Pages

Saturday, June 07, 2014

HANDLING REJECTION #101

Rejection is a part of life. You don't have to like it when it happens, and most people, including me, don't. But avoiding it is not a healthy option, and life's easier if you learn how to handle it so that no-one gets bent out of shape. If your parents didn't have the wherewithal to teach you Rejection #101 when you were a young sprog, then you're going to have to take a crash adult course, preferably from someone who does rejection with ease.

Avoiding or resisting rejection leads you into a life of certain loneliness, despair and estrangement.

Rejection is unpleasant because it directly triggers activity in the same area of the brain as physical pain. And Fear of Rejection triggers a reaction of “rejection-in-advance”, a reaction equally as painful as real-time rejection.

So when caught at the doorway to a new possibility, especially in the tender area of personal relationships, you have a choice = Avoiding the risk of rejection and facing certain separation and sadness; or learning, in practice, strategies for coping. And there are plenty of learning resources available to you, no matter where you live.

But here's a useful and very effective starting point: if you catch yourself doing anything other than gratefully and gladly embracing the possibility of Rejection, there's your problem right there. You are doing the rejecting up front. How else is the universe expected to respond to you, other than by rejecting you?

See your fears for what they are – Excitement and Anticipation, with negative labels attached – and welcome the adventure of Living Possibly.


[Hold Me – Jade Hurley (A) – 2:14]

No comments: