Whether it is a child, a spouse, friend, neighbor, or an acquaintance, we have all experienced times where someone gets the best of us. No matter how hard we try to conceal character weaknesses, that other person causes us to lose patience, get angry, agitated, or frustrated. Even a loved one gets “under our skin” from time to time.  Most often, we blame the other person for our irritation and we let it show, thus exposing our own irrational way of dealing with the situation.  We end up being the one who looks out of control.  What is really ironic though is that the one we are so upset with, you know, the one who “got under our skin” usually had no intent to evoke our irrational, immature, and out of control actions.  They are usually ignorant to the cause of our irritation.  When another gets under our skin it is best to look inside, not outside for the answers, knowing that it is our perception of current events that matter most. We should work on changing ourselves to better cope with others instead of trying to change others hoping they will better be able to cope with us!

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