Responding vs Reacting

When people around us do or say something that involves us - directly or indirectly - we either respond or react and there are consequences to each course of action. The same goes for when an event occurs in our life. We either respond or react to it.

In responding mode we are taking full responsibility for our actions, we have thought about the situation and chose the best approach to deal with it. In this mode you are empowered.
In reaction mode you don't have the power, it is based on resistance or opposition without much thought.

Reaction comes from judgments. Response is a choice and comes from a chosen perspective. An effective way to turn our reactions into responses is to discern our judgments behind them. Once you have clearly detected the judgment, you can choose to let the feeling and belief go, and instead, create a response.

An example: sometimes in interaction with other people you see the same patterns happening over and over again - for instance discussions with your mother unfold always rather unpleasantly. If your reaction on what she is saying and how she says it is always the same, these discussions will follow the same pattern. But if you are able to see that this is happening, you can choose a different approach and perspective to the discussions, with a careful chosen response instead of an emotional reaction.