{"id":8661,"date":"2016-11-02T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=8661"},"modified":"2016-10-29T12:04:41","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T16:04:41","slug":"the-power-of-an-apology-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/11\/the-power-of-an-apology-2.html","title":{"rendered":"The Power of An Apology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8666\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2016\/10\/conversation-799448_1920-300x181.png\" alt=\"conversation-799448_1920\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" \/>Jack left work late, didn&#8217;t call his wife and missed the school meeting.<\/p>\n<p>When he finally arrived home, he looked at his wife and said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t start. I&#8217;ve had a lousy day!&#8221; No apology. He\u00a0walked away\u00a0and his\u00a0wife was angry!<\/p>\n<p>Not a good way to handle the situation. Missing from this interaction was an apology. Jack could have started with, &#8220;I am so sorry. I didn&#8217;t call you and I know you had to go to the meeting alone.&#8221; What a difference that would have made!<\/p>\n<p>Conflict is inevitable. People fight. But when feelings are hurt and an\u00a0\u00a0apology is missing, relationships\u00a0suffer.<\/p>\n<p>In order to avoid this, it is important to be mindful about the power of apology. When\u00a0people in relationships\u00a0decide to approach every disagreement with the idea that they might be wrong, there is an openness to repairing problems.<\/p>\n<p>Apologies have the power to heal brokenness, to repair relationship damage,\u00a0mend wounded hearts and more. They\u00a0disarm an angry person, shows respect \u00a0 to someone who has been hurt and\u00a0de-escalate conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>Apology also helps to decrease blood pressure and slow down the heart rate that tends to rise when conflict is present. Emotionally, it helps us forgive and move past anger and resentment. It is the glue that keeps people together. When we&#8217;ve been wronged, an apology opens the door for reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Rick Warren tells us that 8\u00a0words are very powerful in \u00a0relationship conflict. If you find yourself in the middle of a fight and say, <em>&#8220;I&#8221;m sorry. I was only thinking of myself,&#8221;<\/em> watch how the atmosphere changes. Now, of course, you need to be sincere, but when we humble ourselves and acknowledge wrong-doing, relationships begin to heal.<\/p>\n<p>What does it take to apologize? You should feel regret and tell the person how you feel. You should take responsibility for your part in the problem. Then, look for a remedy. What can you do to make amends?<\/p>\n<p>So if there is a broken relationship in your life, consider the power of apology. It could be the thing that kick starts that relationship towards reconciliation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jack left work late, didn&#8217;t call his wife and missed the school meeting. When he finally arrived home, he looked at his wife and said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t start. I&#8217;ve had a lousy day!&#8221; No apology. He\u00a0walked away\u00a0and his\u00a0wife was angry! Not a good way to handle the situation. Missing from this interaction was an apology. Jack&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[913,914,917,1,1057],"tags":[788,3647,503,644,201,1271],"class_list":["post-8661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-couple-relationships","category-family-relationships-2","category-friend-relationships","category-uncategorized","category-work-relationships","tag-apology","tag-broken-relationships","tag-conflict","tag-family-relationships","tag-forgiveness","tag-reconciliation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Power of An Apology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/11\/the-power-of-an-apology-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Power of An Apology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jack left work late, didn&#8217;t call his wife and missed the school meeting. When he finally arrived home, he looked at his wife and said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t start. I&#8217;ve had a lousy day!&#8221; No apology. He\u00a0walked away\u00a0and his\u00a0wife was angry! Not a good way to handle the situation. Missing from this interaction was an apology. Jack&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/11\/the-power-of-an-apology-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-02T10:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-29T16:04:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2016\/10\/conversation-799448_1920-300x181.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Power of An Apology","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2016\/11\/the-power-of-an-apology-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Power of An Apology","og_description":"Jack left work late, didn&#8217;t call his wife and missed the school meeting. When he finally arrived home, he looked at his wife and said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t start. I&#8217;ve had a lousy day!&#8221; No apology. He\u00a0walked away\u00a0and his\u00a0wife was angry! Not a good way to handle the situation. Missing from this interaction was an apology. 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Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8661"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8667,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661\/revisions\/8667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}