Highly Sensitive People
How to Handle Difficult Conversations
New Blog Series
Highly Sensitive People – How to handle difficult conversations
Difficult conversations are part of all relationships. They are awkward, uncomfortable and confronting, but they need to be had. If one, or both, of you is highly sensitive, the conversation is that much more difficult to navigate. If one, or both, of you is hot-headed, the conversation falls to pieces too quickly.
Mark Twain Quote: I can live for two months on a good compliment
Personally, one compliment every two
months just would not cut it. But compliments don’t communicate difficult
points of view to highly sensitive people anyway. Not if you’re trying to gain their
understanding. After all, that is the point of a discussion. Not to win or be
right, but to gain understanding from your partner so they can grasp your
perspective and discover deeper aspects of you that they never understood
before.
When you and your mate take the time to
see each others’ point of view, you uncover layers of growth that open up your
relationship for opportunities to discuss uncomfortable problems that need to
be aired for discussion.
So, how do we go about gaining their
understanding?
Explain
what your emotions feel like
That may sound too simple
because emotions and feelings are the same thing but there’s an important
distinction: When you label an emotion, it doesn’t portray your exact feelings,
but when you describe how that emotion makes
you feel, voila, you have opened
a magical portal of discovery. New information that your partner can relate to
and digest because they can relate
to it.
Once you’ve given your partner that information, their perspective will tilt towards acknowledgement. Acknowledgement means acceptance - for you. And the greatest accomplishment in any relationship is to gain acceptance; belonging – seen as a unit and a team to face the world together. Once you’re united in your front, you can achieve even greater success in uncovering more complexities and resolving misunderstandings with more depth and sensitivity.
That's incredible, I am glad you wrote about it. I have always struggled to differentiate between emotions and feelings. The distinction you wrote has never made so much sense to me ever.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right that when we express our emotions with layers of information that describes how we are feeling can definitely bring in a so much of a shift it how we see things.
Awesome Post!
I’m so glad this post has helped you gain a new perspective. That distinction is a great way for partners to grow closer and stronger, together.
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