text: how  should i deal with the people around me?it seems difficult to satisfy people& myself&god all together!!!?   there is no way that you will ever be able to satisfy 100% of the people 100% of the time. you have to look at your beliefs and your ethics and values. usually listening to the inner voice is a huge key. one thing that i have learned is to breathe - i know that this sounds silly, but it does work. the fact that you are able to stop your "emotional" flow to take a minute to focus on inhaling and exhaling allows your "logical" side to have control, even if it's just long enough for a breath. physically, the inhalation of air will feed your brain cells. you will be less likely to overreact.   you will be happier with yourself if you do take a moment. you will be able to react in a way more in tune with your beliefs, and the difficult person may not be as bothersome.  another thing i have always lived by is leaps   l      listen   e      empathize   a      apologize   p      positive phrasing   s      solution  listen - to what the person is saying - sometimes all they need is to say what their issue is.  empathize - no one has a situation that is so far removed from the norm that someone else can not relate to it.   apologize - chicago was right - sometimes it really is hard to say i'm sorry, but it is totally worth it.  and look at it this way, even if you are not sorry for what happened, you are sorry that it has caused a negative reaction.  positive phrasing - quote the beatles (can ya'll tell i was a music major yet???  lol)  we can work it out!  every problem has a solution. it may be that the difficult person and you have no more interaction, but it is solved.  solution - look at the root and discuss an option for solution.   most problems are not really issues, they are lacks of communications. people don't listen anymore and we as a society have learned to that it's not worth the time to communicate; because our heart felt emotions fall on deaf ears when we try.  be committed to listening.  i hope this helps - e-mail me and let me know!  leigh-lee