Talk about being out of touch with your emotions, whew.
When listening to someone express how they feel, do you often find yourself saying,
Damn, that’s crazy.
OR
Okay.
Well, I hate to say it.. I don’t want to sound ridiculous… but.. you hate when people show emotions and it makes you mad.
Hear me out..
I’m not saying you’re heartless, but here are three reasons why you might act this way.
1. You lack empathy.
I grew up in a household where it was okay to cry. It was completely fine to talk about why I was frustrated or why I felt the way I did. There’s many people who weren’t this fortunate.
You probably grew up in a area/household where expressing your feelings were for the WEAK MINDED. It was always “man up” or “stop being weak”. Whenever you tried to express yourself, you might have heard:
Stop being stupid. That’s nothing to cry over.
So now, many things that others react towards, you’re numbed to. You aren’t phased by much and it’s hard to get a tear out of you, to be honest.
Come on, shed a tear!
I’m kidding!
2. The situation is not a big deal to you.
To you, the situation may be small. There’s no reason to talk about it or get emotions involved because it’s simply not a big deal.
You’re making a big deal out of nothing. It’s not that serious.
However, it’s the principle, you know. Just because you feel like the situation isn’t important, does not make the other person’s feelings invalid. They have a right to talk about an issue that’s bothering them, and as the other person involved in the situation, the least you could do is listen.
3. You’re bad at communicating.
Yeah, I’m using the “C-Word”. There’s many people who really don’t be knowing what to say when someone is expressing how they feel. They can’t find the right words, movement or emotions. They don’t want to say something to make the situation worse and it makes them awkward. They get upset at the fact that you keep talking and eventually will either zone you out or hit you with the text:
Idk what you want me to say.
Sometimes, you might not get a text back at all, but you’ll definitely see them sharing posts on Facebook.
This isn’t an excuse, though. We’re all young adults and there are ways to become a better communicator.
It all starts with acknowledging the problem.
You can’t act like the problem does not exist. The other person isn’t crazy or making up anything.
You know exactly what’s going on.
Think about how crazy it sounds to get mad when someone is explaining how you, for example, hurt them. Do not be this way forever.
Here’s an article from Mental Floss that discuss 11 ways to become a better communicator: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71966/11-ways-become-better-communicator