The intersection of thoughts and feelings

My best friend’s son just got his learner’s permit and I’m here for all the stories as he’s learning to drive. I can’t help but remember my own time with a learner’s permit and how completely over confident I was in my ability to drive. I mean, the time I stuck to my guns in the Target parking lot and tried to park the family station wagon in a compact spot and the clash that happened between my mom and I is one for the books.

But, I digress.

The point is learning to drive and manage the in’s and outs of yellow lights, traffic circles and merging takes a whole lot of practice and unfortunately, some trial and error. Luckily most of my driving errors (so far) have been mostly forgiving.

And driving isn’t the only way we collide. Communicating in love can feel like a collision course too.

The most frequent ways I see couples collide in love is when one is having a logical or cognitive conversation and the other is having a vulnerable one. This, my friends, is usually two roads that run parallel until they just crash.

If you’re talking from your heart and your partner is staying in their head about the situation, you both can feel pretty frustrated. One is trying to express how they feel or vent about a situation and the other is looking to analyze and problem solve.

Try your best to start (or pause) a conversation when you realize you’re coming from two opposing directions in communication. It’s much better to slow down and start again then to press on the gas only to collide in your conversation.

You got this.

-A

P.S. If your communication is colliding much more than succeeding, now may be the time to enroll in the Communication Masterclass. The perfect place to reset and get back to basics in communication.