Best Way to Prevent a Fight with Your Partner

You are welcome to share Dr. Gloria Lee’s article:

Couple facing each other on a couch having a conversation with one partner upset and seemingly not listening. It’s Simple and Quick

And It’s Simple and Quick

Are you tired of the endless cycles of fights between you and your partner where you end up feeling angry, deflated, and hopeless? Do you wish you could just stop fighting?

Here’s one simple way to quickly defuse a situation before it escalates into a fight. 

 

Listen to Your Partner

This is easier said than done. Just shut up and don’t say anything. It doesn’t mean that you tune out your partner. Rather, you tune IN to what they are really trying to say.

You will have to block out the running narrative in your head. Instead, be curious about what your partner is saying. Don’t interpret their words with your own narrative.

One reason why fights start in the first place is because partners don’t listen. Partners tell each other what the other is saying through their own interpretation of the facts presented rather than taking the spoken words at face value.

This angers your partner because they don’t feel listened to. When your partner becomes triggered, they start to interrupt, get defensive, and justify their position. Then a fight erupts.

Both people start to feel invalidated, hurt, and flooded. The conflict escalates and the fight continues until both people are exhausted. But there is no resolution, just deflation.

If you want different results, DO something different. Simply be quiet and listen. Pay attention and really listen. Don’t interrupt, interpret, or invalidate your partner. Notice the noise in your head. The harder it is to listen, the more you need to practice.

Try this and you just might get better results.

Read More Relationship Insights

Search
A man smiling and holding a woman on his back in the middle of a field while she laughs. Step into a new you.
group coaching

Redefine Your Relationships

And step into a new you Does it feel like you’re constantly overlooked and undervalued in your relationships, whether with friends, family, or romantic partners?

Read More »
Three friends facing a mountain landscape close together. Improve your life
enhance social ties

Friendship Assessment Quiz

To improve your life! Our friendships comprise some of the most important relationships in our lives, sometimes even beyond marital bonds and family ties. I

Read More »