The Best Way To Respond To Conflict

What is the most beneficial way to respond to conflict? There are multiple different ways to react during the time of a struggle. Many may assume that hard work, or even fighting back is the most efficient way to respond. But with these reactions to conflict, there could be downsides and it can affect others in a negative way, unlike positivity. The best response to conflict is keeping a positive attitude, even in the worst times of suffering. As this can have a better effect on not only your physical and mental health, but also on those around you.

Keeping a hopeful attitude whilst in the middle of conflict can help avoid major illnesses and have beneficial effects on both your physical and mental health. According to “How Your Attitudes

For instance, in Dear Miss Breed, a young girl, Louise Ogawa is brought to a Japanese Internment camp. Though she lives in difficult conditions with excessive heat and limited space, she finds the small things in her new life enjoyable, keeping her mind occupied from how miserable her life really is. For example, Louise writes, “They provide just the knife and cups +plates and, of course, food. Yesterday I ate rice, weenies, and cabbage with a knife. That was a new experience for me! You never realize how valuable a thing is until you experience it. The dining rooms are very small here because there is one to each block” (Oppenheim). In another story, “Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl”, Anne Frank and her family are forced to into hiding because of the recent attacks from Nazi’s in Germany. Anne writes, “I don't think I'll ever feel at home in this house, but that doesn't mean I hate it. It's more like being on vacation in some strange pension...The Annex is an ideal place to hide in. It may be damp and lopsided, but there's probably not a more comfortable hiding place in all of Amsterdam” (Frank). The girl sees her new home as something better than it is, she’s trying to picture it so maybe it won’t seem so depressing, knowing that she will have to continue to live there for an extended period of time. She looks at everything in a different angle than most

In fact, Psychologist Shilagh Mirgain states, “‘How an individual feels can ripple through his or her social groups and actually influence how the group feels in general,” she says. “In some ways, our emotional states are like a virus – we can spread the positive and negative experience to those around us, even with strangers’” (UW Health). This can have a good response from others if the person is acting in a positive way. She compares this to the ripple effect because certain emotions in a person can travel through other people in a group, making them feel a similar way. For instance, this effect is shown to have an even greater impact when a person is having negative feelings. A bad relationship is actually proven to have a 4 to 7 time larger impact on a person than a positive and healthy relationship (UW Health). Having pessimistic thoughts, especially during a time of struggle, could come with the risk of the conflict growing into something bigger. In addition, “She points to research done over a period of time that found the happiness of an individual extends up to three degrees of separation (that is - our level of happiness impacts the happiness levels of the friends of our friends’ friends.) Similarly if you have a friend, relative or neighbor who lives within a mile and becomes happy, this increases the probability that you will be