Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome back to the Practical Spirituality Podcast. We are so excited to have you on this journey with us, where we explore all elements of mind, body, emotions and soul through the lens of everyday life. On this week's episode, we talk about how the most difficult people in our lives are often our greatest teachers. Gareth, I really have a great topic for us tonight. I think we should talk about how the most difficult people in our life are our greatest teachers.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Interesting.

Speaker 1: 0:51

And I think it's great because I hated that statement for so many years.

Speaker 2: 0:55

Along with many others.

Speaker 1: 0:56

This is very true, but this one I really hated because I couldn't understand it, and so I think, especially since we're talking about practical spirituality, how that plays into our spiritual growth, these very difficult people who show up in our life.

Speaker 2: 1:13

For no reason apparently.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Right for no reason at all.

Speaker 2: 1:18

I think, in hindsight, looking back and obviously doing the work, building self-awareness, the things that we talk about all the time on this podcast, it's really interesting what it ends up showing us about ourselves, I think, in the bigger scheme of things. But of course, even when you do that work or do that journey even still end up having these people in your life who are ongoing triggers also, and I think that's also what makes it a bit complicated at times for any of us, because it's not as if you deal with all of the difficult people in your life and then as if they stop coming into your life. It's an ongoing trend of difficult people to attend the community different stages. But the reality of that is we are our greatest teachers because they continue to expose different triggers that go on within ourselves. They force us to practice, I think, patience and compassion and just different understandings that we wouldn't have had or gained otherwise.

Speaker 1: 2:03

This is true, but I think it's often very hard if we're at the very beginning of this journey to actually see that or to grasp any kind of understanding of that, because when you have relationships with challenging people, naturally we want to focus on them, we don't want to focus on us, and so we don't want the unpleasantness because we've been told for so long that we're supposed to be happy. We're supposed to really focus on the joy instead of recognizing that it's the difficulties whether it be the people or the experiences that the growth really is. I find it fascinating, and I find it fascinating because I don't like difficult people. It could be because I'm one of them.

Speaker 2: 2:45

And also actually it was an interesting perspective is that we don't like difficult people, but we're the difficult person in someone else's life.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Exactly, and the very first time I had someone say to me, basically the person that is challenging you the most is holding up a mirror, I thought I was going to get up and punch the person who said it. I was like they might be holding up a mirror in your life, but not mine. But it's very true though. So it kind of brings us into talking about how some people would say shadow work, or our blind side, because we want to always think about the best parts of ourself, don't we? It's not often that we want to focus on the parts of ourselves that we ourselves find difficult or we haven't had the courage to look at yet. So when someone shows up and it's like having a mirror put in our face to parts of ourselves that we haven't identified, that we're completely unaware of, it's a shock to the system. To me it was, anyway, and I was, as per normal, kicking and screaming, saying I am not like that.

Speaker 2: 3:47

I think everyone's been guilty of it.

Speaker 2: 3:48

It's very easy to judge other people or to blame other people for problems, especially when we don't know the root of the problems or where they're coming from.

Speaker 2: 3:55

And when someone is being quote unquote difficult in our lives, it does tend to trigger underlying pain or traumas or experiences in our subconscious that we're not actually that conscious of or we don't understand what's feeding all of that.

Speaker 2: 4:06

But the one thing that we do know is how to run away from it or how to get busy or how to actually walk away from somebody. But there's no doubt about it that it brings up our lack of confidence or different insecurities and all of these things that we all do need to address and to grow from. And I think that's why, no matter who we are and whatever situation in our life, difficult people would always be at our front door waiting to walk into our lives. Because, as long as our present, there is growth than it does often, if you want to say force, maturity, force looking within and actually beginning to understand, to look at life from also other people's perspectives, of how they actually perceive us and what's going on in their lives and what's going on on our own, and there's no simple way of actually learning that skill or actually having that maturity or knowledge in order. How to do that? Until you actually engage with life, and sometimes even with these difficult people, just walking away from them is never the answer.

Speaker 1: 4:54

No, never the answer, and usually it just means that another difficult person is going to show up and sometimes twice is difficult because we didn't take the opportunity to really look at it, and I think one of the toughest parts about it is really the challenge of stopping and facing that in ourselves. One of the things that someone said to me very early on was if you spot it, you've got it. And I remember thinking, what, what are you talking about? If I spot it, you've got it. I'm just really good at picking out where people's faults are. Then I started to realize, oh, wait a minute. Okay, so it doesn't mean that we might have it right at this moment. It might mean it's a part of us that we've denied. It might mean it's a part of us that we have already overcome and thought that, look at us, we've overcome that. And then up comes a difficult person shining that mirror back in your face and we just want to be upset with them instead of going, whoa, wait a minute.

