A Shrewdness of Apes

An Okie teacher banished to the Midwest. "Education is not the filling a bucket but the lighting of a fire."-- William Butler Yeats

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Conflict resolution

I was tagged with the following meme:

"What do you do when faced with conflict (if someone or something is bugging you) and/or how can you use your mind to avoid or resolve conflict?"

There is no simple answer to this question.

First, I decide if this annoyance is even worth a response. Some things are just not worth getting upset over. Anger and annoyance for me are cumulative, and if it's petty, I just go on my way.

Secondly, I am a person who meditates and prays. I usually try these related activities. If I decide that I need to confront the peron, meditation and prayer also helps me focus on responding in a firm yet civil manner. I am a Christian who tries to practice mindfulness and take responsibility for my actions. I have found great wisdom in books by Thomas Merton, Reinhold Niebuhr, C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Surya Das, the Dalai Lama, and Sylvia Boorstein, among others.

Thirdly, if it is worth it, I stand up for myself. I was a doormat for too long in my earlier life, and life is too short.

I hope that this answers the question.

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4 Comments:

At 4/24/07, 8:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Meditation and prayer. If more of us stopped to take stock, to consider more than just the immediate reactions to situations, and to project our responses out beyond the short term, our world would be a much better, much SAFER place.

 
At 4/24/07, 8:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think mediation and prayer are essential when dealing with conflict resolution and should be utilized more often. Most people are reacting too quickly before giving thought and could be one of the reasons that we see such a lack of respect for life in our society.

 
At 4/25/07, 1:45 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Why am I not surprised to learn that you practice meditation and prayer? Thanks Ms. Cornelius.

 
At 4/25/07, 4:07 PM, Blogger mr. e said...

Nice post. I've discovered recently that I need to work more on the first step you take. I thought I was good at that, but I need to put more work into deciding what should bother me and then even more work on forgetting about the other stuff.

 

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