Keep Your Cool

Photo tribute to Bo Gordy-Stith

It is hot outside! This is not just meant actually, but figuratively as well.  Summer is a time when tempers tend to flare resulting in physical, emotional, and mental stress. This stress can end or damage long term relationships and sabotage others before two persons can become acquainted.  

When conversations and other interactions between two people become heated, we have to find a way of cooling off.; just like we cool off at the pool in the summer heat. The idea is to stay as cool as possible in both situations.

A great way to cool off is stay hydrated in the first place. The essence of hydration in relationships is to make sure communication is often and positive. When you find yourself getting irritated began to make sure you are seeking to understand the other person before you seek to be understood.

Another way to cool off is by controlling your surroundings. Many times changing the location where your interaction takes place can keep things in a cooled down atmosphere. Try to interact at a location where no one has an advantage over the other.

Cooling down involves becoming quiet to extinguish the flames of anger. A variation of being quiet that cools things down is by lowering your voice so that it is not intimidating, menacing, or negative. Keeping your the voice light, cheery and positive goes a long way to keeping the heat from being damaging to your relationship.

So the question becomes what do you do when the anger has erupted and you are in midst of a conflagration?  It is at this time that you must recognize you are in an emergency. This will call for a great level of understanding emotions.  At this state of high agitation the flames are fueled by emotions. The communication may be causing each person to feel they are personally being attacked. 

The greatest person you can control in an emergency is only yourself. Do not try to control the other person.

Emotional energy is like not like a light switch. Once ignited, you cannot just “turn it off”. 

As you calm down you must allow the other party to burn out.  As you show regret, understanding of what the other person is feeling, and that you are willing to let them vent, you began to remove the fuel you were providing to the heat.

Keep your cool and strengthen your relationships.

Now it is your turn. Share with me ways you keep your relationships peaceful?

 Hi! My name is Vonzel Sawyer. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. I started blogging to share from my experience, knowledge, wisdom, instruction, and understanding to help persons maxamize and magnify the positive in their life. That is why I used the terms "maximum" and "magnification" and combined them into a single word "maxafication". Just like something can be magnetized or winterized. I want to impact people to live largely and fully each day!