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How to Stop Getting Triggered by Negative Family

Actionable tips for responding to negative and critical remarks

Amy @ivyleagueguide
Ascent Publication
5 min readDec 2, 2019

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Image by Himsan from Pixabay

“Grandma! I got into Harvard!” I gleamed.

My grandma’s eyes glittered for one second.

She responded, “What about Stanford? It’s ranked the best college in the Chinese newspaper.”

My world came crashing down.

I was never good enough for my grandma

I thought I was going to be free of her by ignoring her calls and at times blocking her when she called incessantly. (I know it sounds mean but seriously, she maxes out my voicemail box).

When I was in college, I would receive 20+ missed calls from her daily and 20+ missed voicemails. Pretty soon, my mailbox would cry “I’m full.”

My psychologist didn’t let me off the hook

I thought my psychologist was going to advise me to stop talking to my critical grandma. Instead, she suggested I change how I react and and stop being triggered by her (her tips detailed below).

She believes it’s important to have good family relationships since they are a part of you.

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Ascent Publication
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Amy @ivyleagueguide
Amy @ivyleagueguide

Written by Amy @ivyleagueguide

Harvard Grad👩🏻‍🎓 College Admissions Coach🙋🏻‍♀️Get FREE spreadsheet to organize your colleges→ bit.ly/freeivychecklist

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