There are times when your sensitivity is turned way up.
These are times when you need to be extra patient with others, as they will be seem ridiculously annoying.
A mnemnomic that helps some people is HALT. (I think it’s originally from Alcoholics Anonymous. You’re not meant to get too H, A, L or T when in recovery. Hey, we take useful wisdom where we can, right?)
These help you do an internal check to see if you might be more touchy than usual.
H – Hungry
A – Angry
L – Lonely
T – Tired
Julia Cameron adds an S
S – Sad
I add a W and an O.
W – Withdrawing (from caffeine, for example)
O – Overwhelmed
HALTSWO.
Er…
HOWLS AT?
SLOW HAT?
Whatever.
If you can ‘go inside’ and check if one of these might be going on, you can give people the benefit of the doubt until you’ve sorted yourself out.
Comments: I love comments. Useful? Do you have anything else that is a general trigger for you? Any other letters to add? A better acronym for this?
Comment policy:
(a) Half-baked, unfinished thoughts very welcome. Systems With Capital Letters? Not so much.
(b) Be nice.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
HALT SOW? => ‘don’t be a pig, check for these things before you do anything’?
Halt, sow! Funny.
Twitter: kmdk
(searching for the Like or +1 button here to show my approval of the HALT SOW mnemonic)
Gee, I wish you had posted this a few weeks ago (before you launched the site even!). I could have avoided a painful blowup. Words were exchanged. Fortunately, reconciling words were also exchanged as were hugs. It was mess I was not proud of and could have done without. And at work! There was an A, an L, a T, an S, and an O involved. Not so much the H and W. Moral: the more letters that are relevant, the more disasterous the results can be if we don’t HALT the SOW.
Karen Mardahl´s last post… Let’s talk and teach, not fight, about accessibility
I didn’t think about ‘the more letters, the worse it is…’ Hmm…
I like HOWLS AT … seems apposite.
I’d add a U for Unwell. Currently on the sofa with a cold, feeling sorry for myself, and I know (too late) that I’m not emplpaying much tact or mindfulness because of it. Oops.
Yes, unwell also counts… Bleurgh.
Twitter: becomewhour
Great additions to HALT, I especially agree with… ah, I was going to say “overwhelmed”, but actually it’s all of them!
Ah. Good oh.
Twitter: victoriashmoria
Oh my gosh, yes.
Even aside from the fun of saying “HALT SOW” to myself, this is such a helpful and *simple* way to check in. Makes it easier to pause, and pausing (for me, anyway) is 80% of the challenge.
Thank you for sharing this.
Victoria Brouhard´s last post… Redefining Success
HALT, SOW! is still making me laugh days later…
Such wonderfully good advice. It should be taught in schools and put up on posters as a public service.
Personally I usually notice most of the triggers before I do too much damage, but I usually spend quite a while convinced that everyone around me is being terrible before I realise I’m too warm. Also, the most noticeable headache symptom I get is being angry at people for talking near me.
Hmmm… posters…