"The Antagonist In Our Lives"

I think one of the most confusing relationships in life is the one with an Antagonist. These people either show up when we least expect it, or they have been there all our lives as a family member. When we take the time to actually evaluate our experiences with them it is easy to see the relationship as rather a large nuisance especially when we are in a position where these encounters create chaos, and brings out our personal fears.

These kind of relationships can become quite difficult as we find ourselves scrambling to use coping skills that may, or may not work, or even be in our best interests influenced by triggers from past emotional traumas opening up our basic instincts of fight, or flight. Then without an understanding of what is happening to us we face these encounters as blocks within ourselves giving us a feeling of being stuck causing us to have feelings of being out of control, helpless, or even hostel. To complicate matters if we don't learn how to heal our emotional wounds from these interactions with our Antagonist physical illnesses have an opportunity to set into the body as fear, or obsessiveness places untimely stress on our whole well being.

On the flip side to this relationship the antagonist can actually be a blessing because when we take the time to look back on past experiences with them we are able to see that these people not only create a large impact on us, but also help us identify how we define ourselves by our interactions with them. They are the teachers in our lives that reflect those parts of ourselves that make us uncomfortable. When we have an understanding of this we know that when the antagonist shows up they give us an opportunity to learn how to maneuver through our own life lessons by the choices we make when we are with them.

It is through these encounters that we can grow as we learn about our own fears so that they become less, and less of a threat that push us off balance. Once we establish this we see that the relationship is bittersweet as we still want to proceed with some caution while recognizing that we have the choice to either be destroyed by our experiences with our antagonist, or to learn how to step into our own personal power so that we can take control of our own lives.

Photographs by Ana