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June 25, 2005
Dealing w/ Difficult People
I was thinking this morning about some difficult people I have to deal with and I realized this...
It would help me be more compassionate and tolerant with them if I could remember to take into account their circumstances, their lives.
Some professions and situations are particularly soul-crushing, full of rejection and criticism and uncertainty. That affects people, impairs them in a myriad subtle ways, perhaps in ways they don't even realize.
It makes sense to remember that when dealing with difficult people. Keeping in mind the other person’s subjective experience of the world helps me be more understanding and kind when they are, in my opinion, behaving badly.
Everybody is doing the best they can at any given moment. And that's all we can reasonably expect of each other.
If I can manage to be compassionate with other people when they’re being difficult, maybe people will be gentle with me on those hopefully rare occasions when I’m the one being grumpy and unreasonable.
Posted by Selena at June 25, 2005 09:03 PM