Sacrifices are funny things. They are often little more than giving up something that we realize along the way we never truly needed in the first place. "Need". I feel like that is the key word for something to qualify as a sacrifice under the conditions you've stated here. To give up something you need, or at least, something you are under the illusion of needing, and as you discovered (and I am about to repeat) that the very thing you thought you 'needed' was far from such, and rather it was the sacrifice itself that you needed.
On Self-Sacrifice
Sacrifices are funny things. They are often little more than giving up something that we realize along the way we never truly needed in the first place. "Need". I feel like that is the key word for something to qualify as a sacrifice under the conditions you've stated here. To give up something you need, or at least, something you are under the illusion of needing, and as you discovered (and I am about to repeat) that the very thing you thought you 'needed' was far from such, and rather it was the sacrifice itself that you needed.