Rejection Therapy

Roshni Nagarakanti (she/her)

Editorial Team Member

Recently, I started experimenting with something called rejection therapy. The idea is simple: put yourself in situations where people might say no. Ask for things you would not normally ask for. It’s supposed to make rejection feel less scary by experiencing it more often and on purpose.

So I began to make the uncomfortable comfortable. I asked a coffee shop if I could get a discount just because it was Tuesday. I asked a stranger to make a tiktok with me.

Most of the time, I got a no. Or an awkward laugh. But what I learned is people are surprisingly kind, even when they reject you. The point wasn’t to win anything or to get a yes. It was to notice how rejection feels when it isn’t taken so seriously. After a while, the sting that comes with failure faded.

I started wondering how many chances we miss just by assuming the answer will be no. How often we filter ourselves out of an opportunity before anyone else even gets the chance to. There is a strange kind of abundance in trying things you don’t expect to work out. Not because they always do, but because they contribute a lesson to the story of your life. A little less fear the next time.

I haven’t mastered accepting rejection. But now, when I think about asking a ridiculous question, I usually just do it. That feels like progress.