Why would a reasonable person…

We are officially in the holiday season and with that comes an increased likelihood someone will say something to you that sets off a narrative within you. For the person still navigating through trauma, big and small, that narrative has the potential to undo years of hard work spent growing and evolving.

If this is you, it’s worth asking yourself this question: why would a reasonable person say what they said to me?

This is not an attempt to excuse abusive behavior, but it is absolutely an attempt to put a governor in place to pull you up from the doldrums and reclaim your power. When we reclaim our power, the awful things people say to us affects us less and less. 

It’s the difference between turning up the volume on our insecurities and internalized beliefs about ourselves and seeing the insecurity in another person that would cause them to say what they said in the first place. 

So ask yourself, why would a reasonable person say or do the thing they did? They’re either not reasonable, in which case, can we really rely on what they said is truth? Or they’re reasonable and speaking from their own wounds and insecurities. 

At any rate, is it possible what they said or did says more about them than it does about you?