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Relationship expert shares her advice on how to ‘stop an argument in its tracks’

Arguments start to take off when one partner begins to get defensive. So, therapist Lauren Consul shared her relationship-saving tip to “stop an argument in its tracks” when one partner goes into self-preservation mode.

Lauren Consul is a couples and sex therapist who’s developed a following of nearly 160,000 people on TikTok and has received over 5.4 million likes. She is an infidelity expert and hosts retreats to help people “survive and thrive” after one partner has strayed.

“The next time you and your partner are talking, and your partner becomes defensive, I want you to do this: Pause, and say, ‘I want to understand what happened there. What did you hear me say?'” Consul says in her TikTok video with over 42,000 views.

“This question is key because it does one of two things,” she continued. “First, it can allow for clarification. A lot of times when we’ve become defensive, we’ve interpreted something our partner has said incorrectly. We’ve run it through a filter, we’ve told ourselves a story about it, it’s triggered something… So we’re not actually hearing what our partner says, and it allows for clarification.”

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Michael J. Fox says Parkinson’s disease has not stopped him from living his life: ‘I have no regrets’

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 and has since opened up about living with it. At a screening of his documentary, “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival on March 14, the 61-year-old actor described what life has been like since being diagnosed and going public with his diagnosis in 1998. According to PEOPLE, while answering questions about the film alongside director Davis Guggenheim, Fox said, “Parkinson’s sucks, but it’s a great life, so thank you for it.”

“I have no regrets,” he said of his period working after his diagnosis. “You do what you have to do, but you do not want to kill yourself. And that’s when I stopped.”

When asked how he “mobilized” people to care about Parkinson’s, he responded, “I didn’t have a choice. This is it. I have to give everything I have, and it’s not lip service. I show up and do the best I can. Pity is a benign form of abuse. I can feel sorry for myself, but I don’t have time for that. There is stuff to be learned from this, so let’s do that and move on.”

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‘Stealthy’ dog gets around the house by tiptoeing everywhere and it’s strangely adorable

Dogs can be weird. They’ve all got their own personalities and sometimes we owners have to raise an eyebrow and scratch our heads trying to figure out what they’re thinking. Milton, a family’s pit bull has taken to sneaking around his house for no real reason. Or maybe there is a reason, but he keeps getting caught before he can finish his diabolical plan.

Danielle Tholen told The Dodo that he started tiptoeing to get to his own food bowl when he was about 7 months old, so she took him to the vet thinking something was wrong with the puppy. Turns out, he’s just really bad at sneaking…well, kinda. Milton is so quiet that you can’t hear him on the hardwood floors, but he’s also a fairly large dog who tiptoes right in front of people.

But shhhh…he’s a stealthy boy.

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Dad’s video sharing ‘hardest part of co-parenting’ has other separated parents relating

Very often, the right choice isn’t easy. Co-parenting is a prime example of this—no matter how amicable a break-up is, single parents inevitably lose time with their children after a divorce and must deal with the resulting loneliness that happens once the child leaves to spend time with the other parent. Knowing that you’ve made the right decision doesn’t necessarily take away the pain.

That’s why one dad’s video sharing his own experience of his child’s empty room is resonating with other single parents over on TikTok.

The dad, whose name appears to be Angel but goes by @ainjole on the platform, confessed in his video’s caption, “I think the hardest part of coparenting (for me) is dropping my daughter off with her mom and coming home to silence.”

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Brazilian veterinarian gives parrot a second chance at life with a prosthetic beak

A parrot in Brazil got a lucky break when it was rescued after someone found it with a severely damaged beak. In fact, most of its little beak was completely gone. Birds use their hard beaks to eat, fend off other animals and build nests, and their mouths are essentially their hands while their feet are busy walking, scratching or holding twigs.

Plus, I don’t know if you’ve paid much close attention to birds, but they don’t seem to have a lot of dexterity with their tiny little bird legs. They sort of walk around like peg-legged pirates even though I’m pretty sure birds have knees. (I’m not a bird scientist or a zoologist if that wasn’t clear.)

Luckily for this parrot, Renascer ACN, an animal rescue and rehabilitation facility in Planura, Brazil, had a doctor on staff who not only knows if birds have knees but also knew how to make a prosthetic beak.