Co-creating Peace

Welcome to “Let’s Restart!”, Episode #75 of Co-creating Peace, a podcast series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.  I’m Kathleen Oweegon.

One of the biggest and most frustrating obstacles to resolving conflict, or even resolving our feelings about a conflict we’ve had, is when the other person won’t participate in the effort to resolve. Joining me to offer a solution to that dilemma is Louis Bourgarel, with a method of unilateral conflict resolution that he calls “Restart”.

Louis Bourgarel is a "Relationship Mechanic" who helps managers and executives facing a high impact conflict with a key person or business partner, to rebuild a more fluid and sincere relationship.

Louis created and teaches a method named "Restart", to give new hope to anyone who is facing conflict with someone who refuses to participate in co-creating positive resolution to the conflict.

Louis has 25 years experience as a manager, a management consultant, and a conflict management consultant.

He has French-speaking and English-speaking clients around the globe.

To contact Louis for a consultation to discover possible approaches to resolving a workplace conflict in your life, visit: www.louisbourgarel.com/contact. To read his website in English, go to: translate.google.com, then enter his website address: www.louisbourgarel.com.

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to “Pivoting Toward Inner Peace”, Episode #74 of Co-creating Peace, a series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.  

There are times in our lives when we recognize that we aren’t thriving. Nothing seems to be in sync. We experience inner friction and outer friction, and no sense of real peace. In this episode, Sarah Kalmeta and I have a conversation about ways to move through and out of this difficult place in our life by pivoting into a new direction, one that is fulfilling, and in which we feel inner peace.

Sarah Kalmeta, aka Sarah the Pivoter, is a Success and Mindset coach that helps the insatiably curious become their own success story without saying yes to everything using personal passion clarity techniques backed by neuroscience. She is the founder of Pivot Point. To learn more about Sarah and Pivot Point, visit her website: sarahkalmeta.com

 Please support Co-creating Peace by:

• Subscribing to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Sending me your ideas for topics and guests, or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching.
• Sharing on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to “Everyone is Someone Else’s ‘Other’”, Episode #73 of Co-creating Peace, a podcast series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.  

Lara Khouri joins me from Dubai to share her insights about being seen as “the other”, some approaches to working with that experience, and approaches to working with conflict.

Lara is a self-professed serial expat. Born in London, she grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, moved to Lebanon when she was 14 after the end of the Lebanese civil war, lived in London for a few years when she was in university, and has lived in Dubai since 2004.

Although she identifies very strongly with her Palestinian roots, home is a fluid concept for Lara who feels like she belongs everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Growing up surrounded by difference – by people from different cultures with different languages, accents, traditions – being different, not of the place she lived, and being reminded of that every day, Lara developed a deep, soul-filling understanding of what it feels like to be the "other" along with an ability that has become so second nature it's instinctive, to put herself in other people's positions and view situations from their perspective.

This understanding is what eventually forcefully pushed her to do embrace her ikigai (or reason for being) and do something very scary: quit her corporate career with blue-chip multinationals and live the life of a solopreneur on a mission to make our world a happier place. Lara consults and trains on customer experience, employee experience, and corporate culture change from a place of understanding that it is possible for everyone to be happy as long as we take the time and accept the responsibility of understanding what makes us who we are and what makes others who they are.

Among other things, Lara is:
-       a founding member of the global Women in CXTM community and community leader for the Women in CXTM Arabia chapter
-       a certified Co-Active® Coach
-       and a mentor with Regent's University London.

Lara welcomes everyone to connect with her on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/larakhouri) and see the potential of our world through her eyes at thereisnospoon.consulting.

Please support Co-creating Peace by:

• Subscribing to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Sending me your ideas for topics and guests, or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching.
• Sharing on social media & Tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace 

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to Part 2 of “The Practice and Practicality of Mindfulness”, Episode #72 of Co-creating Peace, a podcast series about conscious communication and conflict transformation. 

Last week, in Part 1, I spoke with Andrew Safer, founder of Safer Mindfulness Inc. He walked us through a brief mindfulness exercise, and shared some insights into the practice of mindfulness, and additional ways that mindfulness can benefit our lives.

Today, Andrew and I will pick up our conversation where we left off last week. At that point, we were talking how to approach our anxiety from a mindful perspective. Andrew will tell us more about the practice of mindfulness, including how we can apply mindfulness when we are experiencing difficult emotions, in times of crisis, and even as a tool for suicide prevention.  He will also talk about mindful listening and describe a mindful listening exercise for which he designed a mindful listening worksheet which you can find at: safermindfulness.com/mindful-listening.

