11/06/2026
Take a minute to read this. It touches us all, and we all have a part to play in interrupting these cycles.
Not all harm leaves a mark.
Some of the most damaging behaviour in our community doesn't shout or shove. It whispers. It excludes. It rolls its eyes. We've been taught to call it drama, office politics or just kids being kids. But it has a name – relational aggression – and it's one of the most common ways people hurt each other.
You've seen it. The child left off every party list on purpose. The teenager frozen out of the group chat. The volunteer at the club who's quietly undermined until they stop showing up. The colleague whose ideas are dismissed with a look. The team member whose ideas are stolen without credit. The friend whose reputation takes small, deliberate hits – a comment here, a snide smirk there.
It's hard to spot because each moment seems minor. The harm lives in the pattern, not the single act, and the person carrying it often starts to wonder if they are imagining it.
They're not. Being shut out genuinely hurts – research shows the brain processes social rejection much like physical pain. That's why this quiet harm leaves such lasting bruises.
How to stop relational aggression
Relational aggression tends to escalate with an audience. It needs people to laugh at the joke, pass on the rumour, or stay silent to avoid becoming the next target. Which means the power to stop it sits with each of us.
It’s simpler than you'd think. Notice it. Don't feed it – decline to laugh, refuse to pass the story on. Include the person being left out, and when you can, call it out, kindly and confidently.
That's not being nice. Niceness is passive. This is kindness – the courageous kind. It's active and it’s strong. It's how a community decides what it will and won't tolerate, one individual at a time.
Eumundi is the kind of place where people look out for each other. We are a certified Kind Community. Relational aggression thrives when it’s left to germinate. It withers when people choose not to tolerate it.
To read more on relational aggression visit: choosethetude.com/resources.