Why Other People’s Opinions Matter…And What to Do When They Make You Feel Bad
Everyone knows that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me” is a lie.
Words DO hurt — or at least they can. On the flip side, words can also help. Even save lives.
Mark Twain once said:
I can live for two months on a good compliment.
He was probably exaggerrating. Minutely.
But when other peoples’ opinions are hurtful and harmful, some of us pretend not to care. There are a few good pretenders, but very few people truly don’t care what others think of them.
Sometimes we really don’t want to care what others think of us. Sometimes, we succeed. Most times, we fail. Even a completely ridiculous and untrue opinion by a total stranger, which should not hurt us…does hurt.
Though we’d like to deny it, people’s opinions do matter to us.
Why?
Because people matter.
Caring About Others’ Opinions = Pain
Literally, it’s pain. Social pain — caused by bullying, rejection, breakups, etc — have been shown to light up the same regions as physical pain. When someone says something mean to or about…
