How to avoid fights and avoid physical confrontations - Guide to Diffusing Conflict

The first step you can take towards avoiding fights and physical confrontations is to know yourself. Get to know you. For example, do you know how easily you get provoked? How much can you take without responding in kind? Study yourself and your past reactions to incidents.

Having thus gained an in-depth knowledge of how you've behaved in specific instances in the past, you can now begin to tackle such instances in the future.

For a fight or physical confrontation to ensue, you need both sides to participate. Obviously, you can't control what the other person does. That's up to him/her. What you can control is your reaction. You can, for example, make a conscious decision to not respond to the insinuations or accusations leveled at you. If however you feel you need to respond, do so curtly and firmly without being verbose. Leave it at that. Don't be tempted to respond to each and every comment of the instigator. Doing so would invariably draw you into a more-and-more heated conversation, which may quite possibly lead to a physical confrontation.

So, the idea here is to nip a possible confrontation in the bud. Don't let it get to that stage in the first place and you have no fight. Some people find it difficult NOT to respond to any accusations or provocative language. My advice to them would be to mentally repeat a phrase or setence such as "I will not dignify those comments with a response, I will not, I will not......" Or, try counting down numbers or anything else that would redirect your mind.

Ignoring an individual who wants to fight works like a charm. They invariably feel stupid after a while of ranting and raving. They might even apologize to you once that realization dawns on them. Try it out!!!!