Picture: Don Miguel Ruiz “The Four Agreements” It’s not always easy to be full of festive cheer when tense feelings lurk beneath the Christmas tree. Family gatherings can trigger old dynamics and emotions even when we feel we’ve personally resolved them. By responding differently, we can break patterns and turn a problem into an opportunity for understanding […]
Bully; Arrogant; Loser; Taker Narcissist; Bi-polar; Victim, Addict “Middle-class”; “Working-class”; “Posh” *&%@! (Offensive words based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and gender) “Terrorist Sympathiser”; “Terrorist” . . . They are all labels; used disparagingly, and frequently, in all areas life. They stigmatise, exclude, polarise, pigeonhole and stereotype. Labels exist, and will continue to exist – […]
I’ve been reading Arnold Mindell’s book “The Deep Democracy of Open Forums” and in it he mentions that clapping can be used to support one speaker in favour of another – a ‘point-scoring’ system if you like. So I started thinking about ‘clapping’ – as you do…! As a society we regard clapping to be an […]
One’s relationship to silence is very personal. One may feel comfortable or uncomfortable with it. There are those who feel the need to fill the empty spaces with words and those who are happy for silence to fall naturally. Silence can bond or divide. It can be a pause, a breath one takes in a […]
“Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future” Paul Boese Forgiveness means letting go of resentment and retaliation by recognizing that perpetuating the conflict only hurts us more. While an authentic apology can be effective in restoring interpersonal relations, forgiveness goes one step further; it enables healing and allows each person […]
An apology is often regarded as providing closure to a conflict situation. But how it’s done and the reasons for giving it can either bring about resolution or further resentment. So what constitutes an authentic apology and why? And how can it be delivered effectively? One’s definition of an apology, like one’s attitude to conflict, […]
Self-esteem is a determining factor in all communication, as core personal beliefs can come into play with or without our conscious knowledge. When they do, we may feel like we’ve lost our ‘centre’ and be quick to react to what is happening. These beliefs are assumptions we have made about ourselves, others and life in general […]
