‘No I’m ok’
That is a possible response that everyone offering anything should be ready to hear.
But the person doing the offering then got upset and tried to shame me into taking one.
It’s clear they took my rejection personally when the reality couldn’t have been further from the truth.
My saying no had absolutely nothing to do with them. I just wasn’t in the mood to take one there and then.
I wasn’t rejecting them, I was rejecting the thing they were offering.
…
As an aside, fun fact for ya – taking things personally is one of the three behaviours Martin Seligman identified as learned helplessness!
Thomas Duggan 