Reflection
Approval Can Become a Debt
Praise becomes costly when it requires silence as repayment.
R
Richard Nkwenti
1 min read
Approval feels like a gift until you begin paying for it with silence. Then every compliment carries an invoice: remain agreeable, remain useful, remain unchanged.
Respect that depends on your self-erasure is a contract worth refusing. Disappointment may follow. Let it reveal whose comfort your compliance was financing.
What praise would lose its power if you stopped needing permission to belong to yourself?