TOLERANCE BAROMETER – Part II
By Marcia Eager, LCSW
Solutions Program Coordinator

Family & Friends
We are sometimes harsher when interacting with family and/or friends than with strangers. Sometimes we need to be reminded of people’s feelings. Our job as family members and friends is to support and encourage growth, change and improvement for all. How can we promote and encourage transformation and tolerate the changes that may occur?

How would you respond to –
* A friend who tells you they want to try something new and asks for your support, but you’re not in complete agreement
* One of your children is struggling with what direction to take in life, you feel that they are aimless and should just get a job.
* A family member has a dream and asks for your encouragement to pursue that dream, and you think it’s unrealistic.
* A friend calls you and asks you to do something or go someplace with them to just have fun.

Is your response to discourage them, talk them out of a change? Do you refuse to go out and “Play with your friends” because it serves no purpose? Are you too practical to encourage someone’s dream? If you answer yes to any of these questions you may have to sit down and adjust your tolerance to change and taking risks.

LISTEN– sometimes that is all someone needs is someone to listen to them.

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill

Call Solutions EAP at 1-800-526-3485 for assistance for all of life's challenges.
It’s free, confidential and open to your family members.
Check us out on-line at
http://www.solutions-eap.com

George "Bud" Wassell, M.S., LPC, CEAP
Director, Solutions EAP
213 Court Street
Middletown, CT 06457
1-800-526-3485
fax: 860-704-6221
www.solutions-eap.comhttp://www.solutions-eap.com