How Responding Vs Reacting Can Change Your Relationship
When experiencing conflict with your significant other, or really anyone – how do you typically react?
I’m going to encourage you to not react at all and to instead, do this. Respond. Respond, don’t react.
It may sound like semantics, but they come from different parts of our brain. Reaction comes from a survival place in our brain. The same way your adrenaline would kick in and blood would pump to your legs if you saw something in the woods you needed to run from. Responding, though comes from the part of your brain with understanding, logic, and clear communication. Which part of the brain do you think we should be calling on the most when trying to solve a conflict with our partner?
Yeah, not the part that fires up when you see a bear in the woods.
Or think about “respond vs react” in this way – we call them first responders, not first reactors. First reactors would add chaos and make a situation worse. First responders come in with a calculated intention, a plan, forethought, and they make a situation better. Be that for your relationship!
The more you respond and the less you react, the more likely you are to get what you want out of the relationship too!
