Yesterday, in a therapy group, people discussed and wrote down their thoughts and feelings about other people’s opinions.
What is your personal experience of other people’s opinions? What makes other people’s opinions more difficult for you? What helps you deal with other people’s opinions?
In yesterday’s group, I shared a personal experience of other people’s opinions, which I’ve written about previously (here). At the end of a weekend-long retreat, decades ago, I participated in an exercise where everybody got to give and receive opinions about each other. The people who were running the exercise offered this excellent opinion: When people give you their opinions about you, they are often talking about themselves. However, if you hear similar opinions from different people, you need to take those opinions seriously. At that retreat, I was surprised …
… to hear mostly positive and supportive opinions.
After group yesterday, I swapped opinions with author and friend Chris, who was my student at Boston University decades ago (and who has appeared in other blogs posts, here, here, here, and here).
That’s Chris taking a photo of the street sign at Fenway Park that was recently changed from Yawkey Way back to its original name — Jersey Street — because of other people’s opinions.
I sang my first original song — “I Don’t Like You” — for Chris, and his opinion matched other people’s opinions. When I told him I was going to debut that song at an Open Mic tomorrow night and also share that performance on YouTube, his opinion was very supportive. I have very positive opinions of Chris and I’m sure other people share those opinions.
I’m wondering, here and now, about other people’s opinions of this post, including all my other photos from yesterday …
… and the music I’m choosing for today’s post.
On YouTube, other people’s opinions of Jake Shimabukuro playing the ukulele are similar to mine.
I look forward to other people’s opinions, below.
My opinion is that you should express gratitude to others whenever you can, like now!
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 
I like your Jake Shimabukuro taste, Ann!
I appreciate your opinions, Mark!
My opinion is that I somehow missed your comments here, Maria. Thanks for sharing “People”!
When sought, other people’s opinions are welcome; otherwise they can be intrusive
In my opinion, Derrick, your opinions are always welcome.
🙂
Years ago a friend said to me, “Opinions are like armpits. Most people have a couple and some of them stink.” That was just his opinion but I’ve always found it to be a useful way of treating other people’s opinions. Another useful perspective is something Jimmy Stewart said in Harvey: “Well, an element of conflict in any discussion’s a very good thing. It means everybody is taking part and nobody is left out.”
Thank you, Chris, for taking part and leaving nothing out.
How wonderful to see Chris’s smile! I read his thoughtful comments on your blog every day.
Oooops! That’s a different Chris. They both have great opinions and so do you, Maureen.
Hahaha! Well this Chris has a very nice smile and so it probably doesn’t matter if it’s the same Chris or not as I think the other Chris probably has a very nice smile, too.
Opinions are helpful when asked for. Otherwise, they can easily feel like criticisms. I enjoyed this post and Jake’s prowess, Ann. Thank you for asking 💕
You are very helpful, Val, and that is a widely shared opinion. ❤
I like reading your opinions.
I like reading yours, Lisa!
Peoples opinions tell us something about there experiences of life, which form their opinions. But the effect of our experiences results from earlier opinions from earlier experiences. So we are shaped from the earlier our earliest opinion forming experience onward. Freedom of thought requires starting over and re-examining everything. 🙂 Good luck with that. 🙂
Thank you for your helpful opinions! My opinion is that I should have noticed and replied to this comment when you made it. Good luck to both of us.
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