How to Be With Someone Blind to Their Own Behavior
This is Part 3 of “The Blind Spot: When People Are Unaware of How They Come Across.” When someone is unaware or in denial about how they come across and how their behavior impacts others, trying to explain it to them doesn’t usually make them more aware or change their behavior. So what to do when your partner or someone else important behaves in ways that bring negative results in the world, which they then complain about or want empathy for? It’s not easy to navigate someone unaware, who doesn’t take responsibility for their own actions; it’s a challenge to stay loving and non-judgmental. The first step, however, is not about them; it’s about you. You need to acknowledge your own experience, to bring self-compassion to the difficulty you experience in relationship with their blindness and denial. And to make space for how frustrating and maddening it is to watch someone who causes their own suffering, refuses to see it, and then wants compassion for what they created. It’s important to be on your own …
