What I have learned to be true over the years is that the fear of rejection of others is the root cause of suffering for many. I have the opportunity to hear people’s vulnerabilities being a friend, a nurse and a reiki practitioner as people open up to me, which I am grateful for. It not only gives them a chance to talk about things, but it teaches me a lot as well. It has taught me how similar we all really are deep down despite our differences in religion, politics, careers etc. We all want to be loved and accepted for who we really are, if we even know who that is. And although it’s just human nature to want to be loved and accepted in life, so many of us let the fear of rejection and other people’s opinions completely control our lives whether we realize it or not. One of the main reasons it has taken me so long to create this blog was due to that very reason. I was so scared to be vulnerable and allow the world into my thoughts, because I knew I would get judged by some people and/or nobody would even care about the things I write. I let this fear paralyze me without being completely aware of it. I would come up with all these excuses as to why I couldn’t start the blog i.e…I’m not a good writer, I don’t have the time, who am I to give people advice? Then I finally started to break free from all of these excuses and realized that deep down I was really just afraid of rejection.
How many of you are too afraid of rejection and/or ridicule that it keeps you from going after your goals in life?
Once I accepted that not everyone is going to resonate with how I think and feel, I started to realize some things…
* Nobody else is living your life but you, so stop making your life decisions based off of other people’s opinions.
* People will always judge you, but even more people will be inspired by you-so take a leap of faith for you AND them!
* Your life is not going to end just because a few people reject you or even if thousands of people reject you. You have people in your life who love and support you-those are the ones you should be focusing on.
*We waste our energy on made-up scenarios in our minds that will most likely NEVER even happen-remember this next time you start to go down the self doubt rabbit hole.
*You are not going to get along with everyone you meet, period. Next time someone makes fun of you or is rude to you, acknowledge it for a minute to process it and then just try to move on. Most of the time people are just projecting their feelings and thoughts onto you and it really has nothing to do with you. Also, there is absolutely no reason to force relationships of any kind, especially if it does not make you feel good.
*Not everyone is going to resonate with what you think. This is normal so try to accept it. It is really a beautiful thing there are so many different kinds of people on this planet who have gone through different life experiences. You think the way you do because of your own personal life experiences as do others, so it’s normal for everyone to have different opinions. All that matters is you’re being yourself, not hurting anyone and helping others along the way-that is what’s truly important.
I know it is scary to be yourself because it may make you feel vulnerable or embarrassed, but at the end of the day the people who really love you will not reject you. Instead of attracting the wrong people for the wrong reasons, you will start to attract people who resonate with you, people you can genuinely enjoy being around because you can just be yourself. If it is other people’s opinions holding you back from doing the things you want to do, you are no longer in control of your life, they are. Do you really want to live life like that just to avoid any form of rejection? With rejection also comes love. When you are yourself, some will reject you for it while others will love you for it. While you are too afraid to be yourself, you are missing opportunities. Opportunities to help others, to make new friends, find love and be happy. How can we be genuinely happy if we are not being genuine?
Stop hiding in your shell like a turtle, be the honey badger that you truly are. (Fun Fact: the honey badger is the world’s most fearless animal per the Guinness book lol ). Although I sound super corny sometimes, I mean what I say. I lived way too long worrying what others would think of me and it is no way to live.
Let’s all try to be less like everyone else and more like our unique selves we were brought here to be 🙂
