Wow. It’s one of those blessed moments in your life when God’s in His heaven and all’s right with the world. You breathe a deep sigh of satisfaction.

And then someone you know stomps into the room, obviously upset about something. Usually, the presence of a stressed out person makes everyone else in the vicinity tense up. You know if the other person can relax, so can you. What can you do to help this person to relax?

Listen

Ask the person if they want to talk about what’s stressing them out so much. When they talk, make an effort to listen. Turn off the television or radio if you have to. Don’t interrupt them too much. Let them pour it all out.

But if they don’t want to talk about it, don’t badger them into talking. People tend to resent that. Also, don’t blame the other person for ruining your moment of total relaxation. Remember the times upsetting things happen to you and put yourself in their position.

Don’t Give Unasked For Advice

Unless your friend asks, “What do you think I should do?”, don’t give out any lectures over how the person should be thinking, feeling and acting. Mostly, people who are really upset and stressed out just want sympathy. And a drink.

If you have no idea what advice to give, admit it to them. It’s better in the long run to be honest without any advice than pretend you know what you’re talking about and shell out bad advice.

By this time, the person has probably calmed down a bit. If not, trying to get them to think about something else often can help them calm down and give their minds a rest from the problem. After a rest, they can look at the problem anew and may be able to come up with a game plan.

Hope this helps.

Please let us know what you think about this post. No time to comment, Nothing in particular to say? Just click a star or stumble us

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Stumble Us