An antidote to rejection

I recently had the (re)experience of rejection as an artist, and dang did it cut to the core. 

And the thing is, it wasn’t even a rejection for something that I was really hinging everything on—but there still was so much wrapped up in the potentiality of the possible acceptance. We know as artists that rejection isn’t just about our project or proposal being passed on—it can feel like a knife right to the center of your heart, your artistic being, and every knife has the potential to cut it out, stomp on it and leave it to crumble away into a cloud of dust. 

So…what are we to do as artists?