Hi Coaches!
I am struggling with the feelings I experience in my marriage. I have done a great deal of work in my marriage and it is much better thanks to LCS. However, I still struggle with my husband’s tone, anger, huffing, cursing under his breath, very loud sighing, etc.

An example of this: he usually plays video games every night in our home. His games create a lot of emotion for him and he pretty constantly sighs loudly, mutters curses, hits his mouse loudly, etc.

His game-induced stress has nothing to do with me, but when I hear it, I get an immediate clench in my chest and feel discomfort. I have an extremely difficult time feeling at peace and relaxed in this environment. I feel like I don’t even have a thought about it, it’s just an immediate feeling. I would guess that the clenching is a sign of stress, perhaps a bit of fear. I have resorted to wearing earplugs all evening to allow myself to be calm.

I feel like this means that I am very sensitive, and I don’t know that there is much changing this. I feel as though I have always been this way. I guess my problem might be that I don’t love the fact that I feel the need to wear earplugs all night to avoid the clenching in my chest in my own home. Do I need to learn to be less sensitive?

I am not planning on asking my husband to change his behavior. I don’t believe he would do it, and I don’t want to control him; we all know how well that works 🙂

I’d love any advice you might be able to give me. Thanks!