Confrontation or Communication

March 28, 2013

As a Life Strategies Coach, I work with clients to clean up the clutter in their lives, literally and figuratively.  The “literal clutter” cleanup is easy: figure out your goals, come up with a systematic and achievable plan, get organized, and go for it!  Clearing away the “figurative” mind and emotional clutter takes a bit more work. This type of clutter is usually the result of feelings not shared with a spouse, friend, co-worker, or family member.  Holding on to these hurt, angry, frustrated, or confused feelings often results in low self-esteem, self-doubt, reluctance to take action, and even physical illness or pain.

The typical reason that most of us do not vent these vitriolic emotions is due to  fear of the dreaded . . . confrontation.  What’s so bad about confrontation?  Isn’t it, after all, simply communication?  Communication: good.  Confrontation: bad!  (Said the grunting monster.)

The problem is that most of us associate confrontation with aggression, anger, attack, sometimes even violence.  According to the dictionary, the root of confrontation – confront – means: “to face in hostility or defiance, to oppose.”  This is clearly what most of us wish to avoid.  But it also states the following: “to stand in front of or meet facing; to present for acknowledgment.”  That doesn’t sound so bad, to present for acknowledgment.  To present your feelings so that they can be acknowledged.  Surely that is the real core response we all seek, when “confronting.”  An acknowledgment of our feelings.  If you think hard about it, you’ll admit an appreciation of our feelings is far more important than who was right and who was wrong.  (Do not forget, that there are two sides to every story, and the truth is somewhere in the middle!)

But where we get stuck when trying to communicate our feelings – where it turns into the negative aspects of a confrontation – is in our delivery and our recipient’s response.  With attention spans so short, and everything else moving so fast in our society (from food to entertainment to cars), is it any wonder that we are predisposed to offensive and defensive modes of communication?  Throw your words out there…feel attacked…respond defensively with an assault (or insult).  Rapid fire words to hit where they hurt, then duck and cover.  Muscles tighten, the body fills with tension.

That’s how I perceive many attempts at communication where hurt or frustrated feelings are concerned.  This is not communication, it is confrontation in the “face in hostility or defiance” definition.   I, too, would do all I could to avoid confrontations if that is how it would always result.

But what would happen if we all changed our delivery when a confrontation was needed?  If we calmly articulated the facts of how we feel (for the facts about how you feel cannot be disputed), and did so from a perspective of understanding that the other person may well have felt their own levels of hurt or frustration.

We must let go of the battle over which came first (the proverbial chicken or the egg), and just acknowledge that both parties used poor communication or thoughtless actions.  Promise to do our best to think before we speak or act in the future, and more importantly, acknowledge the other’s feelings in this situation.

Confrontation would loose its intimidating factor if it were nothing more than an intense communication between parties in which they stated their feelings, acknowledged each other, and moved on with a new awareness.

So if you have been avoiding confronting someone (in the old negative definition), try this new approach.  You have nothing to lose, and plenty to gain.  I can feel my muscles just relaxing thinking about it.  How about you?

Written by lifefitnessbydane Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with communciation, Communication, confrontation, Confrontation Clause, Emotion, Frustration, health, relationships, Self-esteem, Self-Help, self-improvement, Social Sciences