Talk it out or walk it off: readers’ tips for stopping a relationship squabble

‘We will go for a long walk and feel better about each other.’ Photograph: Tunvarat Pruksachat/Getty Images

While differences in perspective can be good for any relationship, when a disagreement escalates into words that can’t be unsaid, no one wins.

But making sure dissent doesn’t devolve into drama is easier said than done. Even Joseph Grenny, author of the constructive conflict handbook Crucial Conversations, admits to having spent a night on the couch in protest over toothpaste spittle on a mirror.