Some people think that “consciousness” is a bit of a strange term. Really, it just means being aware of your thoughts, words and actions.
Feeling emotion is really important, whereas getting swallowed up into the drama of your emotions or reacting in a hugely knee-jerk way to what’s going around you isn’t helpful.
You know those times you’re really stressed, insecure and generally unhappy and then you go home and “dump” it on your partner? It’s called “projecting”, and it’s when you’ve got all this bottled up energy that you just need to get rid of. If you can’t get it out when you’re feeling the stress/insecurity/unhappiness, you end up spewing it out ten times worse on your blameless partner, slow/zigzagging pedestrian or directionless Asian female driver (like me!).
Step back before you react. When you hear someone escalating in their own anxiety and anger, keep yourself in check and remind yourself: “It’s not about me—it’s about everything else that’s going on with them. They feel out-of-control, unsafe, panicky, angry and trapped.”
And then just centred and let them get all the anger out—most of the time after they’ve had a huge rant, you can continue talking to them. The other times you can’t but again—it’s not about you, so don’t take it on 🙂 Woo!!