Before I continue my conversation with Andrew, I will take you through a brief mindfulness exercise that I wrote for my Conscious Leadership class, which I call “Opening the Present”. The title of this exercise was inspired by a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, which says: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” This exercise is designed to bring our awareness to the moment we are in, and to what we want to create in the coming moments. You will find it useful to bring mindfulness to your approach to a situation about which you are feeling tension, fear or anxiety, such as a difficult conversation or a conflict. During this exercise, there will be periods of silence. There’s nothing wrong with the recording, it’s simply for the purpose of the exercise. If you would like an audio clip or a copy of the text of this exercise, contact me via my website: bridgesofpeace.com 

Andrew Safer is a mindfulness instructor and trainer, program developer, workshop facilitator, and author. Andrew began practicing mindfulness in the Zen tradition 53 years ago, and pivoted to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition after meeting the meditation master cho·gee·uhm truhng·puh (Chogyam Trungpa). From his home in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, he specializes in developing and implementing applied mindfulness programs for mental health and addictions, and for the workplace. Andrew is offering a complimentary 30-minute mindfulness instruction session to listeners of this podcast. You can harvest this opportunity by going to: safermindfulness.com/podcast-listeners.

Recently, he piloted Suicide Prevention Through Mindfulness Training with Canadian Mental Health Association—Newfoundland and Labrador. His book, Anxiety, Stress & Mindfulness: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Wellness, was published in 2018, and can be found on Amazon. You can learn more about Andrew and his work at www.safermindfulness.com. 

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to Part 1 of “The Practice and Practicality of Mindfulness”, Episode #71 of Co-creating Peace, a podcast series about conscious communication and conflict transformation. 

I've spoken about mindfulness and some of its many applications several times in this podcast – as a tool for conscious communication, conflict prevention, and conflict transformation. 

Andrew Safer, founder of Safer Mindfulness Inc., is with me today to walk us through a brief mindfulness exercise, and share some insights into the practice of mindfulness, and additional ways that mindfulness can benefit our lives. In the conversation you are about to hear, Andrew will take us through a brief mindfulness exercise. During the exercise, there will be periods of silence. There’s nothing wrong with the recording, it’s simply for the purpose of the exercise.

Andrew Safer is a mindfulness instructor and trainer, program developer, workshop facilitator, and author. Andrew began practicing mindfulness in the Zen tradition 53 years ago, and pivoted to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition after meeting the meditation master Chogyam Trungpa. From his home in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, he specializes in developing and implementing applied mindfulness programs for mental health and addictions, and for the workplace. Recently, he piloted Suicide Prevention Through Mindfulness Training with Canadian Mental Health Association—Newfoundland and Labrador. His book, Anxiety, Stress & Mindfulness: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Wellness, was published in 2018, and can be found on Amazon.

Join me next week for Part 2 of “The Practice and Practicality of Mindfulness”, when I will lead you through a short mindfulness exercise that I wrote for my Conscious Leadership class, and Andrew will tell us more about the practice of mindfulness, including mindful listening and how we can use mindfulness practice to support us in times of crisis, and even as a tool for suicide prevention.

In the meantime, you can learn more about Andrew and his work at www.safermindfulness.com. Andrew is offering a complimentary 30-minute mindfulness instruction session to listeners of this podcast. You can harvest this opportunity by going to: safermindfulness.com/podcast-listeners. Andrew has also provided a worksheet on mindful listening, which you can find at: safermindfulness.com/mindful-listening.

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to "The Journey to Co-creating Peace Begins with Inner Peace”, Episode #70 of Co-creating Peace, a  series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.  

Joining me today to talk about the Emotional Freedom Technique, also known as EFT, is Ann Hince, author of the book: A Pathway to Insight. EFT is a simple form of self-administered therapy that can be used to treat a wide variety of physical and psychological imbalances. Ann will tell us about how she used EFT to help her recover from trauma and find inner peace. We’ll also discuss how inner peace leads to peace with others. 

When Ann was 19, she woke one morning to find her mother dead in her bathroom. Twenty years later, the tears from that trauma were still just under the surface. Ann found a simple technique that helped her release these emotions. Ann has found that seeking out our truth, what we truly feel, accepting those feelings and releasing them, is the key to inner peace.

 When we relate to others from that place of inner peace, we will find that co-creating peace with others comes far more easily.

To learn more about Ann’s work and her book, “A Pathway to Insight”, visit her website: https://annhince.com. Her Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/AnnHinceWisdom. Click here for  her YouTube channel .

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to "How to Say What They Don’t Want to Hear”, Episode #69 of Co-creating Peace, a podcast series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.  

This episode is a bit of a change of pace. In today’s episode, I am interviewed by Marta Greca, for her podcast Marta the Minimalist. Marta invited me to be a guest to talk about how to deliver information that the other person may not want to hear. Our focus is primarily on workplace scenarios, but the concepts and tools can be applied in almost any context.

You may recall that Marta was my guest in Episode #59 about “Using Conscious Communication to Attract What You Want in Life”. 

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to “The 7 Steps of Relationship Repair”, Episode #68 of Co-creating Peace, a podcast series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.  

No matter how strong or long-lasting, every relationship hits rough spots or tough times once in awhile. Branch Isole joins us today to talk about some very useful approaches to successfully moving through those experiences to heal, restore harmony, and grow as a result.

Author, storyteller and poet Branch Isole writes about strength of choice to change consequences. He's known worldwide for contemporary short stories that reveal emotions and issues often experienced, but not always voiced. He posts a Thought for Today, short stories and articles on his website: www.branchisole.com and on YouTube. 

