The concept of conflict and personal growth might be an uncomfortable journey to endure. However, it might be one of the most rewarding ones you are yet to discover.
In life, we all have our fair share of conflict. Whether it be at work or home. The arrival of conflict in our lives, in reality, can have a lasting and detrimental effect both consciously and subconsciously. The long-lasting shadows of past conflicts can leave deep scars. When scratched with new conflicting situations, they can cause explosive and sometimes even debilitating reactions.
When you find yourself in a conflict situation, what is your natural response? Do you run? Do you dig in your heels and fight?
Your instinctive responses to conflict when it arises is merely the learned behaviour of social and cultural conditioning. Your parents begin the lessons early. From a young age, we are observing everything. From our parent’s behaviours towards one another to their interactions with us, conflict is continuously on display. These interactions expand as we go to school and never end as we continue to grow up. The culmination of conditioning ultimately teaches us how to deal with conflict in every part of life. Our lives are full of potential opportunities for conflict, literally, everywhere we go.
How we respond to conflict situations is where all our power exists. Yet we frequently choose to give that power away and become trapped in a spiral of emotional triggers relating to the conflict. When in reality, the conflict is merely an opportunity to learn and grow beyond it.
When conflict arrives in your life, do you choose to grow?
Newspapers, tv and social media fill our auditory and visionary senses with conflict on a constant loop. So unless you were brought up in the middle of the jungle, with no internet it is almost impossible to escape the technology era completely.
You can change it all at any time! You can change how you interact with social media, change your mind, change your ideas, change your position, change the way you look at life and change your attitude. These things are all within your power of control.
The potential for change could be hidden right in the middle of the conflict itself. Go figure! Could the conflict that repetitively comes up in your life, be showing up as a gift you just haven’t recognised?
A gift you say! No, I’m not crazy. Consider that a gift is sometimes as simple as an opportunity. Conflict in your life brings you opportunities to assess where you are, consider where you want to be and adjust your trajectory to get there. So the conflict may, at the time, seem like an annoying obstacle in the way. When in fact, it could very well be the exact re-direction signpost you need.
Today I see conflict as an opportunity to grow beyond my current position. When conflict arises, I stop and lean in to discover the seed of opportunity, that may exist within the moment. Sometimes, just like I do, you will miss the mark. Yet, sometimes you will hit the jackpot. Growth is always worth the investment in ourselves, no matter the outcome.
We are all human, sometimes we see opportunity, and sometimes we don’t. Developing awareness is the first step. When you learn to see the conflict that comes into your life as an opportunity to grow, life can flourish in many ways. All you need to do is start with a pinch of courage, coupled with a dose of curiosity.
If you would like to know more about how redefining your relationship with conflict can help you grow. Reach out for a FREE mindfulness discovery session today.
Tomorrow’s you is determined by how you show up today.
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