Speaker 1: 5:51

I was exactly like that at one stage in my life and learning how to have compassion and empathy for what they were going through. But I love that phrase If you spot it, you've got it Because you can't recognize or you're not going to get triggered or activated by something if it has nothing for you to gain or to learn from. So if it is upsetting us in some level, there's something for us to learn from it. And then it's about having the time, the compassion. Well, I like to say for ourselves, because you know we can have compassion for other people and it's really easy to put that on. We don't normally have the compassion and the empathy for ourselves to go. Oh, wait, a minute, what is that reflecting in me? Why is it reflecting? Why does it bother me so much? How can I really examine this and not annihilate myself with criticism or self-judgment? It's a real eye-opener for us when we first start to spot it.

Speaker 2: 6:46

As you were saying there, even with the self-compassion, self-love and doing that being even just being kind to ourselves, those concepts or even those emotions are often so alien to us.

Speaker 2: 6:56

But I think it's the, no matter who you talk to, he's been doing the journey.

Speaker 2: 6:59

Whatever you want to call the journey, it's that it has taken us often to get to a breaking point at the hands of other difficult people in our lives who have challenges, to a point where we've actually been forced to look inwards and forced to do the work and to begin exploring ourselves. But, as you and I both know, even when you do the work, you just become more aware of why difficult people need to exist. It's not that they go anywhere, it's not that people often change and, as you and I both know, we can't change other people from being who they are. So it's continuous that evolution of us understanding ourselves and why those people need to exist within us. But that does start a whole other journey of actually going down, as you said, seeing your own patterns and behaviors, seeing it within other people, but also understanding this thought. Even when you have an awareness of those within yourself, the new people that you need, going through life, they'll continue to show you new sides of those patterns and behaviors that exist within you for ongoing growth.

Speaker 1: 7:50

I agree, but see to me, that reminds me of a statement that people say you know, once you start to acknowledge it and look at something, you have a better understanding of it. But when you're in a pain point, it's not very easy to turn around and have a look at it and go oh, what am I meant to gain from this? How am I supposed to understand it? You definitely see it as the other person and the other person is doing it to you instead of for you. It's just like when I was a teenager. I remember my father saying you need to stop looking at these things as problems. You need to see these challenges as opportunities.

Speaker 2: 8:30

Doesn't sit well.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Well, when you're in the middle of a pain, of whatever kind opportunity? I don't think so. I mean, in hindsight, yes, he was right about that, but when you're in the midst of it all, you don't know how to do that. All you know is it's really uncomfortable and you want out of that.

Speaker 2: 8:48

But there is so many of these throwaway statements or even the deep wisdom that we can get from, as we've talked about before, from teachers and from even elders in our life. I think it's been funny at times throughout this podcast where we've called each other out on things, stuff like in theory, that sounds amazing. Then actual day to day practicality, when you actually have to live with it or sit in those triggers.

Speaker 1: 9:12

It's a very different reality when you're in that, because there's so many things that we understand logically or we understand in theory what we should be doing, but then actually having all of that come together to make an ongoing change in our life where we can see this growth on an ongoing basis, that's actually so tricky to do, no matter who you are, no matter who you are and what stage you're at, because when we're talking about trying to understand the other person's perspective or what's going on for them, when we're in pain I don't know about you, but I'm not that great at that I'm just kind of like wait a minute, you're causing me pain and what's going on for you is you should just stop and walk away and leave me alone.

Speaker 1: 9:56

But it's in those difficult people and I you know, the first time I heard this is them being our greatest teachers. I was just like I'm so not on board with this, but in truth, the more that I was able to sit with it, the more I had to look at my side of the things first before I could have understanding or empathy or really recognizing their perspective at all, because if I didn't clean up my side of the street, all I could see was the pain, and so I didn't have the ability to really try and have any understanding for their perspective, certainly not have empathy or compassion for them, because I just thought they were there trying to destroy my life. You know, when you have unresolved traumas and all that fun stuff that I was carrying, everything just seem to be another Arrow pointing at something wrong with me, and so difficult people were just the other way of saying see, everybody else can get along in the world, but you can't.

