The Importance of Healthy Dialogue Amidst Conflict

The curtains have come down on the Conscious Conversations Podcast. It’s been a great journey over the last three years and we created some wonderful conversations that will continue to spread the ripples of consciousness! 

That said, the transition has been a disaster and I want to use this post to both acknowledge the work and highlight how we can grow collectively. 

Personally I have grown in many ways through this experience and through our many wonderful guests which I’m forever grateful for. Some of my favorite conversations with Lauri Smith, Gary Mahler, Billy Mandarino, Tommy Rosen, Swami Sarvapriyananda, Cyrus Khambatta, Cale Owen, Dr Kelly Starret, Rod Stryker and Darren Main will always stay with me and with many of you who have listened in. 

These conversations have helped elevate our collective consciousness! 

It’s also a sad ending. My partner and I had differing viewpoints on how to move forward. Instead of meeting face to face and reconciling, he chose to react solely over text messages which led to misunderstanding and not being able to discuss our differences.

As I write this, Conscious Conversations Podcast has been forcefully taken over by him without my agreement or consent,  just because he owns the accounts. I’ve lost access to all work we did together - all documents, recordings, intellectual property and my name has been erased from the podcast - without my consent. 

As I’ve slowly witnessed my work being wiped away over the last week, periods of grief have set into my body as if a part of me had been cut off. I never thought such a thing would ever happen with a person I deeply respected. I'm deeply hurt; most importantly because I’ve also lost a good friend.

None of this had to occur had we actually treated this transition as a process and reconciled our differences. You would think that of all people, we would have been able to have a CONSCIOUS conversation about this. 

And this is what is prompting me to talk about this publicly. If the two of us couldn’t even discuss our differences, then who can? Where is the hope for humanity?  But despite my best efforts, it didn’t happen. Turns out, it’s much easier to talk about being a conscious being on a show and much harder to actually live like one. 

My story is yet another story of our times where those with power and control of systems overrun those without. A story that is playing out in our society today in many ways. The enactment of this story is tearing our society apart. We can not run people over simply because we have the ability. 

We must grow up and learn to listen and reconcile our differences; most importantly when we disagree. 

We must recognize our common humanity in each other and that we’re all moving through a process called life with many common desires. 

We need to learn to disagree by honoring the disagreement as opportunities for growth and greater understanding without becoming disagreeable. 

So here’s some questions I’d ask for our collective growth - 

-When have you turned against someone simply because of an idea or a difference in opinion? 

-Did you try to understand why they believe differently than you without judgment? 

-What did you learn from that? 

-Did you allow that learning to soften your stance and find common ground? 

As much as my heart is hurting over what has happened without my consent, I wish him success in his journey ahead. 

If I can use this opportunity to bring more consciousness to our ability to stay in healthy dialogue when confronted with conflict, it would have served its purpose. Thanks for reading and allowing my story to further our collective growth. 

-Nitin