It's Time to Open Our Hearts

Lately, I've been talking a lot about trust, because for me, it is at the heart of healthy relationships and a fulfilling life.

This week I'd like to talk about conflict.

Many of the same skills that we use to be trustworthy and to build healthy, sustainable relationships are the same ones that we need to resolve conflict.

Skills like…

• Being self-aware.
• Taking good care of your mental, emotional and physical well-being.
• Being able to listen deeply, openly, and profoundly to others and their experiences in the world even when they are very different than your own.
• Being able to speak up for your own needs, thoughts, and feelings.
• And, being able to engage respectfully with other people– especially through our differences.

To do this, we must listen more than we speak, and look for creative solutions to the most difficult of our problems.

Trust, healthy relationships, our well-being, and our ability to resolve the most difficult and deeply entrenched conflicts all stem from the same source. 

We need these skills and we need them now!

So, this week I ask you to please:

• Connect with yourself and give yourself empathy, so that you can pass it along to others.
• Listen (for real) to someone with a different point of view than your own.
• Work to resolve small conflicts and problems, so that you can bring those skills to the larger, more difficult, and seemingly intractable conflicts that surround us. 

Gandhi's words have never been more important…

Be the change that you want to see in the world.

If you want to see people being able to resolve very difficult, very complex conflicts, start with yourself.

Start by looking inward, and then reaching out to connect with others. 

Resolving conflicts, building trust, and building healthy relationships – are the skills we need. 

These are the things that are going to mend our families, our communities, and our workplaces.

We need to model these skills and bring them into every relationship.

So this week, think deeply about what you can do to be part of the solution.

Do what you can to mend relationships, build connections, listen to others, and solve problems creatively.