Speaker 2: 10:57

You probably look at the different examples in how difficult people show up in our lives and, let that be say, with our siblings, with our parents, with our partner, with some of our friends, even our colleagues, our bosses, so the category begin actually navigating, that are beginning to understand why are, why is actually occurring to us. I know this is a big question. I can cover a lot of ground, but I think it's those you know, both know, even when you do a lot of the work on yourself, you can't walk away often from your job just because someone's been difficult. You can't walk away from your siblings or your family just because they're being difficult. So how do you get that balance, I guess, of actually turning that into Damn, being some of your greatest teachers, but also understanding that that doesn't mean you're not gonna get triggered on an ongoing basis by them?

Speaker 1: 11:41

absolutely, absolutely. So I'm trying to pick which experience you want me to talk about first. I think what came to mind, the very first thing that came to mind for me was when I was in high school. The principal seemed to really have it in for me, and I can tell you her and I'm headed heads like you would not believe and so got to a point where every single morning, as soon as my feet hit that campus over the loud speaker here, kim jewel, to the office, please, and I think now what? And I go in there and that woman would empty my purse and empty my backpack and she go through everything. And I would think you are the. This is a non, I'm talking about the devil personified. Why do you have it in for me that I don't know.

Speaker 1: 12:24

You know, and at the time I couldn't possibly understand I must have worn my little badge that says screw authority, as big and as loud as you possibly could.

Speaker 1: 12:37

I had that attitude of screw authority and she had that attitude of I'm gonna get you to comply, no matter what. And so we were butting heads and it wasn't until my father took me out of that school and then I had to try and get back into the school and I'm not going to the details of that, but I had to front up to this principal and explain to her why I wanted back in school and she I was just like how in the world is this ever gonna happen? Anyway, I went in and just pitched my pitch and she said you know what? I think that's the first thing I've ever heard out of your mouth. If you can pass these exams, you're back in and I'm walking out thinking it's gotten into her today that she's so nice. It wasn't until years later, in reflecting on that, I could see that she was trying to nip something in the bud, that she saw in me that rebellion that was happening in my life at the time and I just saw her as someone that was in my way.

Speaker 1: 13:35

Yeah so did I? Did it happen during high school? No, it happened many years later, but I had that same relationship with my dad and it wasn't until I know this is not until day, but I'm gonna say it anyway. It wasn't until like twenty years later, I was clean out a box of some of my personal stuff from high school and there was a card there from my dad on my graduation and it was like congratulations, you finished high school. You know it's time for you to go out and question authority and do this and do that, and then, in front of cc well, at least you've already done that, you can move on to better things. It wasn't till years later, looking back on all that, that I had the hindsight to be able to that, and sometimes that is how it happens. It doesn't happen in the moment.

Speaker 1: 14:21

No cuz you have to have some emotional maturity to be able to see some of these things and again, I can. We said you have to be ready to do the work or that space in your life where it's time for you to have the awareness is.

Speaker 2: 14:34

So often when we need to have the space in order to do that, with the support from let it be different professionals on, from friends on. But, as we've talked about in previous episodes, depending on what stage you're out in life, when life is so busy and you're trying to make it from one day to the next and you're just Feel like you're trying to catch your tail, having awareness is on why difficult people should be a part of our lives, is just not the concept is gonna land quickly and but that's just a reality. But, as you said there, it's actually about when we have the opportunity or timing thing and actually it was we've talked about before in our contracts when we're allowed to do that. But at the same time, is that these different people do allow us to begin to identify the different triggers that other people are bringing up on us and learning how to take responsibility over those triggers and what they're doing. What does that mean for us moving forward?

Speaker 1: 15:21

but don't you think that's one of the most difficult things that we go through in this life of learning to understand what the triggers are and why they're happening for us?

Speaker 2: 15:31

but it's also that I think it's nearly impossible to do it on our own is kind of the reality, because we live on our own little world, in mind, body, emotions every single day. So we can't get any other perspective on who we are, what's going with in us, because that's all we know.

Speaker 1: 15:47

What's not only just all. We know that those triggers are usually based so much with so much emotionality and so much pain that we've carried from the past. So it's our cognitive mind, you know, stops us once we get to a certain point, for safety reasons, you know it's like, okay, stop, you've gone far enough. Now it really was their fault. What we know, that's really not what we're looking at. I mean, I am laughing, but I because I'm laughing, because I've done it so many times and then had to come back and revisit it when another difficult person shows up in bigger, uglier way and go okay, so this is a familiar pattern to me. So if it's here again, there must be something I haven't been able to examine about it.

