Facing Rejection

Rejection sucks. Let's get better with it. Rejection is an inevitable part of social interaction. If you put yourself out there, you will eventually experience people avoiding eye contact or making up an excuse to walk away from an interaction. You're not going to be everybody's cup of tea. Even if you were, they may have something else on their mind. None of this is news to anyone. That doesn't make it hurt any less. Most trainings I've attended have dealt with this by saying "don't let it bother you" and "the more you avoid it, the more sensitive you will become" with the ultimate solution being to "just do it anyway". That takes a tremendous amount of willpower and courage. It's valid, but has the potential to make things worse if they go poorly. We don't have to be so extreme. In this session, we will roleplay scenarios where you personally would choose to reject someone that was approaching you. By practicing rejecting, we hope to loosen up some of feelings of injustice that we might feel when we get rejected. You will have a choice about whether you want to participate in the exercises and at what intensity. We will only stick to the types of rejection you'd face as a mild mannered person in a public setting, but please be gentle with yourself. This is a "dry run" event. It's one of the first times we're hosting it. Expect some things to be bumpy or unrefined until we figure out the best format for this event. Feedback and suggestions are very welcome.