How To Overcome Rejection In Adolescence?
It can appear at any time, it is often unavoidable and it is necessary to know how to deal with it. How to overcome rejection in adolescence? A healthy conversation between parents and children will be one of the first steps towards facing this problem, which affects a large percentage of the young population.
We are all prone to rejection
Rejection is not unique to childhood or adolescence. The authors of Harry Potter and Twilight went through this with their first works. The difference is that they knew how to assimilate, recognize and face the problem. Today, both are successful people, with enviable careers and increasingly sought after jobs.
The difference between facing and suffering with rejection is reflected in the attitudes towards life that can shape our future. When faced with it, the teenager can obtain positive results, develop resilience and learn from this failure.
If, on the contrary, the young person is suffering from rejection, whether in the social or family environment , he will be trapped in a negative and vicious circle that will prevent him from seeing the causes that gave rise to it. In this way, possible solutions, which could be at hand, will also be discarded.
rejection and learning
First, it is necessary to understand that, in life, the possibility of being rejected is always latent, whether in our interpersonal relationships, our aspirations or our environment. If the teenager perceives rejection as a learning experience, he or she will be able to get over it quickly and try to walk the path toward success again.
It’s true that rejection hurts. It affects self-esteem, the ability to make decisions and the willingness to start new projects. No matter how small, it will always have a certain impact on the teenager. However, the fact that it happened does not mean that rejection will always happen or that everyone will reject it.
As such, it is worth assessing what led to this episode, the consequences it might have, and how it can be overcome. The worst thing would be to be trapped in frustration and sadness, a paralysis that will only result in harm to those who use it as a defense mechanism.
How to overcome rejection in adolescence
The wisest thing is to acknowledge and accept what happened, understand that it hurts and that it’s normal to feel sad. We can even cry if we feel like it, but we should never blame ourselves because it happened.
Talking to others helps to put these feelings into words and to know that someone is listening. If we recognize that we’ve tried hard but haven’t gotten the expected results, we’ll be able to tackle the problem faster and better. You don’t always win, and it’s time to turn the page.
Positive attitude
A positive attitude toward rejection will keep us from obsessing about it. If we fall into this trend, we will relive the negative episode over and over again and we will be afraid to try things again. Thus, the rejection spiral could increase.
The opposite of this is keeping positive thoughts. Seeking an explanation for the facts is an option, as long as it doesn’t harm us. The teenager should think more about why things happened rather than ‘why I made things happen’.
Guilt and regret only make the situation worse, increasing the tendency to believe that we have no virtues and to lose hope. Self-confidence has the opposite effect, making us more optimistic and likely to try again.
extolling one’s virtues
In order to face rejection, it is important to exalt one’s virtues and qualities. If you think positively, the teenager will give more importance to the moments in which he was accepted than to those when he was rejected.
Little by little, the positive-thinking youth will learn to remember more of those who have affection for him than those who have rejected him. The merit of having tried to join other groups will not go unnoticed and the efforts to be accepted in the school or college you dreamed of will be redoubled.
Optimism and positive thoughts
Finally, being optimistic is a central part of this issue. It is necessary to have more positive thoughts, understanding that in life not everything works out.
The rest will come by itself. It is necessary to have maturity and resilience, as well as making effort and facing challenges. This is the best way to overcome teenage rejection.
