Thursday, June 6, 2013

39 : Practice Patience


As my husband and I moved closer to divorce, our interactions became more stressful.  There were a lot of hurt feelings on both sides, I’m sure, but yet we still had to communicate for the sake of our kids.  In the beginning, this was incredibly difficult.  Our conversations were tense, often heated.  I dreaded seeing this person that I previously had loved because I never knew what to expect.  But I still had to have some sort of relationship with him because we would forever share our two sons.  How does one do this?  As time went on, I learned a few ways to navigate the situation.  Just as in dealing with my two year old- I learned that if I got worked up, visibly frustrated or even angry my Ex would get more mad, louder and often mean.  If I exercised restraint, and remained calm then our interaction seemed to have a more positive outcome.  That is not to say that every discussion was easy or pleasant, but I found that my approach influenced the outcome.  As difficult as it was, I bit my tongue.  I tried my best to be agreeable, pleasant.  I would call my mom afterwards and say all the things I could not say to his face – but I exercised restraint in from of him.  Now I was never dishonest, or untrue to myself (or to him for that matter) but I certainly held myself back at time.   And it helped.

Serentiy Now...

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