I’m willing to bet that just about all of us have been in a situation in which a conflict presents itself and, as a result of muddled and misconstrued communication, messages were misinterpreted and the conflict became even more pronounced. Things were said, feelings were hurt, and the issue at hand only became more intensified as opposed to being resolved.
Sound familiar? Yeah, me, too.
Grappling with and navigating through conflict can be tricky enough in itself, let alone when unclear communication steps in and comes out to play. It is so, so easy to poorly communicate a message in an argument, likely because we are already worked up over something. Words seem to fail us when our emotions are elevated, especially anger, or, even worse, words can be amplified in the sense that things can come across far harsher and to a more severe extent than we intended when we are upset. Hence why taking a moment to slow things down and collect our thoughts can be incredibly advantageous in the context of conflict.
Just the other day, I got into it with my mom because she assumed something in the argument we were having without providing me with the opportunity to explain to her why I was so angry about this particular situation. This gap in communication ended up provoking our argument into something much larger than it needed to be, and easily could have been avoided in retrospect.
While it can be difficult in the moment, it really is so important to give clear communication when dealing with conflict. A lot of chaos, confusion and anger can remain unprovoked in doing so, and in addition to likely benefitting the person you are arguing with by using strong communication, you will probably thank yourself in the long run, too.
ontheedgeofeverything 