CONFLICT: Disaster or opportunity?
Conflict is a malady that afflicts the whole world in one way or another. It foster isolation, fragmentation, starvation, disconnection with our Higher Being, and ultimately, is slowly eating the very foundation of our existence: Our beautiful planet. You may be despairing listening about “Global Warming”, “De-forestation”, “Pollution”, “Exploitation”, “Mass killing”, “Terrorism”… You may be wondering about ways of ending so much suffering and restoring balance and harmony… and yet…the answer to all these lies within ourselves.
Being aware of our emotions, understanding their reason, and attending to them, provides us with a new capacity to integrate the parts that are hidden from us, and more of the time, suppressed. When we listen inwardly we are making room for every part of us to manifest its purpose with life; we are inviting wholeness to dance, balance to prevail. This new capacity summed to the conscious choice of change through being in touch with powerful tools as new techniques and strategies to approach conflict, affects the way in which we see ourselves and others in a much more positive way.
I have found that the secret is a simple and yet paramount shift in perception from seeing conflict as something to be fixed, to seeing conflict as an amazing opportunity for growth. I have been brought to believe that conflict is a bad word; something to be avoided because it separate, kill and fragment. But what is conflict is not an end but the very beginning? Wasn’t from chaos that the world was created? Wasn’t the light born from the very darkness?
Trusting a counselling session process seems sometimes, like being in a chaotic endless silence or the witnessing of a frantic explosion of ideas, concepts and judgments containing a magnum of feelings. And this may be sometimes all what we need at the moment: And we need to listen. And we need to validate our experience. When we listen and validate our experience without labeling or judging, we feel safe to move to unknown zones, where our thirsty soul is waiting for healing. For this to happen, we need to let go of our own expectations and walk just one step behind of our experience.
From all I have learned in my life and practice, my deepest understanding is that conflict resolution begins with our acceptance that the conflict or problem presented is the start point of a road that leads to betterment, and that “we all have the resources to manage our lives more effectively”, and that is our job as therapists “to help clients to identify, free, and cultivate these resources” (Egan, 2002).
Maria M Lopez-Bravo
Counsellor- Coach- Reiki Master
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Egan, G. (2002) The Skilled Helper (7th edn) Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole
The healing power of Essential Oils
Is it there any possibility to get upset when we are absorbed in nature; to avoid bliss when watching a crab apple tree flourishing; or to escape peacefulness when staring at the infinite blue deepness of the sky in January? This is not possible because the moment we are present ‘in nature’ we have surrendered to Who we really are. We are back home.
Unfortunately our busy and stressful life is keeping us away and many times disconnected from our source in a self-generating turbulence that demands more gratification in order to forget and hide better our dis-connection. All the maladies of our days are only but just symptoms of this dis-ease, and manifest in our constant uneasiness, worries about the future, inability to let go of the past, the sense of never being good enough, and the constant need for recognition.
This constant need for recognition is the result of our forgetfulness about Who we are. And when nature captives us in the naked splendor of sacredness, all what we experience is our wholeness.
The good news is Essential Oils are one of the great untapped natural resources of our beautiful world. They provide natural help that can prevent illness and alleviate symptom while they whisper in our ears the sweet melodies of our divine origin.
Plants in general are chemical factories. They inhabit the interface between light and dark, sun and earth, drawing energy from each and synthesizing this into molecules of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. These are the ‘crude fuels’ which we and other animals break down to produce ATP (adenosime triphospate), our ‘high-grade fuel’. But essential oils are the high-grade fuel of plants, and by taking them into our body we ingest the best of goodness plants have to offer.
By taking essential oils into our lives we find a way to provide our people and home with the protection and pleasure they need without polluting ourselves or our environment with chemicals.
One of the most satisfactory aspects of using essential oils medicinally and cosmetically is that they enter and leave with great efficiency, leaving no toxins behind as chemical drugs do. The most effective way to use essential oils is not orally, but by external application or inhalation.