The wisest psychological insight I ever learned: Everybody is acting out of their own individual drama. They aren’t thinking about you.
They see you as a minor character in their story. Perhaps a cameo. It’s a liberating insight.
That voice in your head saying that people are judging you? That’s you. People don’t care.
The most illustrious version of this insight is Plato’s cave. We exist to each other only as shadows on the wall.
Scott Adams calls it different movies on the same screen.
My mother — my source — put it this way: “Whatever somebody does, just remember: it’s not about you. It’s about them.”
You’ll be a lot happier once you accept that you’re a supporting character in everyone else’s plot — and the hero in yours.