I hate how it can be so hard to communicate with people you care so much about. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I’m not talking about my husband. He and I have discovered healthy communication boundaries and are darn proud of it.  I’m talking about those other life relationships where those communication boundaries aren’t so well defined. It’s hard to know how to talk to them, especially when involving touchy subjects.

There are a couple of options here. One, bottle it all up and keep it to yourself. This works well to keep peace and to avoid conflict. It’s a tactic I’ve used often over the years. Unfortunately, I’ve discovered how well this does NOT work. As things bottle up, I grow defensive, and then defensiveness gives way to resentment. Resentment isn’t pretty. Combine that with PMS and it’s almost lethal.

So if bottling it up doesn’t work, it seems the only other option is to talk about it. The next question is how. How do you approach sensitive subjects without hurting the other person and yet still allowing the full extent of your feelings to be expressed? In Drew and I’s case, we deal with situations like this by simply being honest. Gentle, but honest. We don’t expect anything less from each other. I wish we could expect nothing less from others as well.

I suppose the only solution is to just dive on in and say what you need to say. The result may not be pretty, but you can’t worry about their response. I simply need to let that worry go and deal with what’s going on in my head, and be careful about what comes out of my mouth. If I’m honest and loving with them, I would hope that they would respond the same way. If they don’t, maybe they’re not who I thought they were. Or maybe I just need to give them a little time.

I think this is just all part of this messy thing called life.