4 Steps To Stop Taking Everything Personally

Do you think you could stand to stop taking everything personally, a bit more? As human beings, it’s normal to take things personally every once in a while. We have egos that are sensitive at times.

If you’re finding that you’re taking everything personally, then it may be time to work on letting some things go.

Taking things personally can eventually lead to anxiety because you become so wrapped up in what other people think of you and how they treat you.

And if you’re an empath, it’s all too easy to take on other people’s emotions. We start to feel we aren’t good enough for the things we really want. Here’s how to learn how to stop taking everything so personally. 

How to Stop Taking Everything Personally

If you are working hard at pursuing your dreams and then realize you can’t always get what you want, it’s very easy to assume it’s because something is wrong with you.

The thing I’ve learned about life is that it doesn’t always revolve around us. We want to believe it does, but life continues to move forward with or without you.

And learning to understand how to not take things so personally can benefit you in many ways.

When you let go of the unnecessary pressure you put on yourself, your anxiety will become lighter. You will start to forgive yourself more and have confidence in your actions.

I get that letting go of your own values and beliefs is difficult. For the longest time, I had strong beliefs about my own self.

• I couldn’t stop taking everything personally and placed my value in other people’s hands.

As you can imagine, I went through a very difficult phase of my life that involved losing who I was to learn how to become who I actually am.

That meant letting go of the feeling that everything was my fault. I stopped blaming myself for things I couldn’t control. I let go of the things that just weren’t in the cards for me.

And I started to forgive my past for what had happened to me. The things that felt like the world was out to get me.

Once this happened, a huge weight fell off my shoulders. I want to teach you how to do the same.

How to Stop Taking Everything Personally

1. Become Aware of What You Can & Can’t Control

Often, we think we can control certain situations or people. We think we can “fix” someone because we have the ability to care so much.

In reality, you can’t change other people. And some situations are out of your control.

Knowing where to draw the line is tricky, but once you figure it out you can then start to separate yourself from the situation. Instead of letting it become personal.

Some people feel like they are being too selfish if they choose to let someone go.

That’s just because you care a lot. But, in order to take care of yourself and live a better life you have to draw some boundaries within your life.

• The same thing goes for setting realistic goals. We can think we will become a millionaire within a year, but it’s not very realistic.

Start getting real with yourself. It’s easy to stay in a constant state of drama within your life, and you can feed into the thoughts that say, “I don’t deserve happiness.” “I’m not good enough.”

This all starts with you. And if you are sick of feeling that way, listen to that pain and allow it to be the driving factor to change it.

2. Believe in Yourself

Taking things personally has a direct hit on your self-esteem. It would only make sense to practice having more faith in yourself.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. So… why allow others to define who you truly are?

We place our self-worth in how successful we are, what relationships we have, or how much money we have. And when you evaluate your life and realize you haven’t accomplished all that you wanted to, it’s easy to start to blame yourself.

Feeling worse about where your life is at, instead of embracing how far you have come.

A mindset change is usually all it takes to start feeling better about yourself. And that inner critic voice becomes a little quieter.

Believing in yourself takes time and only comes when you are willing to work at it. You can finally decide to let go of the “feeling sorry for yourself” and move forward.

When you put yourself first, you will then begin to believe in yourself. And slowly you will build up the confidence to stop questioning everything you do.

Then, you will let go of taking everything so personally. Because you will believe in yourself enough to know that it’s not always about you. And no matter what happens to you, it won’t crush you every time something bad happens.

3. Process What is Bothering You, Then Let it Go

There may have been times where you speak out about what is bothering you, and someone told you to “just let it go” and move on.

This is good advice, but if you aren’t allowed to actually process what is bothering you, you won’t be able to let it go.

Instead, you will just suppress it and pretend it doesn’t bother you anymore.

This will only cause you to feel worse, and more sensitive to the things around you. And suppressing your feeling can make you feel anxious.

Think about what is really bothering you, or the moments where you do take things a little too personally.

• Ask yourself, why? Why is this getting to you so much?
• Really work hard at taking a few minutes to understand what it is.

Once you come up with an answer (no matter what it is), then you can begin to let it go.

• Imagine putting that thought into a balloon and releasing it into the air, letting it disappear.

This helps because you begin to understand yourself more and you learn why certain things stick to you.

Once you understand it, you can ask yourself why you’re allowing this to affect your life as much as it is. Then, you can work on letting it go.

It takes practice but recognizing how and why you feel the way you do helps you get to the root of the problem.

4. Remember That Other People Are Way More Focused on Themselves

No matter what you may believe in your mind, other people care way more about themselves than they do you.

Which means you are free to do more in life than you already are. We often try too hard to please others and to avoid criticism, so we can fit inside the lines.

What I’ve come to learn, however, is that other people don’t really pay that much attention.

Not as closely as I thought they did. And once I came to this realization, I started to let go of the pressure I thought their opinions held.

Other people are worried about what you are thinking of them. Or how they come across. And yes, other people also take things way too personally sometimes.

You’re not alone in a lot of the things that you feel. It’s just hard to see because we all are good at hiding our insecurities.

We don’t want to be a burden on other people, so we pretend we are ok.

The truth is, everyone has insecurities and issues within themselves. If you can remember this, it’s easier to stop taking things personally.

How to Stop Taking Everything Personally – Conclusion

Once you get a different perspective on things, you can start to see that nothing in your life is all that personal.

Life moves on so quickly and what seems like a big deal right now won’t be an issue 3 weeks from now (most likely).

If you really want to stop taking things personally, start by focusing more on yourself. Let go of what others think about you, because at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter.

You should want to have people in your life who support you, and anyone who doesn’t do that doesn’t deserve to have a say in what you do.

Work on believing in yourself more and everything else will fall into place. Have your back so that you can keep a level head whenever things start to offend you. You can brush it off instead of letting it ruin your whole day.