I don’t like to be misunderstood. I suppose there aren’t too many people who do but some are better at letting it go than others.

How do you react when you are misunderstood, when someone forms an ongoing opinion about you based on their misinterpretation of you? We have a choice in how we react to such things.

Admittedly, there are times when someone’s opinion bother’s me especially when I’m being misunderstood. When that happens I typically have to process the situation in order to move beyond it, however, I refuse to linger there and get stuck in it.

When we linger and get stuck in the upset of someone’s negative or wrong opinion about ourselves only hurts us by steeling our joy and taking our focus away from the things that do bring us joy and the things that are most important to us. We then give that person power over us and we fall into the victim role. Oh boy! I hate that! When I become aware that that’s what I’m doing, I move out fast! I refuse to be a victim and you should too!

I do understand, though, that when it’s someone close to you such opinions can be very hurtful and the processing can either take longer or can even be ongoing because the issue may be something that has to be dealt with often. That is not always easy but more often than not the situation will resolve itself one of two ways.

1. Eventually the person misunderstanding you will finally see the light about you. Big relief!

2. There may come a point in time when you have to move on if it causes too much friction. In this case my thinking is … “go where you’re celebrated not tolerated”.

Again, that is for the extreme situation. For those situations not so extreme, another option is to simply ignore it. Does it really matter what other people think? No!

There is freedom in living in our joy and that includes letting go of other people’s opinions about ourselves and it also includes surrounding ourselves with people who celebrate us rather than tolerate us.

Remember, it is your own opinion about yourself that matters most!