WOMAN, DETERMINED
Creative Works & Advocacy
I Don’t Give Away Permission for Others to Make Me Feel Small
It gets easier.
It gets easier to recognize what it was about your abuser’s behavior that made you feel small,
then understand that it was never your fault,
then repair the hurt that came from the degradation and condescension.
From there it gets easier to see, in the moment, when others try to make you feel small,
then understand it has nothing to do with you, but their own feelings of inadequacy and intimidation and smallness, and that belittling others is the only way they’ve learned to make themselves feel better,
then hold fast to the worth and self-love you’ve found
so that no one gets your permission to make you feel small ever again.
WOMAN, DETERMINED 