Are interruptions interfering with your relationship?
This month’s debut article of Can You Relate? Is about being in a relationship in which you, your mate, or both of you have the habit of interrupting the other person or each other.
If you look at your relationship as having a life force of its own, which I believe it has, the habit of interrupting is a systemic problem that can wreak havoc on it.
Think about the act of interrupting. Picture one of you forming a thought in your mind – you’re mid-sentence – and suddenly, a figurative train comes barreling through your brain synapses and says, “Halt!”
The effect on your brain is jarring, to say the least. If you could personify your brain, it would be saying, “Wait, what just happened?? I’m not done with my thought!” In the worst-case scenario, after the interruption, you forget what you were going to say.
This just happened this morning between me and my husband. I’m embarrassed to say I was the interrupter! My husband said something, and I opened my mouth and finished his sentence for him, when he was perfectly capable of finishing it himself. I apologized to him and said, “What were you going to say?”
He said, “I don’t know. I forgot.”
Uuuughh, the dreaded “I forgot.” Whether you are young, in mid-life, or a senior, we are all forgetting things. We have so much stimuli coming at us that sometimes our brains can’t process it all.
I encourage you and your mate to get in the habit of using the power of the pause to keep yourself from interrupting and allow your mate to finish his or her thought. Not only will your partner thank you, but so will your brain!
Do you have sensitive issues in your relationships that you need help with? Ask Coach Kathy about it. Submit your question to Coach Kathy using the form below:
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