Are you worried about what people are thinking about you?
Then you’re doing mind reading—one of the 10 most common cognitive distortions.
Here’s the ironic thing… whenever you mind read, you almost always assume that people are thinking NEGATIVE things about you. Very rarely do you assume people have positive things to say about you. (The one exception is if you’re narcissistic—then you think everyone thinks you’re wonderful… but that’s a whole other issue.)
If you think people are thinking nothing but negative thoughts towards you, then you’re probably not very good at mind reading in the first place.
Instead, it’s okay to say, “I hope people like me, but I won’t really KNOW until they tell me. Until then, I’ll assume I’m okay.”