Speaker 2: 16:34

But I think it's also tricky about it is because many of us have been told throughout life be the bigger person, take the moral high ground, look within yourself. But then sometimes it feels like you just want justice for what was done or what was said, because no matter what I did for that person is sometimes we just can't agree with the other person's behavior, what they've actually done. And I know you and I have a conversations in the past where I've said to you, kim, there's just your greatest teacher and they're here to teach you so much about yourself. You say no, but it's like letting them win.

Speaker 1: 17:04

Yes, that is what I believe. For a long time I was letting them win, and I think that comes from the fact that so often in my life I felt like the victim. I felt unheard, I felt misunderstood. I felt, you know, that I was falsely accused so many times in the past and so I couldn't get past those barriers to actually understand that it wasn't about never, about winning, no winning or losing, because the pain from all those past experiences was so great that I didn't know how to move beyond it or see around it, or above it or below it had to go through the emotions, and I had to do that with help before I could start to see the other perspective at all.

Speaker 1: 17:51

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Speaker 1: 18:55

You know, gareth, for me, one of the key things that helped me start to understand my own triggers was if I had someone in my life that I considered a difficult person. When I would pay attention to my reaction to whatever was happening. When it was out of proportion which it generally was for what the issue was, it was a good sign that I was. I think I might be triggered here, because normal people are everyday. People are not going to be as upset about this as I am, and so that's a good way for people to start to identify if they're triggered. It's how out of proportion is your reaction for the situation that's happening? At that moment starts to look.

Speaker 1: 19:39

For me, it started me to be able to start to gain awareness. Wait a minute, this might not have anything to do with this situation. It might have more to do with something that I haven't been able to look at. And the other thing I would say and I love this I had no idea for years. No idea.

Speaker 1: 19:57

I'd seen lots of professionals and no one had ever explained to me what happens when that trigger activates the fight, fight freeze response. No one ever explained it, and so when someone finally did explain what that was and what happens, I remember just sitting there going what what? I've been working on this for 20 years and no one's ever said that to me, because it made more sense of why my reactions were so out of proportion. And so now I knew what was happening. I knew that I was no longer being present day, kim, that I was being Triggered back into an emotional response from the past. It gave me the permission then to go away, to stop. I just need a time out so that I can work with me. So I think if you find yourself in that situation, that's one of the things you want to be able to look at but I think that opens up an interesting conversation about our ability to set boundaries with difficult people.

Speaker 2: 20:54

are people in general because, as we talked about before, even privately Also, something we've never been taught to do and that could be a whole episode of the sun itself is the journey of setting boundaries. But I think, when it comes to difficult people, if there isn't those boundaries present, that can be really tricky because you're not getting any time to process, to actually breathe, to begin to look at it from a logical perspective and emotional perspective. How do we begin the process of actually setting boundaries with difficult people, even if they are the realist teachers in our life?

Speaker 1: 21:23

Well, for me, it had to start with learning how to set boundaries and know that I had the right to have boundaries. Some people don't even know they have the right to have a boundary or that they have the right to say no order. They have the right to say excuse me, can I get back with you on that, because that will work. So I think the first thing is to really explore where you are with your boundaries, right like what feels comfortable, what doesn't feel comfortable. Notice the point that you start feeling uncomfortable with saying no to somebody, or this isn't okay for me, and that would be the area that you could start to go okay. So this is a sticking point. I need to practice this. The more that you practice it, the easier it becomes, because when you first start setting boundaries, if you've never had them, it feels really uncomfortable and it feels suffocating, almost like you don't have the right to say no to somebody else.

Speaker 2: 22:17

Even in that process of setting boundaries to the people around you, what I think is interesting comes out of it no matter how many therapy sessions you go to, how many books you read, there's actually a point of acceptance and understanding that even when you set those boundaries, there's certain people that will continue to choose to cross them anyway.

Speaker 2: 22:33

And there is certain people that actually it doesn't matter what the different things you put in place, they will try to treat you, they will try to get onto your skin and, as I said, my own clients if someone really wants to get onto your skin, they'll achieve it every single time Because no one is bulletproofed.

