HEALTH AND WELLBEING.

Dark and Light.           Contemplations on Conflict. 

Life is a paradox and none maybe greater than the notion that conflict, the internal and the non violent contentions we experience in the everyday can be an avenue to growth. “We contain multitudes” stated Walt Witman, as people we are complex and multidimensional.

Inevitably our layers and complexities collide leading us into personal struggle and ambivalence. Such internal tensions maybe heightened when we encounter influences and ideas in our relationships and culture that oppose our own. The root of dissension can be varied, a difference of opinion, a quest for power to regain a sense of lost control, the result of hierarchy, a desire to feel validated, attended to, to have a need met, or as a consequence of change and the discourse of life. A symptom of our shifting values, expectations and life situations.

A lack of harmony within ones environment can feel melancholic and paralyse. Naturally we maybe motivated to seek resolution to the conflicts that beleaguer us, to restore balance, heal hurt or avoid it. Yet psychologist Carl Rogers poignantly reminds us that there is much in life that is unresolved.

In a culture occupied by knowing, answers and destinations acknowledging the unknown is fraught with fear. Sometimes the greatest answer comes from the question posed but not unanswered. “Living without conflict is like living without love: cold and, eventually, unbearable”. Says Amanda Ripley in her discussion with Kritsa Trippet for onbeing. Under the pain and in the crevases of discrepancy we may find a space and a vastness that we never knew existed. We maybe shaped as much by our conflicts as we are by our loves, that when accepted and woven into our stories can leave a patina of grace upon us.

16 Nov 2024.

References and Further Reading/ Listening.

Ripley Amanda and Tippet Krista (Host) Feb 2023. Stepping out of "the zombie dance" we're in, and into "good conflict" that is, in fact, life-giving. Onbeing Podcast, Accessed online https://onbeing.org/programs/amanda-ripley-stepping-out-of-the-zombie-dance-were-in-and-into-good-conflict-that-is-in-fact-life-giving/

Popova Maria, A Taste of How It Feels to Be Free: Pioneering Psychoanalyst Karen Horney on Our Inner Conflicts, the Psychology of Hopelessness, and the Path to Wholeness, The Marginalian. Acceded online here.https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/06/07/karen-horney-our-inner-conflicts/

Image Kim Verdebo.