By Paula Sgarbossa
Like so many of us, I am an introverted person and as such I don’t like dealing with difficult situations. If there is a potential for a conflict I usually try to avoid communicating with that person about it. I stick my head in the sand and hope the problem goes away. As you can imagine this makes life difficult and of course most problems don’t just magically go away on their own. In fact, they usually get worse until I am forced to deal with them.
Can you relate, or do you know someone else like this?
How do we learn to deal with difficult situations and stop running from them? Here are the top 7 solutions:
- Work out what is it about this situation that bothers you? It helps to write down your thoughts and feelings about an event or problem. Try spending 15 mins a day writing. This simple act can help relieve some of that built up frustration or stress about the situation and put you in a more positive frame of mind to deal with it productively.
- Come up with a number of potential ways to deal with this situation – list as many solutions as you can. Which option will get you the result you want? Weigh up Pro’s and Con’s.
- Ask for help from a partner or friend – they will have a different perspective than you and can probably offer a different option to deal with the situation.
- Look for ways to change your behaviour – that’s the only thing you can control.
- Accept some things you just can’t change – if the problem is with another person then sadly you can’t change that person, you can only change yourself and how you respond to them. For those things you cannot change, how can you reframe that situation into a positive way of thinking? Eg. Your mother nags you about how you are raising your children – instead of seeing her as interfering, instead she is just trying to make your life happier? (that one might be a bit of a stretch…).
- Develop coping skills to deal with your feelings – count to 10, try deep breathing, meditation, going for a walk, read books on controlling your emotions.
- Find something good that will come out of this situation – this is often a great opportunity to learn about yourself and grow as a person in mental strength. Life is all about learning so see each challenge as a way to become wiser and stronger.
This is all a learning process, so don’t expect to completely change how you respond to challenges overnight. If you are like me, then you want to become the best version of yourself and enjoy life as much as you can. This means having to make changes, learning and develop who we are at home, at work, as husbands, wives, parents, and friends.
If you have any other great tips on how to better deal with difficult situations please like my page on Facebook and send me a comment.
Wishing you great success and happiness.