Dear Friends-

I've been away from the keyboard a bit, diving deep into obesity and lifestyle medicine… I’ll share more about that later, but today I was inspired to share this tidbit from a coaching conversation earlier this week.

You know when a person in your life is "behaving badly"? Maybe you know they care about you but you have to hold onto that awareness DESPITE the things they are saying and doing rather than because of them?

Here is a humble suggestion: Lean into mindfulness to decide to label the behaviors. Name them with words silently in your head. Dispassionately. Neutrally. Pretend to not take them personally (or actually avoid taking them personally even better). Name the behavior as if you were simply naming objects in your vicinity.

Tree. Sidewalk. Biting Sarcasm.

Yoga mat. Remote control. Cynicism.

Shoes. Chair. Soundbite repeated from low reliability news source.

The actions or behaviors they are exhibiting make sense in that person's

context - by which I mean their habitually chosen version of reality.

I am NOT saying agree with or join with them.

I'm definitely not saying disregard unacceptable treatment.

I'm just hoping this reminds someone out there that if a person you care about is spewing yuck, it can be labeled and interrupted as needed without the extra pain of taking it in, believing it, or getting super ruffled by it.

I hope by labeling the behavior rather than the person we keep more of our own peace with reduced cognitive dissonance and separation.

XO,

Chrissie