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Compassion Isn’t Self-Abandonment

You can be soft without dissolving. You can walk away without being cruel. Love that costs your clarity isn’t love. Return to this when you forget. That’s what this space is for.
Compassion Isn’t Self-Abandonment

You can love deeply and still walk away.
You can care and still say no.
You’re not cruel for choosing yourself.

Somewhere along the way, you were taught that love means overextending. That to be kind is to stay—no matter what it costs.

But kindness without boundaries becomes depletion. And staying too long in places that consume your care isn’t noble. It’s exhausting.

There’s a difference between empathy and enmeshment. Between connection and collapse.

When you give without return… when your softness becomes currency for someone else’s comfort… it’s okay to pause. Step back. Say, “Not this time.”

Your compassion is sacred. And you are allowed to protect it.

“You’re not unkind for protecting your energy.
That’s what keeps your compassion real.”
—The Human Cut

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Published by:

The Human Cut

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This is not professional or therapeutic advice. These are emotional reflections, not answers.