A few days ago, I read an article on Lion’s Roar on how to deal with difficult people in your life. It proposes a trading places exercise, with you and the difficult person (DP) sitting across from each other (in your imagination of course).
It’s a fully immersive reality and mind-bending exercise where you imagine being fully in the difficult person’s body, what does it feel like? What pains does he or she experience?
And then, imagine that you’re looking at yourself as the DP. What does you/DP want from you that you don’t want to give? Now, imagine that you give yourself/the DP what they want. How does it make them you/them feel?
Now shift back to yourself and your reality. Is that something that you can do? How can you reach a compromise? How can you make both people, yourself and the DP, feel happy, safe, and secure?