This is probably more of a standard relationship question, but it's not something I had to deal with for at least 6 years with my current partner, so I wasn't very aware it was an issue for me.

I have found I have a lot of discomfort in rejecting people. I end up overthinking it, and I think I end up overexplaining my reasonings sometimes.

Sometime last year, it was I allowed myself to enter a short term relationship I didn't want because I was afraid of rejecting someone who was very pushy with me.

At first I thought people were being pushy with me, and I think that's the case for some of them, but I think this may be at least partially a me problem because... it keeps happening and the current person I'm talking to isn't pushy at all. I just don't have romantic feelings for her. And then I just get this sinking feeling in my stomach to just go with it, or bolt.

How do I work on this? How do I get more confident in my initial assertions, and then also more confident if the person starts pushing me?

I realize this is something I should have worked on already, but I didn't really realize how big of a problem it was until I started looking for other people to see.

Thanks in advance!