Have you ever tried to reach out to someone and they did not respond immediately? Have you ever felt anxious or upset because you made the assumption that they were ignoring you or didn’t care enough?
Making assumptions. We were all taught at some point that it’s not ok to assume. Yet we do it often. Our assumptions are based on our experiences. Often, people will accuse others of doing things or feeling ways that are not true about the ones being accused. For example, a woman tries to contact her boyfriend. He is in meetings and had corporate come to his job so he was unable to check his phone. When the boyfriend is able to look at his phone, he has a series of text messages from his girlfriend stating she knows he is with someone else and who is he cheating with and she knew this was going to happen. Sound familiar?
Often we fail to recognize that our actions are not fair to others. We forget to treat people how we want to be treated. What can we do to avoid this negative thinking? Ask ourselves simple questions. First, we need to ask, is what I am going to say necessary? Is it kind? Is it true? The last question, Is it true?, is the most important one. If we do not have facts that our thoughts are true, we need to replace those thoughts and focus on what is really going on. We must ask ourselves, if we know our thoughts to be true or is it just our emotions speaking.
Healthy communication is key to forming positive and healthy relationships. Just asking ourselves those few questions can alleviate negative interaction and unnecessary arguments or stress.
Leave a Reply