Humans. What funny creatures we are. In my time as a coach, the thing I’ve noticed is that all of our weird and perhaps not so wonderful ways usually come from a place of ‘not being enough’. If you dig deep enough, and peel through all the layers of the onion, it generally comes back to this one thing.

Now this means that, when we encounter other humans who, just seem compelled to push our buttons, the right response would be a deep sense of compassion, yes?

As someone who is no stranger to helping others navigate the relationships they hold (in particular reminding them that ‘you can’t change others, but you can change your response’) I should most certainly be well-versed in dealing with this. But every now and then, you encounter someone who really challenges your skills in this way. And that’s okay. We’re not superhuman, we have feelings.

Ultimately, it might be a rational point to make that people are only ever the way they are because of deep rooted insecurity, but that doesn’t always make it acceptable to behave in a certain way, and it doesn’t mean that you have to leap into a state of compassion every time another human goes into ‘trigger’ mode.

When things take an unexpected turn

I myself had an interesting experience some time ago that challenged my ability to deal with someone in an ‘adult’ way should I say. I won’t go into the pernickety details but, ultimately someone I had known a very long time, and was previously good friends with, turned. It was a rather unexpected occurrence to say the least.

But once I had come out of the shock and upset, the questions to come out of it were… what exactly do you do when someone turns on you? How do you cope with that feeling of betrayal? And how do you deal with behaviour that is considered unacceptable?

In some cases you would, of course, remove yourself from the situation, and the relationship, altogether. But sometimes, that isn’t always possible. So what do you do in THOSE situations?

Exercising your choice

So many questions. I bang on about choice in life a lot, and we always have a choice. In the instances where the only choice you have is to change your response, what is going to be the most useful approach?

I mentioned earlier, that in times like these it can be easy to think we have to jump immediately into this place of compassion – regardless of how damaging or hurtful someone’s behaviour has been. But that’s not always the answer. Of course it is important; but there is a process to follow when you are feeling upset, and diving straight into compassion isn’t necessarily going to be what’s right for you in the first instance…

Be with your emotions

Now I’m not an angry person but in my case, oh yes there was anger. And that’s okay. Be with that. Allow yourself to feel it. Go up to the top of a hill and scream it all out if you really have to. The body is always listening and if you deny your feelings, all it is going to do is absorb them.

When you’ve done your ‘emotional processing’ you then need to start thinking more logically about the situation. What are your options? How can you deal with this most effectively? Can you address the issue with the person in question? If not, how do you want be in this place?

Life is never smooth sailing, but the question is – how can you be the best version of yourself possible, independent of what life throws at you? I must have been processing this in my sleep because when I woke up one morning – ping. That’s when it hit me. Humour.

Humour really is the best medicine

There’s a reason they say humour is the best medicine – because it can get us through the darkest of times. It’s your self-preservation mechanism that allows you to move through issues with a sense of “It’s all good, I don’t have to take this seriously because I’ve got bigger, better things going on in my life.” Getting yourself entrenched in Serious Steve mindset is not going to pay off. It will simply make you retract into yourself and find yourself as the lesser person.

So in your case, dear reader, when you have someone who has really pushed your buttons, and there’s no way of removing yourself from the situation; I’m prescribing you humour. It works a treat, believe me. You can almost view it as if you’re in some kind of comedy sketch. You know the ones where the characters are so out of this world that you just can’t take them seriously? It’s all a bit of a joke. Yes just like that.

Testing it out

I’m sure, even if you haven’t had a marvellously exceptional blowout with someone right now, there will be someone in your life who knows how to push your buttons – even just a smidge. So before you think about them, think about one of your favourite comedies that has the most eccentric characters – perhaps it’s peep show, or the inbetweeners, or maybe the office – that’s always a good one…

Really connect with what it feels like to be watching that show and just observing the silliness of the characters, then- imagine you are taking that feeling into your next encounter with this person. In your mind, it’s almost like you are meditating on this feeling of humour in that future situation, so every time they whip out their ‘triggers’ (maybe it’s an eye roll, or a sarcy comment), you just have this immediate sense of humour to respond with. How does that feel? If you keep practising this, sure enough it will become easier and more natural.

There are of course plenty more approaches you can use, and plenty more ‘hats’ you can try on when it comes to dealing with difficult people but for today I’m leaving you with that – go ahead, laugh your way through and step into the best version of you; independent of anyone else’s weird and not so wonderful ways.