Just like knowing your own or your partner’s love language, it’s helpful to understand how you and those around you deal with stress. This will help you predict how your friend, boss, or partner will react during an argument, leading to calmer interactions and making it easier to anticipate what is needed in the moment.
“Understanding emphatic language brings more understanding into relationships,” Donnelly says.
“I think [stress languages are] It’s fun and beneficial in the sense that you learn a lot about yourself.” christopher hansen, Certified Professional Counselor at Thriveworks in San Antonio. Although “stress language” is not an official clinical term, the idea plays an important role in mental health, he said.
Hansen compared understanding your stress language to being sick and not knowing what’s wrong. Having a diagnosis brings some peace of mind because you can finally name what’s going on.
Donnelly said identifying your own stress language, or identifying the stress language of others, is not about blaming, but simply a way to communicate better.
“Those words may sound like labels, and my purpose is not to label people,” Donnelly said. “It’s really just creating a framework, a language, so that you have a way of understanding other people in your life.”
Additionally, it can be a good way to change problematic behaviors. It’s impossible to change your behavior if you don’t realize you’re doing it. Understanding how you react to stress is the first step to understanding how you behave in arguments and other difficult situations.
For example, if your stress language is like that of an “explosive person” and you explode during stressful moments, Hansen points out that identifying your attack patterns will allow you to stop yourself next time. do.Or if you’re a “fixer” and tend to go overboard. border In stressful situations, you can admit it and catch yourself before you do it again.
