What is the perfect way to respond to an insult/confrontation?

[Patrick]

 
I allow myself to feel that anger the other person stirred in me and I let it show that I find the insult or action hurtful.  But then the trick is to work on your response to this state you find yourself in.  The way we are conditioned on this planet is to punish back the other person, by throwing back insults or even maybe throwing a punch.

If instead you would like to give another kind of response, you need to first have that intention clear.  Make it clear to yourself what your preferred response you would like to be able to give.  Because the intention for any change is the cornerstone.

All by itself it may seem worthless to "just" set our intention.  It changes nothing ! you might say.  It is both true and false.  It does not change anything just by itself, but without it the opportunity for change does not even exist.  So while it changes nothing, it is at the same time the most important step.

Then the other hard thing to do after setting our intent is to learn to let go of how we think we will be able to reach our goal.  We are conditioned to believe that any solution can only come by thinking of a solution.  The reality is that the most direct path to reach your goal can only be illuminated bit by bit.

Once you've set your intent and let go of how you'll get there, life will slowly bring you opportunities and inspiration to lead you step by step.  There are no shortcuts.  But there is a way to bring this inspiration down to you more clearly and so maybe help speed up the process a bit.  That of course is meditation and contemplation.

In any case, it is a lot of work.  And it can even be a bit disconcerting at first.  Because before setting your new intent, you were not aware of the work ahead and after setting it and starting to walk the path, you begin to realize all the work it involves.

So I would suggest to remember that you do not actually need to succeed in reaching the goal.  Just taking the step of having the intent is extremely powerful to your whole self.  Whatever progress you manage to make after that is just icing on the cake.

If during your whole life you manage just to become able not to react as harshly as before in such situations, that will have been a very great victory !  The only times we are really sad after an incarnation are for the things we did not notice and so we could not even set an intent to start working on it.