15/09/2025
THE JOY OF NOT BEING LIKED
So much of our lives is unconsciously spent trying to control what others think of us - polishing our image, hiding our flaws, avoiding conflict, saying things we don’t mean and doing things we don’t want to do… just to be liked.
It’s exhausting. And it never works. People will think what they think of you, no matter what you do or say.
Rejection is an ancestral wound we all carry. No matter how kind, generous, or brilliant you are, someone will dislike you. Someone will judge you. Someone will dismiss your truth.
And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
That’s where your freedom begins!
Give up control. Accept the wound. Accept the rejection. It may seem unfair, but it’s universal. Let others dislike you. Let them misunderstand. Let them hold their harsh judgements. Let them speak badly of you.
Their thoughts are not your responsibility.
And still - live. Speak your truth. Love fully. Be messy, awkward, angry, joyful, anxious. Be everything you are. Be present with it all.
You don’t have to be calm. You don’t have to be agreeable. You don’t have to be liked.
Every time you allow someone not to like you and you still show up, you teach yourself something essential: I am safe. I am embodied. I am real. I am enough.
Rejection may sting. It may feel unfair. But every time you keep going despite the judgements of others, you are healing multiple lifetimes of self-suppression.
You are not here to be palatable.
You are here to be real.
- Jeff Foster
