Anger

Anger drains your emotional energy, plays havoc with your body and destroys your relationships. It simply isn't good for you or the people around you.

Arguments cause resentment and can be hard to recover from. Whilst people may be willing to make allowances or even forgive you, they often find it hard to forget.

The wrong words or even the right words spoken at the wrong time or in the wrong way, can cause a lot of difficulties. The more you continue to say the wrong things in the wrong way, the bigger the trouble you'll find yourself in.

Even if what you say is true, if you say it using the wrong tone or with the wrong facial expression you could easily find yourself in an unnecessary argument.

One way to stop an argument is to stop adding fuel. When you feel yourself getting angry it can be best to say nothing. You can easily stop an argument by simply deciding not to say anything else.

When you carry on arguing, you stop listening and that only feeds the other person's anger. If necessary, simply walk away and give up your right to be right.

If you want to avoid arguments, choose your words more carefully and think about the results your words are likely to have before you open your mouth.

Train yourself to wait before you speak and find a way of bringing peace to the situation. If someone is angry with you, try giving them a gentle answer rather than matching their tone and volume. A gentle answer can bring peace in the midst of an argument; try it and see for yourself.

When someone hurts your feelings it's easy to lash out and hurt them too, yet it's much wiser to let it go. Sometimes it's better to ignore an insult.

I'm not suggesting that you let people walk all over you. There are times when you need to confront people. When you do, find a way of saying what needs to be said without making accusations. Once people are on the defensive, thy rarely hear what you have to say.

Consider that you might be partly to blame. Sometimes you simply need to admit that you are wrong. "I'm sorry," is very powerful. When you are prepared to admit that you might be wrong, it can defuse a situation and bring reconciliation.

Next time you find yourself in the middle of an argument, try saying, "I think I'm right but I could be wrong." You might avoid a nasty argument and all that you will lose is a bit of pride.

One last thing, try to stay out of conversations were no one knows what they're talking about and everybody is arguing over nothing. I'm sure you can think of situations where nobody really knows what they're talking about but everybody thinks they do.

Is the price of being right worth it?

Take Care,

Raymond Le Blanc