No matter how thoughtful and empathetic you try to be, you’ve probably hurt or offended someone you really care about. Maybe you accidentally let a private detail about your best friend’s health struggle slip during a group hang, or you snooped through your partner’s phone, completely shaking their trust. After messing up, it’s natural to want to make things right—but how to say sorry and earn that all-important “it’s okay”? The reality is, “you can't make someone forgive you,” says Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, author of I Want This to Work .
Even if you fall all over yourself apologising and take accountability for your actions, forgiveness comes from the other person and there are plenty of reasons why someone might not be ready to let bygones be bygones. They may need time to process what happened or perhaps they’re not convinced your ‘sorry’ is genuine. While you can’t force forgiveness , you can take meaningful steps to earn it.
According to the experts we spoke with, these are some of the best tips on how to say sorry—and get whoever you offended to move past your slipup. 1. Don’t view apologising as a sign of weakness If you struggle to admit when you did something wrong, that makes a lot of sense.
Acknowledging that you were a shitty friend or significant other, for instance, can bring up uncomfortable emotions many of us would prefer to avoid—such as guilt , shame or embarrassment. “However, if you see owning up to your mistakes as a .