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If You’re Afraid to Say It, Say It Anyway

The greater the fear, the more important the words.

Vanessa Torre
4 min readJun 20, 2020
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez via Unsplash

I’ve missed opportunities. I’ve stayed longer in places where I’ve been unhappy than I should have. I have allowed myself to be treated in a manner I didn’t deserve or was unjust.

All of this happened for the same reason. I didn’t say what I needed to say.

If you have something to say and are afraid to say, that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach is every single bit of your being giving you the signal that you need to say those words.

Fear is what makes us nervous and holds us back. The fear stems from knowing that what we are about to say is going to make someone else uncomfortable. The problem is that while we hold our words to spare someone else discomfort, we sit with our discomfort instead.

There is no one that we have more of an obligation to than ourselves. We should move through life being as kind and empathetic as we can but that doesn’t mean that speaking up is an act of aggression. It’s simply standing our ground when we need to. It creates this beautiful thing we call boundaries.

Hard things need to be said when they are honest and deeply felt. When we can’t say them, they eat away at us because somewhere inside of us we also know that they…

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Vanessa Torre
Vanessa Torre

Written by Vanessa Torre

Top 10 feminist writer. Writing, coaching, and relentlessly hyping women in midilfe. linktr.ee/Vanessaltorre Email: vanessa@vanessatorre.com

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