When Your Friend Cuts You Off

A couple of years ago, I was cut off by a new friend.

He gave me the full on silent treatment.

I did something that clearly hurt his feelings.

I was pissed.

Sometimes we can hate the person that cuts us off. “How freakin’ rude right? Are you really going to slam the door like that?” I mumbled to myself…

Yet, in these moments of upset, it can be hard to understand the true motives of another human being.

I mean, when someone cuts you out of their life, it can be beyond intense, embarrassing, and hurtful.

You can feel betrayed.

You can feel so unseen.

In this particular case, I had enough self-awareness to know there was a lesson in it for me. I just didn’t know what it was…

I paused…

…I peered into his life…

…I imagined what it was like to be him.  I imaged what he was going through…

…and then?

I did what I always do.

I looked in the mirror. I did my inner work to uncover the hidden lesson for me, that is about me…

And?

I begin to see why he made the choice to sever our ties.

I started to see how my way of living life deeply challenged him enough that he hit the eject button.

Who I am, or “How” I am challenged him, big time.

And one of the ways he responded to challenge was to lash out, shut down, or cut off. It’s just another version of our fight, flight, freeze response in the central nervous system. That’s his primitive brain doing its job– protect him at all costs. I have that part of me too.

Believe it or not, a ‘relational threat’ registers the same as a threat from an alligator that is about to attack us.

As if that’s not enough, we all carry whatever allostatic load we are carrying from whatever we went through in our childhood. If we grew up in an intense environment and don’t ever deal with it, we “compound” the stress in our nervous system as adults. 

It’s like another more bricks in the lego fortress of our defended sense of self.

Then as adults, whether we like it or not, we are super sensitive and hyper vigilant to the relational threats that mimic our childhood experience. 

Add on chronic stress (money, marriage, work, etc), high anxiety, and minimal internal resources on the pile…

…and you now have the preconditions that set the stage for a relational cut off.

Now, it’s no surprise why someone can go silent on us and never look back.

They really believe that by going silent, the issue is dealt with.

But us smart folks know, that’s just another popcorn trail on the path to our huge pile of unprocessed baggage.

This type of compounded stress can feel overwhelming, right?

That’s why we ‘check out.’

Since this stress becomes elevated in these moments of challenge, TV, alcohol, facebook, porn, the internet, and our phones become reliable friends to us.

“Friends” that won’t abandon us. “Friends” that would never “cut us off.”

You have your ways you check out, yes?

I clearly did an action that caused my friend to feel justified in cutting me out of his life. That was him doing his best to take care of himself.

And yes, even he has within him the ability to face the very conflicts that come his way in life. But he didn’t want to. That’s his choice and I honor it. 

But, you might be a different kind of person. If you get cut off by a friend, consider this relationship dynamic is playing out so you can grow and heal.

In other words if a cut off happens to you, you are just the person to meet it.

Why?

Because it’s “happening” to you.

When my new friend cut me off, he did so for a number of valid reasons that I will probably never hear about.

But the key for me was to uncork the lesson for me.

Why me? Why was I, master of relationships, getting cut off?

“Dude, I have the tools to work through anything!” I murmured to myself countless times with an edge of anger.

But, once I went and “did the work” to see what this was about for me, I found some beautiful nuggets.

I found that I had been “cut off” my entire life in a number of obvious and not so obvious ways. Then…

…I found that I too had cut people off. Many friends, old and new, over my entire life.

I saw how rude I was to others. How I didn’t communicate. I just bailed. 8th grade, 9th grade, high school, college, and all through my twenties with friends and girlfriends.

I saw how scared I was to confront the real issue with friends, how scared of conflict.

Then…

…I saw the divinity in all of it and how it really served me, and them. I saw the value of cutting people out of my own life so that I could go to the next level. 

Pow!!…I finally got to a place of appreciating myself for leaving friendships that no longer served, which then allowed me to love my friend who had cut me off.

Once I “got it” I popped and had tears of gratitude streaming down my face.

I could finally thank this guy for cutting me off.

He was helping me clear out some old guilt and shame I was carrying around.

So, if you are on the receiving end of a relational cut off, consider that the cut off is happening to you and for you.

It’s your life.

Mine the gold in there.

There is a lesson for you that is about you.

Milk it. Get it.

Your goal is to get to loving the person that cut you off.

If you choose to stay stuck in blaming them or carrying hurt or resentment toward them, your missing the boat that is setting sail for a more empowered life.

So, I’m pretty sure you can meet this one.

You’ve got a warrior somewhere inside that can, and will, meet it, should you choose to say YES to a more fulfilling life with more fulfilling, nurturing relationships.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Want more on how to clear this? Click the button below or sign up for my next course, where I will teach you how to get complete with any cut off in your life.

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photo by Zechariah Judy. & Katelyn Kenderdine