Hi everyone, it's Rosie. Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Tuesday. So the other day my

mom was helping me clean up at my house and she was putting things away in what I felt

was the wrong spot. And I said really sharply, that's not where that goes. After some

contemplation I felt the need to apologize. It was just that typical stress of a busy

day coming out. And of course she forgave me. Sometimes we can be short with the people

closest to us and don't even realize it. They're stuck with us so they get to see all our

sides. So how do we even recognize and check ourselves when we're being sharp with someone?

Today let's talk about ways to communicate with kindness, especially in times of stress.

How do we recognize when we're being sharp with people? I mean you know when you're being

sharp with people. Come on. I know that for me it's because I'm not getting enough sleep,

I'm overwhelmed at work or I'm not paying attention. If those three things are happening in

unison, the people around me that are closest to me are going to have the not great version of me.

The other thing that comes up a lot is if we have this irritability or this sharpness as a part

of our nature and everybody knows it, we somehow think that that's a hall pass to be that way all

the time. And I don't think that's really fair for the people around us to just accept that.

It gives us a pass to not do the self inquiry that we need to do to recognize the parts of ourselves

that are not being fulfilled or the parts of ourselves that are overwhelmed that is causing this sharpness.

I think this is where mindfulness really comes in because our mindfulness practice keeps us from

saying something from a place of being reactive as opposed to acting from a place of wisdom.

So if you've been stressed out and a little short with people and let's face it, we've all been there.

Maybe some of us are there now. Here are some tips for a kinder communication.

First, just take a beat. When you take a beat it really allows you to craft your response in a way

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