Many emotional dramas can be avoided by simply pausing before reacting. When someone is feeling distraught and says something that triggers us, it’s common to respond from a perspective of indignation, as if to say, ‘How dare you characterize me that way?’ Even though we may be feeling unjustly treated, it’s enormously beneficial to our own well-being, and that of the relationship, to remember that they are having a difficult moment and what they’re communicating to us isn’t personal. No matter how pointed it feels, it helps to pause, breathe and remember, ‘This is about them…
Not me.’
