Coaching practices for How to Deal with My Grandma and Aunt's Hurtful Behavior Towards My Family

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I keep telling myself to just move past what they did and not make a big deal of it, so I never actually look the hurt in the face
  • They’re hurt by something I never meant to do, and I keep blurting "but I didn’t mean it like that"
  • In my head the person who hurt me is just a villain, flat and monstrous, and that picture keeps my anger burning
  • When I’m hurt I get sharp
  • I called it anger and went off about it, but underneath I think I was actually just hurt

Practices that may help

  1. R — Recall the hurt
    Face what happened deliberately and calmly, without minimizing it or replaying it as a victim.
    Forgiveness: The REACH Model
  2. Separate intent from impact
    Your good intentions don’t erase the impact you had — and theirs don’t erase yours.
    Difficult Conversations, Made Practical
  3. E — Empathize with the offender
    Try to understand the pressures, fears, or story behind what they did — without excusing it.
    Forgiveness: The REACH Model
  4. Be Gentle: no attacks, threats, or expressions of contempt
    Say what you need to say without aggression, sarcasm, or contempt — even when you are hurt or angry.
    GIVE: DBT’s Skill for Preserving Relationships During Difficult Conversations
  5. Tell apart emotions that feel similar
    Separate the cousins: anxiety vs excitement, anger vs hurt, sadness vs disappointment.
    Emotional Granularity: Precision as a Regulation Skill
  6. Separate impact from intent
    Address what actually happened — the impact — without deciding you know why.
    Hanlon's Razor: Never Attribute to Malice What Stupidity Can Explain
  7. Soften when anger says attack
    When unjustified anger urges attack, gently avoid, withdraw, or take the other person’s side a little.
    Opposite Action: Acting Against the Emotion’s Urge
  8. Give yourself permission to feel
    Drop the judgment about whether you should or shouldn’t feel a certain way — the emotion is already there.
    Radical Honesty About Emotions, Made Practical
  9. Work the difficult-person stage without forcing
    Extend metta to a difficult person not as approval of their actions but as unconditional goodwill for their wellbeing.
    Metta Bhavana: The Practice of Loving-Kindness
  10. Restructure the provocative appraisal
    Identify the hot thought that amplifies anger and test a more accurate alternative.
    Novaco Anger Management, Made Practical

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