Responding vs. Reacting: A life skill that will serve you in every area of your life

It has been a busy few weeks with training & a lot of travelling all over SA. There is something to be said for the therapeutic quality of driving long distances. Not only can it be a dedicated time for reflection and processing the contents of your life, but the brain can conjure up some solutions to problems or bring about creative ideas to tackle some initiatives.

You don’t even have to try; it sometimes just happens without any effort. Not a given but most welcome when it is offered up out of nowhere. Have you ever tried to leave an issue with your subconscious mind, poke at it a bit consciously but then give it a few days only to have some astounding / perfect answers or solutions come to you?

Throughout the Emotional Intelligence course, we talk a lot about responding vs. reacting. In the context of this post, the above would be taking it much further than our initial steps to try and develop this skill. The point is that, whenever we give ourselves a bit of time instead of having a knee jerk reaction, the quality of our conversation, of our thoughts, of our solutions to problems are much higher. You can dip your toe into this or fully explore all corners of your mind. The answers are not outside of you, it’s mostly already there, it just needs a bit of time and focus.

We don’t always have the luxury of asking for time in certain situations, but it is available to us if we ask, more often than what we are currently utilizing. Next time you are faced with a stressful conversation, a conflict situation, a major life decision, let your emotions subside, take your time & task your mind to provide you with all the possible, and most wise solutions.

Responding instead of reacting is a life skill that will serve you in every area of your life, it is worth committing to the lifelong process of developing it.