When someone comes at you to attack you with words and you respond immediately you have a great comeback. You might have even won the argument, but you did loose something, you’ve shown them exactly how to get to you. But when someone attacks you and you say nothing, everything shifts. Silence in the right moment, is the most destabilizing response you can give. Because the human brain is wired to expect reaction. When someone attacks and throws a verbal punch and it hits air, it creates a psychological reaction that they do not know what to do with it. They expected resistance and got nothing. That silence starts to work on them in ways words could never do. The uncertainty eats at them. The not knowing is genuinely torturous for someone who wanted to get a reaction from you. Meanwhile you moved on with your life.