Are You on Your Mobile Phone? Click here for 2800+ mobile optimized, self help and self growth articles.

Speaking Your Truth Without Blame or Judgment

By Dr. Margaret Paul
March 16, 2009



Do you wait too long to speak up for yourself? Do you find that by the time you finally say something, you are irritated or angry?



communication, relationshipsHow often have you become irritated or angry, or given yourself up, or started to argue or debate, teach or explain, or withdrew when someone was treating you badly - ordering you around, judging you, blaming you, or dumping their complaints or negativity on you? How often have you behaved in any of these protective, controlling ways when someone is unknowingly interrupting you when you are trying to focus on something or get something done? How do you end up feeling when you behave in any of these ways?

The chances are you end up feeling angry, hurt, anxious, depressed, or numbed out. It is easy to believe that these feelings are coming from the other person's behavior toward you, but this is not the case. Your unhappy feelings are coming from not taking loving care of yourself.


For example...

Madison consulted with me because she was feeling depressed. She and Andrew had been married for 12 years. She loved Andrew and felt that they had a deep soul connection. Yet she was often unhappy around him.

"Andrew can be very critical. As soon as something doesn't go his way, he tends to take it out on me, finding some way to blame me for the situation.  If I interrupt him at something, he gets extremely annoyed, but if I just get a little annoyed when he interrupts me, like he does lots of times when we are together in the evening and I'm writing in my journal, he gets really angry."

"How do you generally handle these situations?" I asked her.

"I've tried different things. Sometimes I try to get him to see what he is doing. Sometimes I just get quiet, and sometime I try to pacify him."

"How do you feel when you do these things?"

"Lousy. If I say anything it often leads to an argument, and if I don't I end up feeling badly. It seems like a no-win to me."

"Madison, when Andrew is critical or interrupts you when you are writing in your journal, how long does it take you before you realize that it is bothering you?"

"I realize it right away, but most of the time I don't do anything about it. I guess I hope that he will just stop if I don't respond. But he doesn’t seem to get the hint - he just goes right on being critical or talking at me."

"So by the time you say anything, you are irritated, is that right?"

"Yes."

"And then he reacts to your irritation?"

"Yes, and gets mad."

"What do you think would happen if you attended to your feelings and immediately said something, before you were irritated?"

"I think that would be much better. The few times I've done that, Andrew reacts well. When I'm able to say something like, "Honey, can you hold on a sec? I'm in the middle of something," he is fine."

"What do you think stops you from speaking your truth right away, so that you can say it without blame or judgment?"
 

Discounting feelings...

"I think I'm not caring enough about how I feel. I'm immediately aware when I don't like something, but somehow I seem to discount my feelings until I'm irritated."

Madison decided to stop discounting her feelings and to practice speaking her truth immediately. She found that when she spoke her truth right away, she could do it without blame or judgment. Things between her and Andrew dramatically improved. Madison was surprised to discover that she had been being just as critical as Andrew. Once she started to speak up for herself from her loving adult rather than from her ego wounded self, her depression went away.

Heal your relationship with Dr. Margaret’s 30-Day online video relationship course: Wildly, Deeply, Joyously in Love.

 

Image by Manuel Alvarez from Pixabay



Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND


Send this article to a friend    Print this article    Bookmarked 11 time(s)
Bookmark and Share    Share with Del.icio.us    submit 'Speaking Your Truth Without Blame or Judgment' to digg Share with Digg    Share with StumbleUpon
There are no videos, Click to add one to the gallery!
There is no audio, Click to add audio to the gallery!
There are no pictures, Click to add one to the gallery!

Comments


More Help

Looking for help with Speaking Your Truth Without Blame or Judgment?

Search for solutions on Speaking Your Truth Without Blame or Judgment within the InnerBonding.com website using Google's Site Search.




 
 



Daily Inspiration

Are you a good friend? Do you keep in contact with your friends? Are you there for your friends when they need you? Today, be the kind of friend that you would like others to be with you.

By






Explore More Inner Bonding

 

DAILY INSPIRATION

Are you a good friend? Do you keep in contact with your friends? Are you there for your friends when they need you? Today, be the kind of friend that you would like others to be with you.

By

INNER BONDING EVENTS

Inner Bonding Events

04/04/2024 08:00 AM
The 6 Step Process of Inner Bonding Workshop in Germany
Markus Dietrich & Jasmina Kavka

All Inner Bonding Events