It can be easy to get caught up in the negativity of a stressful person. Though meditation just might be your antidote. Meditation has numerous health benefits, click here to read more.
Meditation Benefits That Help You Navigate Stressful People
You can probably think of a time where you wished you had more patience… after the fact. In times when we are emotionally triggered by someone, our bodies can immediately go into defense.
We then become wrapped up in the negativity they are emitting rather than being able to stay within our center. Meditation creates and strengthens these benefits below that will specifically help you when you find yourself dealing with a stressful person.
Make sure to check out our related article on how to deal with people who are always negative.
Compassion
First things first, developing compassion for the other person will immediately shift not only your approach to this person but actually the end result. The way you perceive this person is exactly what will stop them from creating stress within you.
Holding compassion for this person may or may not immediately impact their behavior but approaching any scenario with compassion will always immediately change the way you are left feeling. Find different types of meditation to specifically cultivate compassion here!
Let Go of The Defensive Position
When you respond to someone who is stressed out, overwhelmed, or in an offensive position they are in fight or flight mode. If you match their stress or their state of mind then they will continue to escalate.
When you are able to stay in your parasympathetic system, the rest and digest side of the autonomic nervous system, you are able to show them another way of being as well as stay in your center yourself.
Meditation has actually been scientifically proven to rewire how you perceive stress and become less incorrectly triggered to go into the flight or fight mode. This mode was biologically adapted for preparing your body to save itself from immediate life or death threats.
Find Your Neutral Space
In your own meditation practice, you will practice remaining neutral and not allowing feelings, uncomfortability, or even outside stimuli distract you. When you strengthen your brain’s ability to focus you are able to then apply this skill to not become wrapped up in stress from another person.
Meditation has been scientifically proven to rewire the brain. In just 8 weeks beginner meditators’ brains show a decrease in the grey matter of the amygdala and an increase within the hippocampus.
The amygdala is commonly associated with the role it plays in perceiving anxiety and stress. While the hippocampus is known for its impact on learning and memory function. To learn more about how meditation rewires the brain click here.
More Techniques
The work you do in meditation will ricochet into the rest of your life. Meditation will help you get more out of Byron Katie’s turnarounds which are part of The Work, she calls it.
When you find yourself being negatively impacted by another person it is time to dive into Byron Katie’s work and maybe even try out some turnarounds.