As a podcast and talk radio on-air guest Branch shares informative steps to build frameworks that supports career, personal and spiritual growth.  

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to “Connecting Across Divides”, Episode #67 of Co-creating Peace, a series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.  

The 2022 National Week of Conversation takes place April 24-30. It is a week of events and activities that bring people together across differences, and gives people an opportunity to experience dialogue and deliberation. I encourage you to harvest the opportunity to experience Dialogue & Deliberation by participating, You'll find information about how to participate in the National Week of Conversation at the end of these notes.

I feel very strongly about the enlightening and healing power of dialogue, and the amazing potential to co-create a better future that collaborative deliberation brings forth. To help you have a sense of dialogue and deliberation and how it is being used around the country, last week’s episode and today’s are devoted to two innovative and dynamic organizations whose focus is to bring people together for conversation, connection and the opportunity to co-create new and better paths forward. 

Last week, Courtney Breese of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation joined me to talk about how dialogue & deliberation can bridge divides and help people connect with, and better understand, one another as fellow human beings despite different viewpoints and affiliations.

Joining me today to talk about how dialogue and deliberation are being used by groups of young adults across the nation, are two inspiring young women from a dynamic student- student led organization called Civic Synergy.

Civic Synergy is a student-led political depolarization organization bringing together young adults from across the political divide to communicate and collaborate. Over the course of 6 weeks, participants learn and practice conflict resolution skills and develop policy proposals which are presented to U.S. representatives at the end of the program.

Laura Chen, Director of Program Development and Co-founder of Civic Synergy, is a senior at MIT studying chemical engineering and minoring in public policy. She is passionate about tackling sustainability and equity challenges and enhancing public participation. At MIT, she has enjoyed contributing to academic research and being a part of the Varsity Field Hockey team, the Terrascope community, and the MIT Water Club. In the fall, Laura is excited to join the Coro Fellows Program, a leadership and public affairs fellowship.

Claire Kane is a freshman student at Clemson University studying Political Science and Communication. Claire is a first time Civic Synergy participant and seeks to explore more about civil discourse and discussion. Claire is involved on campus with the sorority Gamma Phi Beta, Clemson Club Swimming, and RHA.

There is so much we can learn from one another by simply sitting down together exchanging ideas without trying to change each other’s perspective or opinion, just listening to learn how others see the world and why. I encourage you to harvest the opportunity to experience Dialogue & Deliberation by participating in the National Week of Conversation – a week of events and activities that bring people together across differences. The 2022 National Week of Conversation starts tomorrow, Monday April 24 and ends on April 30. More information is available at https://americatalks.us/national-week-of-conversation/. 

To learn more about Civic Synergy, visit: civicsynergy.live 

To learn more about Living Room Conversations, visit their website at: livingroomconversations.org/

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.

Welcome to “Let’s Talk About It”, Episode #66 of Co-creating Peace, a series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.  

The difficulties we have with one another are very often the result of lack of insight and understanding. In the absence of information we make assumptions about one another – assumptions that often lead to conflict.

There is a cure for this phenomenon, and that is dialogue – sitting down with one another to have conversations that help us to learn about one another at deeper levels. When we put aside our assumptions, our biases, and the fears on which those are often based, and enter into dialogue with not only a willingness, but a desire, to learn about others and the way they experience and see the world, and then deliberate together to arrive at paths forward that can better meet the needs of all, we begin to build bridges of peace which can one day span the world.

Joining me today to talk about dialogue and deliberation is Courtney Breese, Executive Director of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), a network of innovators who bring people together across divides to discuss, decide, and take positive action together to address today’s toughest issues.

In addition to serving as the Executive Director of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), Courtney Breese is a trainer, mediator, and facilitator with extensive experience working on state and municipal engagement efforts. She started facilitating dialogues as an undergraduate at Franklin Pierce University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in social work and Counseling. 

To learn more about the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, go to www.ncdd.org. 

If Dialogue & Deliberation is something that you would like to experience, you can begin as early as this coming week by participating in the National Week of Conversation – a week of events and activities that bring people together across differences. The 2022 National Week of Conversation takes place April 24-30. More information is available at https://americatalks.us/national-week-of-conversation/. 

Here’s how to contact the organizations Courtney mentioned in our conversation:

• Living Room Conversations’ website is: https://livingroomconversations.org/
• Make America Dinner Again’s website is:  www.makeamericadinneragain.com/
• Essential Partners’ website is:  www.whatisessential.org
• Conversation Café’s website is:  www.conversationcafe.org 

Share your thoughts, reactions, feedback & ideas with me. I'd love to hear from you!

Please support Co-creating Peace:

• Subscribe to Co-creating Peace on your favorite podcast provider
• Send me your ideas for topics and guests or be a guest to talk about your communication or conflict resolution challenges and receive free communication coaching
• Share on social media & tell the world about Co-creating Peace! 
• Become a patron at www.patreon.com/CocreatingPeace

 Visit BridgesofPeace.com to learn more about Kathleen and her work.