Speaker 2: 22:48

Showing within yourself of having that realistic expectation that, yes, it's a really healthy thing to be able to set boundaries and once they're actually put in place and other people start respecting that with time, they are the kind of people that you do want to be around, because they're actually listening to you and trying to find that middle ground that works for everyone. But then there is that reality where there are difficult people in life who will continue to cross that threshold, and that's when it opens up a very different conversation of actually what your needs are and actually sometimes it is time to walk away from some people and maybe leave a job or start distancing yourself, because the things that we're talking about here just because difficult people are greatest teachers, sometimes they're less, since we need to learn and then also let go of us. Not that we have to keep going back time and time again, because it's important to understand that difference, where that line is drawn.

Speaker 1: 23:36

I agree with that totally, and I think part that we need to add in that is about. There are so many people today that have been brought up in an atmosphere of drama and intensity, so they think that is how we're meant to relate with other people. And so if you're there trying to set boundaries with someone that thinks a real relationship is based on the drama and intensity that they've always experienced, it's not like they're intentionally trying to trigger you. It's just this is all they know. They don't know any other way, and that's that point that you're talking about where we've got to go. Okay, so I've set boundaries. Clearly they're not able to pay attention to those boundaries. It's not about not caring for the person, but it is about putting what's in your highest good first. And if your highest good is to walk away from a job, a relationship, a friendship because that level of drama and intensity is not working for you anymore, that that's perfectly okay. That is the lesson.

Speaker 2: 24:38

And that is with understanding that they're on a very different path within themselves. Also, when actually fighting them to try to protect your boundaries Actually doesn't change anything, nor does it enforce them, nor does it actually do anyone any good. So sometimes it's actually that is the maturing part of it mentally, emotionally, of going. It's time to create the change that I actually want to see and not just keep creating the same patterns over and over again with people who are not meant to change, don't want to change, and that can be a hard thing to see or to accept at first. At the same time as well, but once you start having that awareness, it's a very difficult thing to shake.

Speaker 1: 25:10

It is a difficult thing to shake, and even in the beginning, when that is happening, I know in my experience, as I've walked this road to this day, there are many times when I've looked back and I've gone.

Speaker 1: 25:21

There's been so many people that have come into my life, many people that I really, really like that have also left my life, and for the longest time I blamed myself for that, thinking that you know that age old, oh, there's something wrong with me. When the truth is, I think and I can only say I think because I don't know, but I'm assuming it's because I've been on this growth, this path of growth, and I just needed to move forward. They were where they were. It wasn't right, wrong, better, less than it's just that for me, I needed to move in a different direction than where they were, and it wasn't about them and it wasn't about me, it just meant I just wasn't meant to stay in that realm of that person. And so, instead of making or demonizing someone right or wrong, it's about just recognizing okay, this is no longer working and it's safe to move on. There's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 2: 26:19

I agree, but I think that's why, when it comes to the difficult personalities that we meet along the way, I think it's we see them as difficult personalities because we don't understand why they are the way they are. They probably don't understand why they are the way they are. We also have expectations of how other people should be here or how easy life should be for us all, and it's a lot of these missing components that's not clicking in our heads or other people's and that's why we view people as being difficult at times, or even as ourselves being difficult on certain occasions. But I think in doing the journey and doing the work on ourselves, you begin to see that it's because of the difficult people that you end up learning these life lessons, actually studying yourself, exploring your mind, body, emotions.

Speaker 2: 27:01

And when I talk to my clients, I always say to them you see there that you've taken all of this experiences, all of these realities that have happened to you and, as you mentioned earlier, some of them have been, of course, very traumatic and it's been hard to forgive, hard to actually understand why it happened, hard to have empathy.

Speaker 2: 27:16

But then, when you do that, that doesn't stop difficult people from existing, as we talked about earlier. So therefore, see there, you go out and search for them yourself in some way and learn how to engage with these personalities and grow from them yourself, or life will continue to send them to you anyway, and that's actually a harsh truth of life. I want to say is that they don't stop coming, no matter what, and I think that's something that, when we've been given that awareness that we were never given before, is that then we can understand our options of how to begin to navigate it, and to me, that is us mentally, emotionally and physically maturing of some of the harsh realities in this lifetime. But, as I said, when we begin to know how to navigate it, it does change our perception of what does actually mean for us moving forward, but it can still be very difficult in learning how to navigate that and us, by having your support network, we're also having all the tools that we talk about in ongoing business become so important for moving forward.

