I think I often use the technique of assuming the other person is a good person until proven otherwise. It mostly works out well, I don't often encounter issues with people when I have assumed they are a good person from the outset.
I did the formal listening exercise with my husband and it went well. We were both able to relay how each other was feeling and feel like the other understood the feelings and why we had them.
It was interesting. It's so easy to become completely selfish and forget that other people are trying to live in harmony with other people the same way you are, and not just thrown into th emix as hurdles/tests/support specifically for you to overcome. I think it was good to spend a few minutes thinking about them as their own "player one", and not just an NPC.
My husband and I were supposed to go to London in September 2015 to live, and had booked one way flights there. We ended enjoying our honeymoon so much that we purposefully missed our flight so that we could continue travelling through Latin America. My sister then got engaged and had a short engagement so we had to return to NZ for the wedding which was not in the plan. We decided to come to NZ for 6 months to work and save, and attend the wedding, and then move to London. We ended up settling here, buying a house and not going to London. Each year we were supposed to go to London to visit, but something always came up like no money, other family holidays, etc. We decided 2018 was they year we would go, and then we found out my husband's best friend was gettin married in London in 2019. My perspective: I wanted to put off the trip for one more year. We couldn't afford to go to London 2 years in a row, and since we would need to go in 2019 anyway I thought that was the better year to go. His perspective: We have been together for 8 years, married for 3 of those, and I still haven't been to London with him and seen where he grew up, or met a lot of his friends. Every time in the past that we had said we would go to London this year something had come up that prevented us going and he wasn't going to let that happen again. We are just going to have to figure out a way to be able to afford to go 2 years in a row.
I think it's very interesting but makes sense that we empathise more with those that we feel more similar to, both on a physical and mental level.