#0009 Taking the sting out of rejection, Part One
Seriously silly
Welcome back to 100 Rejections Club, where we submit more, stack up more rejections, and celebrate together because… Rejections mean we’re striving toward our creative self-expression goals.
One way to embrace a rejection is to not take the rejection too seriously. Is one form rejection from one literary journal the end-all, be-all of the universe? Nahhhhh…
But how <sputter, sputter> can you <sputter, sputter> say that <cough, sniff> ?!
Well, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away while on a continuing mission to explore strange new worlds, I was a newbie writer who only submitted one thing to one place at one time. I would wait and wait — In that mental waiting room, I would freeze in terror until I knew the outcome — and wait and wait. Until! I received some sort of notification. Because of the waiting with bated breath, I was delirious with oxygen deprivation. Didn’t matter if I finally heard a yay or a nope. I inevitably Freaked Out from exhaustion.
Because I put so much of my creative self-esteem on the one thing at the one place, I fell right into the bane of modern society’s existence.
According to science types, the human sympathetic nervous system (SNS) switches into high gear to protect us. The SNS responds to a threat with Fight, Flight, or Freeze. When cave folk froze in the shadows to hide from predators, their lives were saved. Nowadays, when we freeze again and again over non–life-threatening incidents, such as anticipating emails, it can lead to chronic stress.
For creatives, this mentally freezing SNS response is especially bad. Sometimes even contributing to the dreaded writer’s/art block. <cue the Jaws movie theme>
The takeaway is to revise the opening sentence of this post to read:
One way to embrace a rejection is to not take the rejection YOURSELF too seriously.
To help you mentally reset, I recommend you view a seriously silly kitty or two (because cats rule and dogs drool).
Next time: Taking the sting out of rejection, Part Two.