Self-Reflection Question 5

Today's self-reflection question is an interesting one:

"Does it really matter what others think of me?"

Interesting because I would say that the answer is "It depends." If we tend to suffer from low self-confidence or self-worth, we can often spend far too much time worrying about what other people think of us. We begin to fear that others are judging us, which can lead to denying invitations to social functions or gatherings. If we tend to lean into perfectionist tendencies, we may also care too much about others think, as we are trying to aspire to expectations that are unrealistic. Other times, we may not care enough. Indifference to others, a need to have our own needs met first, or leaning into an over-confident nature can lead us to a place where we are only considering our own thoughts and become dismissive of others. It would seem that if we care too much about what other people think, we carry the weight of the hurt and if we don't care enough about what other people think, we run the risk of hurting those closest to us. Perhaps the answer lies in who and not what. Perhaps, when we think about what other people think of us, it should be the people that matter to us the most that we think about when answering that question. "Does it really matter what my

loved

ones think of me?" And the answer to that should be "Yes!" Photo credit: http://Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash Like this post? Consider subscribing!