Speaker 1: 28:08

I would agree with that. And the other thing I think I want to say about what you just addressed is there has to be some wisdom I'm meant to gain, especially if a difficult person and the pattern is similar to something I've experienced in the past and here it is again, and if it's really still affecting me again, it's like okay. So what wisdom haven't I taken from this? I learned and I'm not going to say early on because it wasn't early on it took me banging my head against the wall a few times before I started to go okay, when I can step back and get a different perspective, try and look at it from their perspective and see what's going on for them and what is the wisdom I can gain from it, that's when I started to make progress.

Speaker 1: 28:55

Does it mean that difficult people stop showing up? No, but it didn't show up in the same way, nor did it have the same effect, because I had that emotional maturity. I had a bit more spiritual maturity to be able to go. Oh, it's not always about me. Sometimes people are having a really bad day and maybe if I could just step back and have some empathy for what's going on.

Speaker 2: 29:18

For any of us to say is really stuck in our emotions or have that heaviness. It's very hard for us to have that space for other people but, as you were mentioning earlier, it's that when everyone is actually stuck in their own emotional stuff and don't really have a perspective, it's that they need to make their lives about themselves, because they're finding it they don't have the space to actually think of anyone else.

Speaker 1: 29:39

Like you said, I agree, not everybody has it, but that is the beauty of starting to really see difficult people as our greatest teachers, because when we can do that, that gives us more space to have space for other people. So one of the things I want to share, Gareth, is I had a time in my life where I had a very difficult person that I had to work with on a regular basis and I really and truthfully thought this person was out to get me. Quite often this person would make fun of me, would collude with other people and they'd be snickering in the corner, and it was in a professional environment and I had to continue to try and be professional. I really did see this person as a burden in my life. I really did see that they were just like my personal nemesis and I just couldn't stand every time I had to have an exchange. So I started doing the work that I teach everybody else on this and as I started doing that work, what I started to see what was getting triggered in me was this particular person had everything I thought I wanted, and so the more I thought they had what I wanted and were making fun of me, I felt insecure and intimidated and hurt and all of those words.

Speaker 1: 30:58

So again, the shadow of stuff that we talked about earlier. The more I worked on that and did my personal work whether it be the tapping or whether it just be the journaling and the writing I started having those awarenesses of my own insecurity, how I felt like they had something that I wanted that I couldn't get. And it gave a complete different turn. As that happened, that particular person managed to say to me I felt like you had something I didn't have, and so I wanted to put you down because I wanted what you had. And it was a really huge exchange between the two of us. Are we best friends? No, we are not. But did we both grow and learn from each other? Yes, we did, and so that person stopped being a burden. I do see that person as one of my greatest teachers, and here's the peace to resistance grateful that they came into my life, because I doubt I would have seen those things without that person.

Speaker 2: 31:56

Definitely Our ability to even in some ways find forgiveness or even be grateful for these people in our lives. That often comes down the line. It's not something that happens at all overnight.

Speaker 1: 32:08

That particular example I just gave. That happened over a six-year period. It certainly didn't happen with the first exchange or even the 10th or 12th. It took quite a long time for me to get to the space that I had room, to look at my side of the street to understand what it was triggering in me.

Speaker 2: 32:29

And in conclusion for this episode, I do feel as though, when anyone says that the most difficult people in your life were your greatest teachers, I really do believe that statement, but I feel as though it takes a long time of actually doing the journey, with a lot of self-awareness, to be able to actually to accept that statement in its entirety, of what it actually represents, because it is so layered and the reality is difficult. People do expose triggers and they do force us to practice patience and compassion and understanding, not only just for ourselves, but for the people around us also, and I think that's why it's such an important reality that we all do experiences having those difficult people, because without them, why would we be here?

Speaker 1: 33:08

Right, and how would we ever find the parts of ourselves that we buried if we didn't have them? We'd live in that denial forever, so that is one of the reasons they show up every day. The other thing that we can pay attention to is, as much as it's hard to grasp this topic, especially if you're new, that it is one of the ways that it starts to unlock our development and the more that we can understand, even if we don't understand that phrase of difficult people are our greatest teachers. As long as we can try and look for what they're trying to teach us, we're unlocking, becoming more aware, learning more about ourselves, and that's always a good thing.

Speaker 1: 33:49

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