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What To Do When You’re Feeling Left Out
We are all familiar with that junior high feeling of being left out of something. You know, when you’re shunned from the lunch table with an icy stare.
It’s not only painful, but it opens the door to a whirlwind of other emotions that want to hop along for the ride and pull you deeper into your feelings of insecurity and dwindling self-confidence.
When you reach a certain age, you naturally believe that these feelings will stop. You think that by virtue of being a grown-up, you will automatically be a beacon of confidence and have it all together. Never again will a feeling of inadequacy plague you or your delicate ego.
Not so.
It turns out that those feelings don’t really stop no matter our age. It’s human nature for us to default to comparing ourselves to others and their lives. We want to be part of a group, and historically, it’s been a primal part of survival.
In the group, we can share, help, protect, and belong. We want that. But in those moments of weakness and insecurity, what can we do to keep ourselves from spiraling into those feelings of being left out?
Confirm that your assumptions of exclusion are real