With the holidays coming up, we often have high emotion, covering a wide range from love and joy, to anger & frustration, celebration of blessings and grieving for lost ones, old family wounds & grudges, and political tensions – you name it! I want to provide you with as many tools and understandings as possible to bring peace and harmony to your holidays... and to your life.

Welcome to Part 2 of “Holding the Calm”, Episode #130 of Co-creating Peace, a series about conscious communication and conflict transformation.

In the last episode of this podcast – Episode #129, “Holding the Calm”, Part 1 – you heard the first half of a very interesting conversation I had with mediator and author of “Holding the Calm: The Secret to Resolving Conflict and Defusing Tension”, Hesha Abrams, who shared with us several practical and effective tools to diffuse tension and resolve conflicts in a wide variety of contexts. 

Among the many wonderful things Hesha shared with us in Part 1 are:

• Conflict is like spaghetti sauce.
• Self-interest, including political self-interest, often interferes with conflict resolution.
• Validation is the WD-40 of the universe, but what if you don’t have any to give? 
• People can be like crabs in buckets. 

Today, Hesha shares some great information about how tackling smaller issues can evolve into solving bigger problems. Highlights include:

• the vital importance of teaching children conscious communication and conflict transformation skills beginning in early childhood, and mindfully modelling those behaviors for them in every moment,
• the subtle power dynamics often at play in negotiations, 
• the game-changing impact of unexpected moves in any conversation
• mediators are like midwives helping to birth the resolution to the conflict.

Hesha Abrams is the founder of Hesha Abrams Mediation and is an internationally renowned mediator who has successfully resolved thousands of cases over the past thirty years, from simple car accidents to multibillion-dollar disputes involving titans of industry. Hesha Abrams is a master at turning high conflict into amicable resolutions and resolving delicate matters with diplomacy and skill. She is renowned for her success in resolving complicated and high-stakes disputes from corporate disagreements to political conflicts. Her strategic ability to remain cool-headed and balanced in complex situations leads to successful outcomes making her a leading name in her field, and an invaluable resource in any dispute resolution process.

You can find “Holding the Calm: The Secret to Resolving Conflict and Defusing Tension”, and learn more about Hesha and her work by visiting: www.holdingthecalm.com 

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