Recently, I received a polite, clear, and decisive no to an application I had sent to work with a creative organization I deeply admire. I had put real care into it—yet as I pressed “send,” I felt a quiet rumble in my stomach.
I usually interpret that feeling as insecurity. But perhaps this time, it was my body’s way of saying: this isn’t truly for you. The role would have required me to adapt, to be faster and more extraverted —qualities that don’t fit with what I know to be true about me: ultra-sensitive, depth-oriented, and socially ambivert.
After sitting with the disappointment and the familiar thoughts of what I might have done differently, I remembered to take my own medicine—to meet the rejection creatively. Not by denying the pain or “thinking positively,” but by allowing it to become healing, a way of relating more truthfully, to allow it to help me trust life and become more myself instead of less.
I was reminded how many significant rejections in my life initially hurt deeply, yet over time made space for some of the most meaningful relationships, work, encounters, and transformations I’ve known.
Have you ever experienced something that first felt painful, but later opened the door to more of who you truly are?
A wise friend once said that rejection can be life’s protection—protecting us from over-adapting, from betraying ourselves, from staying in places that subtly diminish us. Perhaps a no can be a form of sacred rejection: strengthening us to walk a path that may be more demanding, yet more true. Can we trust the deeper intelligence of life’s process?
One thing that always feels undeniably right to me is teaching about the healing power of creativity, and witnessing the profound transformations that occur when people dare to be themselves and create from that place.
That’s why I’m very much looking forward to giving one of the first talks of the year with Hornsherred Alternative Association, a warm community dedicated to nurturing personal, professional, and spiritual growth.
It will be an evening of listening to body and soul, creating together, and allowing what is true to take a form we can share.
I would love to see you there if you feel called to join and you are near Copenhagen. If not, no worries, I have several online events in English coming up soon...
Warmly,
Karin
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