the message. We need to work on avoiding guilt after saying no and accept the fact that we always have a right to turn down an invitation or refuse a favor because it is alright to make our mental health a priority.

Arya is a high school student at St.Mary’s School

 
• learn
 
• no
 
• learn to say 'no'