When we hosted the Conflict Resolution Workshop for the Infinite Love community back on March 7, the coronavirus threat was just starting to sink in for many of us. The world has changed in many ways since then (has it only been three weeks??), but, fortunately, the ideas and exercises we shared in the workshop are just as useful and perhaps even more necessary now as we all adapt to major changes in our lives.
Some of us might be more isolated than before, while others might suddenly be sharing space with many more people. Our relationships with our friends, family, partners, and colleagues are all likely very different from what they were just a few weeks ago. There’s so much uncertainty that it can be scary. It might feel like everything is out of our control.
But as we said during the workshop (and it’s still true!), we have incredible power over our own well-being and our relationship to ourselves and others. It’s almost like magic when we’re able to use mindfulness, compassion, and Nonviolent Communication to understand ourselves and those around us, and Sunaina and I did our best to explore how that process can work in the workshop. We hope the below recording can be useful to those who weren’t able to attend, and perhaps to those who did participate but would like to review everything with fresh eyes and ears.
We highly recommend trying out the Empathy Dive exercise (1:20:00 in the video) as an effective method to deal with the anxiety that so many of us are facing these days. One tip is that the sentence that you start with can be something that you say to yourself that might make you scared, angry, or anxious. Complete the exercise using these feelings and needs sheets and you’ll be able to see what you need more of right now. And with that information, you’ll hold the keys to your own well-being.
We received some questions and requests for more information at the end of the workshop. Here is a list of books and other resources that we think are useful in the best of times and doubly so in challenging times. If you have any other recommendations or requests, please let us know and we’ll do our best to support you.
Stay safe, healthy, and well!
–Matt and Sunaina
Helpful Guides for Growth and Peace
Seeing the World Through Feelings and Needs
- The Happy Wanderers (our podcast!)
- Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships (Book)
- Choosing Peace: New Ways to Communicate to Reduce Stress, Create Connection, and Resolve Conflict (Book)
Parenting
- The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children (Book)
- Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids: 7 Keys to Turn Family Conflict into Cooperation (Book)
Self-Compassion
Other
Photo by Ryan Hutton on Unsplash
