I sometimes go for long periods of time where I do not talk to my brother, because it can just be too much stress. I still love my brother, but when the cost of maintaining that relationship becomes too high for me I start to re-evaluate it and withdraw.
Just understanding where these types of attitudes and conflicts come from has made me so much more aware of my own feelings, and what is going on inside of me that contributes to how I see others. Just understanding how these things work makes it easier for me to manage how I relate to others. I feel that I already caught myself getting mad the clerk at the coffee shop for taking too long with one of the...
I realized, though, that I was hungry and tired, and maybe if I was feeling better myself I would not be so mad at the clerk and the chatty customer. This is just a little thing, but I feel that if I better understand how emotions are developed within myself, I can manage them better and just feel happier about life. I think this is what the authors are trying to get across in this chapter, that "understanding theories can help us understand our conflicts better so that we can adapt to them more easily," and I feel that this is something I can certainly take away from this chapter and apply to many situations in my own life.
