 Disrespect comes in various forms. They can either be direct insults or indirect actions. Whichever way it takes encountering disrespectful behavior from others can be unnerving and upsetting. If someone has been rude to you, you may be left wondering how to respond or if you should respond at all. There is always a right and a wrong response to disrespect and often the approach you take determines whether or not the disrespect will end. In this video, I will be sharing with you some tips on how to stop someone from disrespecting you. 1. Calm your nerves. When someone annoys you, your first instinct may be to lash back. But always bear in mind that you are in control of your emotions. No matter how another person acts, you own your behavior, just as they will have to own theirs. Reacting according to people's actions indicates that those people have the charge over you and your emotions. So, even if their behavior was pretty disrespectful, do your best not to take it personally. Take a moment to consider why you are upset by their words or action and ask yourself whether your reaction is justified. Also, attempt to figure out why they would act disrespectfully. Disrespectful behavior is always aggravating, but it's not still intentional. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt and don't automatically conclude that they are intentionally out to hurt you. For instance, if you notice that someone sends out a group email about an upcoming study group and doesn't include you, you may feel being directly attacked. However, chances are they simply forgot to add you to the mail list or even that your network caused a delay. Carefully analyze the situation and ask yourself if there is any reason why this person would disrespect me. What challenges are they going through? Is this their first time of disregarding you? Or have they always been like that towards you? Often, when you take out time to think through the situation and answer these questions, you will observe that the anger you feel gradually dies down. 2. Use humor to diffuse disrespect A disrespectful and rude person creates anger and tension for themselves and everyone else around them. Most times their rudeness may be the result of violence, envy or even stress. Thus, you ought to be mature and understanding enough not to act irrationally. An effective way to tackle their disregard is through jokes. Humor can create a break in tension and even cause everyone to laugh. Humor amid pressure is like pouring water on a fire or, better still, diffusing a bomb. According to Simon Wissenthal, Jewish Australian Holocaust survivor and writer, humor is a weapon of unarmed people. It helps people who are oppressed to smile at a situation that pains them. If a person is close, you can share a funny experience or common situations which can make all parties laugh off. The person is a stranger. You necessarily do not need to stress yourself to find a shared experience. You can just give a one-sided smile or jokingly affirm to the person's words. Although affirming the insults may make you feel like a fool at the moment, it can salvage the situation in the long run and you can always speak to the person later on. 3. Disrespect with kindness. I guess you might have heard of the statement, an eye will make the world blind. This adage cannot be any more accurate. You don't have to retaliate when someone is rude to you. In so doing, the cycle of disrespect continues and this is not good at all. One of the best ways to handle insulting and disrespect in situations is to stay courteous and friendly. When you remain calm and kind to someone who has been rude, their conscience will preak them and then they will begin to adjust their attitude to match yours. Two wrongs can never make a right. Even if their behavior was pretty disrespectful, do your best not to take it personally. Consider what the rude person might be going through or what the underlying reasons for their behavior might be and be kind to them. Kindness is an incredible antidote for rudeness and it is contagious as well. No doubt showing affection to someone who has been sorely or insulting to others can be extremely difficult. But if you can swallow up the disregard and create a calm atmosphere, then you have partially solved an issue which if you have acted ill-mannered as well would have escalated. Even though they remain insensible despite your kind act, records will have it that you did not lower your standard by returning their insolence with impudence. Thus, you should be proud of it because it shows that you are disciplined. Four, call the person out on his or her behavior. It's easy to misunderstand other people's words or actions. If you're not sure whether someone is intentionally disrespectful, sometimes it can be helpful to ask. Another approach that can stop the disrespect is calling the person out and outrackly telling them to stop. If you have attempted to use humor and kindness yet the person remains insolent, you need to address it. There is no need for you to take ongoing abuse from anyone. However, you don't have to go all hard on them. Instead, allow the retaliation impulse to subside and seek a friendly conversation with the rude person. When you do confront the other person, be clear and matter of fact about the issue, keep your tone calm and use neutral and non-confrontational words. Calmly explain what the problem is and how their behavior is affecting you. For the sake of peace, it is best to give some time before making confrontations. That way, everyone's temper is in check. When you make confrontations, you may observe that the person in question does not even know that his or her action is disrespectful. After confrontation, a wise person will retrace his or her steps and stop being rude, except of course the disrespect is deliberate. 5. Avoid the person. When you have tried everything possible, humor, kindness, confrontation and still the disrespect continues, the last thing to do is just to walk away. It may be that the person is just incapable of treating you and others with politeness and good manners. If it is possible altogether, avoid the person. If it is like a sibling, neighbor or colleague you cannot prevent, the best thing to do is set your boundaries and ignore them as much as you can. Ignoring does not mean keeping malice. It means overlooking their annoying character and keeping your distance as far as you can. Properly, boundaries are an essential part of any healthy relationship. So, it is essentially important to set enough force-clear limits with people who have a pattern of being disrespectful to you. Let the person know what you are and unwilling to tolerate and establish clear consequences if they fail to respect your boundaries. By avoiding habitually rude people, you take away their audience and give them fewer targets to lash out at, and a lack of audience can also be a diffuser. When everyone starts distancing themselves from them, disrespectful people tend to get a wake-up signal which can cause them to change and be less rude. Whether it is an occasional occurrence or a frequent one, it doesn't feel good when it's happening and it's often quite challenging to keep your emotions under control when under attack but keeping emotions in check is the best way to stop the cycle.