Have you ever written a heartfelt message to someone you admired and/or really cared about – and then had the painful experience of seeing that they read your message but not replied ?
You start thinking that you must not be that important to them … because if they cared they would write back, right ?
There could be many reasons why people do not reply to us, but it really stems from how THEY feel. Many people don’t even think about the pain that not responding causes the sender. Most people only care about how THEY feel. That THEY are too busy or anything else.
It is definitely hurtful not to get a reply; it makes us feel ignored, unseen, unheard and unappreciated.
When we put our openness and vulnerability out there, and then don’t get acceptance or validation, we may start to believe (usually unconsciously) that the world is not a safe place.
It could as a consequence make us close to that person and that closed-off energy might spread like a ripple to every person we interact with. We might become more closed-off to the world which causes others to close-off as well. Think about how that would impact our environment and everyone that comes in contact with us.
And that is a part of the reason why the world we live in is often so cold and heartless.
This is why I sometimes become very tired and frustrated with social media, apps etc.
We should treat messages and emails like face-to-face relationships and answer in a reasonable time. Unless the message is rude, attacking/insulting, or soliciting - everyone deserves a response in a reasonable time !
We can help change that by paying attention to the messages and people who send them to us, and show our respect and appreciation, and honour the effort, time and feelings they invested in writing to us and reaching out.
Let us try to see a positive intent behind every message we receive, that there is someone out there who respect us and trust us enough to reach out and communicate their feelings and thoughts to us; someone who needs to be heard, seen, and appreciated, someone to whom our reply could mean the world.
If we hear and respond, people will soften and become more mellow, instead of hurt and closed-off, they could continue to be open and to trust, and then spread that openness, trust, softness and mellowness around to the world. Our world could become a better place then, for them and for us.
NOTE: This post seems unrelated to the topic of this web site, however, since this blog is also a social media platform, where we can comment and get in contact with each other, I felt that this issue should be addressed. Let's make an effort to be kind, respectful and considerate of other people's feelings, no matter where and who we interact with.
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