Thank you for asking this question. It offers an opportunity to clarify (and emphasize) a couple of ideas that have been floating around these parts a bit nebulously.

There are two approaches to consciously manifesting your life. Neither is better or worse than the other.

1. Generate enormous desire within yourself - get unhappy if you want, as you suggest - then use the desire-power within that unhappiness to springboard yourself fast to what you want. Your manifestations come in powerfully and forcefully this way.
   
   

2. Keep in a generally good-feeling place - align regularly (preferably daily) with your "Vortex". Your manifestations come in gently and easily this way.

These approaches are explained more in How to increase density of desire for some thing to manifest it easily ?

Whichever way you prefer really comes down to your personality and whims in the moment...how much thrill and challenge you like in your life :)

Most of the time I like the gentle, easy way but also, quite often, I get bored by that (at some level) and generate some drama in my life , need to put in some "dramatic" vibrational molding effort to deal with it, and then get a big-feeling "win" that way instead :)

Bear in mind though that you can only briefly get the big-feeling that comes along with that win because of The Next Logical Step principle.

Along with these two approaches to life, there are also two approaches to getting feedback for aligning with your physical manifestations.

1. Treat your emotions as the final manifestation instead of the physical manifestation itself. This has the bonus of making it easy to deal with manifestation killers.
   
   
2. Look around you at what has already manifested in your life and then reverse-engineer what beliefs you must be holding, and are no longer aware you are holding (see the leather shoes analogy), in order to be receiving physically what you are currently receiving.

In this case, the first approach here is much easier because our physically-based ideas about reality tell us it is more difficult to change something has happened physically than to change something that has happened emotionally.

The truth is that it is just as easy to change either but the physical catches the attention of our physical senses more so we start (automatically) using our "power of physical observation" to lock the physical thing in place, regardless of whether we want it or not.

However the second approach, of having something "bad" happen physically first and then overcoming it, will give your Ego a good day-out :)

This is because it will win you medals for your heroic-overcoming deeds, get praise from much of (resistant) humanity for your perseverance and stoicism, and enable you to sell lots of copies of your autobiography as people try to emulate your clearly-working (but unnecessarily difficult) approach to living :)

I've yet to see anyone receive a medal for just generally feeling-good and quietly living a happy, abundant, healthy life :)

or the arrogance of human
dominance brings us to this
century with body counts
headlines in the daily news

who awards the medals

up and down. you say that manifesting negative stuff get you positive stuff. in fact it does not. think about a roller coaster it go up hill then down hill up hill then down hill over and over until it stop.

the fact that you are at the bottom of the hill does not make it sure for you that you will climb the hill.

also in this world you do not need to look for trouble it usely comes to you.

think about it this way the physical is secondary before anything happens on the outside you need to decide what to do. then you act on it and the outside change then you say I did not want this, where did I go wrong. well you missed something somewhere in or out before making your choice. any how it gave the result it did.

you say: Without conflict, personal wars and pain, I feel I would not grow at all. In other words, life would be very boring.

yet people are often in conflict even when it is not wanted or needed. first with them self then with other and yet many cannot accept it. they want to be praise not blamed. and they blame other for their own error to be praise to satisfy their ego. to show how good they are. and they do to other what they do not like being done to them self.

one day they will become aware of this and will start moving from their ignorance and darkness. many are not ready and very fee are ready.