A business associate mentioned that they felt I had exercised great patience and restraint in a conversation they observed me having with someone else who\u2019d been disrespectful. They went on to comment that they didn\u2019t think they could have had that same level of restraint if they had been the one in my place having that interaction. \u00a0I then explained that the reason I\u2019d been able to handle it the way I did was because I knew the backstory of the person who\u2019d acted that way and I knew of their struggles they were going through and knowing those things helped me not take the disrespect personally, knowing those things helped my heart stay softened toward this other person.<\/p>\n
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man\u2019s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n What Longfellow said is so very true and it is something we should remember in all of our interactions with others. Whether it\u2019s an interaction with an enemy, a coworker, a loved one, a boss, a family member, a stranger, or a friend\u2026we should remind ourselves that everyone has a backstory that contributes to how they are behaving toward us. That\u2019s not to excuse anyone\u2019s bad behavior, but simply to help us stay calm and tender-hearted enough to recognize that not every person who snaps at us should be snapped back at.\u00a0 In fact, more often than not, the person doing the snapping is desperately in need of some compassion \u2013 chances are they need our greatest show of kindness in the very moments they are acting in a manner that least deserves it.<\/p>\n Try to remember that happy and self-confident people naturally treat others with kindness and respect – so a person who is acting unkind or disrespectful is unhappy and struggling to recognize their own self-worth.\u00a0 And your show of kindness may be the first they\u2019ve experienced in a long time\u2026<\/p>\n ~Amy Rees Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A business associate mentioned that they felt I had exercised great patience and restraint in a conversation they observed me having with someone else who\u2019d been disrespectful. They went on to comment that they didn\u2019t think they could have had that same level of restraint if they had been the one in my place having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18794,395,18789,290,13838,7003,18798,462,287,18792,9461,18781,18788,9638,18782,12941,6613,51,33,16735,18785,18791,18796,18780,18795,18790,11019,1294,169,1549,18779,18799,2923,18797,18784,18783,3412,2896,4026,1923,18793,2118,18787,18786],"class_list":["post-9479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-acting-in-a-manner-that-least-deserves-it","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-backstory","tag-bad-behavior","tag-be-compassionate","tag-be-kind","tag-boost-their-self-esteem","tag-boss","tag-communication","tag-compassionate-service","tag-coworker","tag-dealing-with-difficult-people","tag-disarm-hostility","tag-disrespectful","tag-dont-take-it-personally","tag-empathetic","tag-enemy","tag-family","tag-friend","tag-have-empathy","tag-henry-wadsworth-longfellow","tag-in-need-of-compassion","tag-lack-of-self-esteem","tag-love-others","tag-low-self-worth","tag-no-excuse-for-bad-behavior","tag-observation","tag-passive-aggressive","tag-patience","tag-respectful","tag-restraint","tag-self-esteem-boost","tag-self-respect","tag-show-of-kindness","tag-soft-hearted","tag-soften-your-heart","tag-sorrow","tag-stranger","tag-suffering","tag-tender-hearted","tag-the-greatest-show-of-kindness","tag-unhappy","tag-we-should-find-in-each-mans-life-sorrow-and-suffering-enough-to-disarm-all-hostility","tag-if-we-could-read-the-secret-history-of-our-enemies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9479"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9670,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9479\/revisions\/9670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}