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There's no one right way -

There is no one right way to say no" It has to be considered within the context. When saying no to your boss, you may have to elaborate as to why. When saying no to an acquaintance, you may not need to.

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Society -

We must understand that it isn't entirely our fault that we are programmed this way. In many modern cultures, we respect and glorify the person who can “do it all.”

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The model citizen -

We look up to the person who can juggle having children, a steadfast career, practice yoga three nights a week, as well as cook, clean, and take care of all the domestic chores.

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Sometimes, we need time for ourselves -

In a way, there is a lot to admire about this person. However, if this type of lifestyle doesn’t suit someone and they keep saying yes to every invitation without making sufficient time for themselves, their mental health can suffer.

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It's not rude -

To begin with, if you are the type of person who finds it hard to say no, or questions whether or not it is rude to say no, there are some simple approaches that you should know are not rude.

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You are not obliged to always say yes -

You are completely within your right to suggest another time, to give yourself time to think before you say yes or no, and not to commit because you have other priorities.

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Tune into your gut -

If something doesn’t feel right, and you don’t want to say yes, you don't have to. Your intuition for these kinds of things is very important.

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Boundaries can be set without being rude -

Understand that you can set your boundaries while also being generous. This can mean saying no when someone asks you something while offering them an alternative or help on another date.

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It's your responsibility -

It’s also important to note that you are responsible for setting your boundaries and nobody else.

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You're not responsible for other people's reactions -

Your responsibility, in most cases, begins and ends with you. This is to say that you are not responsible for other people’s emotions (i.e. disappointment).

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You can't help others if you're not well -

Another point to keep in mind is that you cannot be helping the people around you emotionally or otherwise if you haven’t first taken care of yourself properly.

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A metaphor -

When an airplane has lost its cabin pressure, parents are instructed to take care of their oxygen mask before helping their child to fasten his or her mask.

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Always see to your own health and safety, then to others' -

The reason for this is that if the parent hasn’t taken care of their own first, they may fall unconscious before being able to help the child. They must take care of themselves before other people.

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Sometimes, you may have to let things and people go -

You’ll never be able to please everyone. If there are people who want to sever ties with you because you can't show up for them as much as they want or need you to, let them go.

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You may feel left out, and that's natural -

Sometimes you have to feel left out. It’s normal and it’s natural. It’s important to think things through before committing, so that we’re not just saying yes for fear of being left out.

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Too many options can make a tyrant of us -

By eliminating choice in our lives, we create opportunities in our lives to do what we want.

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We will learn more about ourselves -

When we gain the ability to say no, we will also benefit by better discovering what we want in life.

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There will be periods where you'll have to say no -

There are times in life where there are bound to be more pressing issues. There will come a time where mortgages, children, and other issues mean that we won’t be able to say yes.

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Letting others shine -

When we say no to things, we can sometimes open up the gates for other people to shine.

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It's a mindfulness practice -

Being able to set boundaries can be considered a mindfulness practice. While we are saying yes to everything, we can get in our way of just being.

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The guilt won't last -

You may feel guilty saying no to people often, but this feeling will fade, and you will get better at it.

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Saying no aids our success -

People who know how to say no are more successful in life. To be successful at anything (career, relationships, etc.), we need to make sacrifices. To make sacrifices, we need to be able to say no.

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Warren Buffett on saying no -

In the words of billionaire businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffett, “the difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.”

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Sacrifices -

To get on in life, to be useful in the world, and to be helpful and loving to those around us, we need to be able to make sacrifices.

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To hit the gym, you may have to say no to the bar -

To make any kind of sacrifice we need to be able to say no to the unlimited alternatives.

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We will gravitate to what we do want to do -

By not saying no to things often, we will often find ourselves spending our time doing things that we don't want to do or that don’t align with our goals or values.

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Saying no in a polite manner -

There are plenty of ways of saying no politely, such as “I'm honored but I can't,” “Unfortunately, now is not a good time,” “Sorry, I've already made plans,” and so on. Remember that you’re not obliged to be specific.

Sources: (MindBodyGreen) (Forbes) 

See also: Are you emotionally intelligent? Here's how to tell

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