Selective indifference: Don't care what people think.

If you're the sort of person who gives way too much weightage to what people think of you, then this one is for you. In the last post, we talked about how much we presume that people are thinking about us. This one is about why it does not matter if they do.

When you hear someone make a snide comment about you, does it trouble you too much? Are you unconsciously a people- pleaser? Do you always feel the need to be in everyone's good books?..... Have you realized just how tiring it is? To constantly be on your toes, always wondering about what people will think if you do this or that..

But just think about it. Why do you care so much? Why does it matter what strangers or mere acquaintances think about you?

Well, that's just the residual habits from when we were wearing fashionable tiger skins and living in caves. In those days when you had to find yourself a pack and stick with it for survival, it was essential that you do everything to you could to not get kicked out. You needed you stay in people's good books or else you might die.

And that's deeply wired in your brain, but that is no longer a concern now. Yet we continue to give too much importance to others' opinion of us.

Once you stop caring about what people might or might not be thinking about you, you can shift your energy and thoughts to other, more useful stuff.

A few years ago, I used to be the sort of person who replayed conversations in her head and analysed how the other person might have perceived it.But now? Not so much.

It very relieving to not care. It's just one more burden off your shoulder.

The next time you find yourself fretting for no reason, ask your self, so what? So what if this person thinks that about me?

If the answer is nothing, then stop thinking about it and move on. The more you practice this, the better you become at tuning out such thoughts. I'm not totally there yet, but this is one muscle I'll be sure to keep working out.

But that is not to say that you can just go ahead and walk around in your underwear because you don't care what people think of you(Please don't do that). We are social creatures and we still live in a society, we should have some level of respect so that we can be taken seriously and contribute to the betterment of humanity.

So yes, selective indifference. :)

And try checking out this article: