How to Stop Taking Things Personally
What your brain, your Enneagram type, and two simple practices can teach you.
Have you ever spent hours replaying a two-word email, wondering if someone is upset with you? Or convinced yourself that one awkward conversation meant you'd done something wrong?
If you have, you're not alone.
In this episode of Beyond the Type, Sandy Swanson explores one of the most common questions she hears in coaching sessions: why do I take everything so personally?
She unpacks why certain comments, emails, and interactions seem to lodge themselves in our minds while others pass right through, and why that has less to do with sensitivity and more to do with wiring.
Using a story from a walk through nature (complete with sticky burdock burrs and a duck that inspired an unexpected lesson), you'll discover why negative experiences seem to "stick," how the stories we tell ourselves shape our relationships, and how the Enneagram influences the kinds of comments that affect each of us differently.
You'll also learn two practical tools that can help you stop spiraling, create space between a situation and your interpretation of it, and train your brain to notice more of what's going right.
In this episode:
- Why your brain is wired to notice criticism more than praise
- A simple practice for interrupting unhelpful thinking
- Why different Enneagram types take different things personally
- A daily habit that helps retrain your brain toward the positive
- How to become more like a duck... and less like a burdock burr
If you've ever found yourself replaying conversations, overthinking emails, or worrying about what other people think of you, this episode is for you.
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