When things are important to me (a relationship, an idea, the physical and emotional well being of myself and my family) I'm not shy about getting into a confrontation. There's been a lot of conflict in my life where there was no resolution, or things were left with this horrible dark feeling, so each time I engage in conflict it's very stressful. It's a sort of twisted circle where I always thought conflict resolution was a very weak point of mine, so it caused stress, and the stress made me think it was a weak point. Shawn and I sort things out, but we know each other so well (intuitively as well as because of the amount of time we've been together) that conflict is relatively simple.

But lately I've had a lot of experiences of getting into very passionate, emotional arguments, and yet them ending in very positive ways (even to the point of being complimented for the way things went by observers). The more this happens the more I see that I'm actually quite good at conflict resolution when the person(s) on the other side of the fence is(are) actually interested in it rather than just viciously acting out or having some other ulterior motive.

There are always going to be times when there's just a communication block - I even have these with Shawn and my best friend from time to time, but I'm learning a lot these days about my strengths and weaknesses that I just never would've figured, and getting less and less upset by necessary conflict as it goes along.