How To Practice Being Respectful In Your Relationships

Pay attention to especially your difficult and challenging feelings and emotions before you express them. This doesn’t mean that you don’t express yourself. Of course, you express yourself. It just means that you pay attention to the feelings as they arise within you instead of automatically identifying with them and unloading them on someone else. In other words, a more conscious experience and expression of your feeling would be something like:

“There’s a feeling within me of being upset.”
“How do I want to express this?”
“What is the wisest way to authentically express being upset respectfully?”

Or: Before expressing to another person that you are, perhaps, annoyed, irritated, frustrated, or even angry at something that they did or the way they treated you:

First: You just need to be aware of how you feel before expressing that feeling.
Then: Notice that you have that feeling before the feeling actually has you!

This may require some practice. It requires attentiveness to your relationship. Then you can decide how it’s best for your relationship and for you to express yourself – both authentically and respectfully.