Episode 63
What do we do when someone else is “projecting” their feelings and thoughts onto us?
“How do we determine the difference between what is truth and what is a projection?”
In this week’s episode, Sonya and Laura talk about a subject that can be a challenge for you and your business. Understanding the concept of “psychological projection” is important when running a successful business, especially if you are working intimately with clients. When we are working closely with other people, it is easy to get caught up in others emotional reactions and defense mechanisms, or our own.
Psychological projection is a defense mechanism often used to cope with difficult feelings or emotions. People project their undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting what is happening within themselves. It can be like someone asking you to wear a “costume” that you don’t want to wear.
“It takes a lot of self-awareness and some discipline to be able to step back and determine what is actually happening: Is it truth or is it colored by a projection?”
Why is this important to understand when you are running a client business? Sometimes difficulty and challenges with clients are a result of their projections rather than reality. And sometimes what we are experiencing in our business is a result of our projections rather than what is real. This can be a really difficult situation to deal with and being more aware of how it works can make it easier to navigate. When we find ourselves reacting in our business, or projecting our own thoughts and feeling on our clients, we need to take a step back to work on ourselves, first.
“The reason why it’s so important for us to do self-work is to be able to clearly see what’s happening in our relationships with our clients”
If you run a client business, you understand the responsibility that comes with serving others. Our job is not to take on the stresses and reactions that our clients bring with them, but to learn to stay neutral. To do this, we have to realize what is true for us and stay up to date on our self-awareness and care. Our bodies can often help us identify the warning signs, as well as other indicators that trigger when we’re reacting and projecting onto others, or when they are reacting and projecting onto us.
“Sensations and Emotions are Information”
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