Fear of conflict goes deep for many of us, especially for sensitive introverts.
Imagine a situation where you did experience conflict. It might have been with a boss, a critical colleague or teacher, a parent, a friend, an intimate partner.
Notice that with all of these, at least one other person had to be present for the possibility of conflict. And likely, it’s a person who didn’t share your point of view about something important.
Take yourself back to that situation for a few moments, in your mind’s eye.
How did you feel? What did you do? What were your thoughts?
For many people who avoid conflict, the underlying reason is they fear the other’s anger, rage or even just their irritation.
Is this you?
Your thoughts might be something like “This person does not like what I have to say…..” or even “This person will explode if I say what I really want so I’m going to have to keep quiet and keep the peace!”
Those thoughts might be so fleeting and automatic, in fact, that you're possibly not even aware of them...
And GULP, you swallow down what you truly wanted to say because you don’t want to invoke those angry feelings in them. Because they might direct it at you, and scream and shout, make big, angry gestures, and get a red face, and hurt you with words.
What happens in our body and brain as soon as we’re faced with that?
