Walking Away
Have you ever been in a situation, where you felt you needed to walk away or let go and just politely excuse yourself but are unable to do so?
The need that you feel to walk away could be because of a number of reasons:
The conversation is going nowhere, and you simply seem to be stuck in a rut with your audience.
There is a lack of respect for your opinions. (Mutual respect is important—you need not agree with the opinions of another, or they with yours, but you do need to be able to respect each other). It is the basis for a healthy conversation.
Your audience is too emotional and your point is being completely missed, and instead they are formulating words they "associate" as yours, but need not be yours at all! In other words, they are conjuring an alternative argument made by you in their head and accusing you of ideas, which are not even a part of your argument.
Whatever the reason may be, when you sense this, you need to walk away. It's just unhealthy to be in a conversation where you are not heard for what you are saying and your words are twisted and rephrased into something you never said at all!
Often our gut is right about these things—don't sit around at these conversations expecting for some miracle. Take charge and excuse yourself politely.
Your time is precious, as is your emotional and mental tranquility. Why ruin all three, when you really don't have to?
It gets harder if your audience is a loved one like your partner, friend or family. But even so, you have to be able to draw boundaries. What is the point of engaging in a conversation when you are not heard, even though you are hearing the other individual?
Do yourself a favor and walk away. Sometimes, it is hard and painful to set such boundaries. But over time, it gets hot-wired into your brain and becomes a more natural response.
Setting boundaries and taking care of your own needs is important.
So do you what you need to do. Look after you—it's not a bad thing. In hindsight, you'll probably be grateful for it!
