Apologies are for ourselves. I only apologize when I feel I have done something specific that I wish I had not done.

Apologies don't have to be about being "sorry" either and blaming. You can, "wish I had known that sooner," when someone corrects a perception fact you had that wasn't correct or, "I'll see what I can do so it doesn't happen again" when you do something that bothers another that's small and you wouldn't mind changing (my husband would get annoyed because I'd unbuckle my seatbelt and let go and the buckle would rise up too quickly and the metal part sometimes struck the window! I trained myself to hold on after unbuckling and guide it up so it didn't hit the window rather than listen to him complain :-)

Apologies are about getting along with people you care about. "Love means you never have to say you're sorry" is correct, in a way, if you and someone love one another then the disappointments and errors can be shared and one doesn't "have to" say anything, the other is "there" and aware.

But mostly I use apologies to let the other person know that I heard them and to remind myself that X bothers them or that I accidentally stepped over a boundary, etc. One can't know one has stepped over most boundaries until the other says so and an "Oh, sorry!" is just an acknowledgement that you now know where the boundary is.

The easiest "I'm sorry" to get rid of first if you're too free with them is probably those that aren't about you? If someone else is hurting, think of something more original and personal to say than "I'm sorry"? Try to unconfuse your stuff from theirs. "That sounds difficult to cope with" or, "I hope it gets easier for you soon, let me know if there is anything I can do to help" is more compassionate-sounding to me than a "sorry" feeling-sorry for another phrase?

Apologies are about what matters to you, not to the other person! Just because the other person doesn't like something you say or do, that does not make you or what you say or do wrong! The other person does not get to run your life. I work very hard here at PsychCentral to say what I mean and I don't delete things or take them back, etc. I support myself 100% and that there are others who take what I say wrongly (and I then try to clarify) or that I sometimes misspeak (at which time I acknowledge and correct it but I'm not "sorry" I made a mistake; you cannot learn without them!) or people who disagree with what I say; none of those are "offenses" of another that need apologizing for.