Dealing with Conflict & Emotional Reactivity

One of the goals of  conflict inside your relationship, according the Gottman Method Couples Therapy is to have a greater understanding of your partner. 

Conflict can be an opportunity to create something called a Love Map where use conflict to map out your understanding your partner’s position. Conflict can then help you build out this map of understanding how they really think and feel. 

The problem with conflict is that two out of three conflicts will not be resolved. This gives you lots of opportunities to build out your Love Maps and to see conflict as an opportunity for greater understanding of your partner. 

Ya, right, I’ll get right on that…

In the heat of conflict, differences in opinions cause emotional reactivity. Instead of focus on understanding, we try to defend our position, influence our partner, trying to somehow change their position, even though we won’t budge on ours. 

The problem with conflict is if you’ve been experiencing emotional reactivity to a recurring conflict or have generalized all conflicts into one monster relationship conflict, your brain has created physical pathways of neurons in response to your fixed way of being in this conflict and your emotional response to it.  

When the conflict was first starting to emerge, you might have been able to have a level-headed conversation about it but over time, it created a pattern of conflict and emotional reactivity. 

Now the pathway in your brain has become a deep ditch and it’s easy to fall into emotional reactivity as your brain now detects the slightest disagreement and response with heightened emotional reactivity. 

This emotional reactivity makes it extremely difficult to validate your partner’s position to build a #$@ Love Map in reality (even though theoretically it sounds like a great idea) 

If you have had persistent conflict, it is most likely the case that it can’t be resolved at the conscious level. It needs help from the subconscious mind with all its resources and solutions so you can resolve the conflict, the upset, resentment, and disconnect.

Accelerated Hypnosis can help reset your emotional reactivity, it starts filling in the ditches so you are standing on level ground and flattens your emotional reactivity.

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