Reacting vs Responding

I read something this morning about the difference between reacting and responding.  The way I see it, responding is controlled, reacting is not.  A friend was very upset about a work situation the other day and I realized how distraught she was, how this one situation was effecting her entire being.  She was angry and kept thinking about the situation, mulling it over at every opportunity...getting angrier and angrier.  Her face looked hard and unhappy.  Has this ever happened to you?  Have you ever had something happen that caused you change your whole being?  Of course you have, we all have...I think this is reacting.  It's the reaction we have to a situation without even thinking about it...like when we walk into a spider web or a bug lands on us.   But the truth is, my friend's reaction was not helping her, in fact, her whole life was being effected by one aspect of it.  So after a day or so, my friend started looking at the situation a little differently.  She forced herself to see her boss's side of things, and although she didn't agree, she could she that her boss's motivation was not malicious which helped the anger to subside.  This is responding.  

I am a Realtor, and I have walked into many spider webs in many houses.  I hate walking into spider webs, but I had to train myself to minimize my reaction...it would not serve me to freak out every time I walked into a spider web in someone's basement!  I had to train myself to respond rather than react.

We have opportunities every day to respond or react.  The cool thing is, even if we initially react, we can change that to a response at any time.  We can change direction, we can calm down, we can look at things differently.  All it takes is awareness and control.  Pay attention...are you reacting or responding?