No longer a nonprofit. Smart Tools for Life is now working with others
News flash! We have decided to let go of our relationship with Growing Communities for Peace, the non-profit part of our organization. This doesn’t effectively change much except donations will no longer be tax-deductible. Donations are always ok, however, and much appreciated, especially as we begin our next chapter! Also, we are partnering with other nonprofits to do the very important work we continue with!
All kids need to know how to problem solve peacefully
As part of our ongoing commitment that little kids need to learn how to be peacemakers – do conflict resolution independently, learn basic meditation and self-soothing skills, express empathy and compassion readily — Rebecca Janke and I are going to rewrite and reprint “Peacemaker’s A,B,Cs for Young Children: A Guide for Teaching Conflict Resolution with a Peace Table”, which we wrote in 1995 and sold about 13,000 copies! We will be changing the book to fit the STOP process detailed for little kids in “The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace”. We will also be updating the references, suggested readings, and including more stories of how peace tables are being used in classrooms and preschools.
Peace literacy starts with young children and is built, like learning a language, at all grade levels.
I’m serving as a Team Leader in another nonprofit’s work.
PeaceMaker Minnesota has a campaign that will bring the STOP process to participating schools. My goal is to generate 10 contributions of $10 or more on or before Thursday, November 12.
Need your help!
Will you please join me in making a gift on November 12? Contributions can be made here or mailed to PeaceMaker Minnesota, 2131 Fairview Avenue North, Roseville, MN 55113. Please write Smart Tools for Life on the memo line.
Conflict resolution steps are so important for youth to learn. This cause is very important to me. Your support would be greatly appreciated!
Every gift of $10 or more helps PeaceMaker Minnesota to obtain a significant amount of challenge money. But the money must be received soon! By November 19. Your gift is important for it says that teaching kids conflict resolution skills is important to you. That statement is inspiring to me and it is others too. Thank you for doing what you can.
The donations support peace literacy.
All contributions will help elementary schools to use “The Barnyard Buddies Stop for Peace.” This book and mentoring program involves older students in teaching younger students the conflict resolution steps: Stop and breathe, Tell how you feel, Open your mind, and Plan a deal.
Why the STOP process is important for kids
The STOP process acknowledges the importance of all points-of-view. It values dialogue. It is an evolutionary change that moves beyond the belief that one side of any argument has value and the other does not or that “others” have no good reason to even exist. We don’t believe there is any benefit to that thinking.
Innoculate children to protect them from this divisive, anxiety-filled time
As our little kids learn how to become citizens during this time of deep division, they will need advanced skills if they are to move beyond anxiety and antagonism as they grow up. Many of our homes are hotbeds of stress right now. Anxiety is as contagious as the Corona virus. Anger and hatred is expressed by many against their very neighbors these days. To inoculate our kids against our stress and a hate filled outlook, we have to watch our language. We have to remember that they represent our future. What is it that you want them to learn about you, your adherence to the teachings of your faith, your ethics, your compassion? What do you want them to learn about working things out with others as is done in a democracy?
We help children learn to be effective, happy, and indeed peaceful as they grow up. This blog is a request for your participation in creating a positive future! Please help by donating using the link: Contributions can be made here.
Any amount will help! The suggested donation is only $10.00.
It’s likely you’ve been donating to political parties lately. I hope so! I know it’s hard to give today, but isn’t it worth $10 to educate kids? What if they knew how to solve problems with respectful language and attitudes toward their conflict partner? Please contribute now. Here is the link: https://www.givemn.org/story/Barnyardbuddies. Thanks!
Fighting in the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul and around the world in the last week from a police killing of a black man, George Floyd indicates the extent of the alienation, anger, and outrage so many of us feel right now. People are exploding with pent up rage from systemic racism, classism, and a host of issues brought about by the pervasive top-down society of which we are a part.
Entrenched entitlement, coupled with habits of supremacy at-all-costs, is encountering the fruits of its oppression of black and brown people.
Can We Change?
Change is never easy. But we must change the habits that are so dangerous to ourselves and others and move on to a time of equality and justice. We can make cultural changes best through the education of children. They can make it a habit to wage peace. There are numerous helpful resources for educating anti-racist and peace-waging children in a recent Huffington Post article.
What does it mean to wage peace?
It’s what you do when you take a caring action, when you stand up — are an “upstander” instead of a bystander. Waging peace is what you do when you educate a kid in conflict transformation or how to find peace in the day. It is taking a tortured or abused animal to the shelter. Waging peace is marching with others to stand up for what is right, and maybe taking your kids along when you march.
Wage peace. That’s what this children’s musical play demonstrates.
It brings a compassionate perspective to the challenging topic of “the other”. If the newcomer is an immigrant or just a new kid in town, kids can choose to bully, or be courageous — and be a friend. Or perhaps the newcomer is a person of another skin color, a kid with a disability, a kid who is economically challenged and doesn’t have “things”. The specifics are important but most important is the habit of compassion and empathy that is developed when children are very young.
The book itself is on Amazon so get your copy today! if you sign up for our mailing list, we’ll give you a link to a discount product page. Be sure to purchase books in hard and softcover for a friend or for your child to look at while watching this free video.
We are very excited about the video which is our Covid-19 version of a book release party! Julia Amundson, Director, and a team of theater students (Alex Feia, Alli Christner, Bridget Foy, Guled Badri, Madeline Jacobs, Natalie Amundson, Tony Farrar, Vaerna Mayer) created this play using music written by Julie Penshorn. It was performed uniquely by each “animal” actor. Julia did a wonderful job of gathering free music to augment certain singers and the “Sleepy dog” poem. Thanks all for your hard and timely work, all while being Covid-19-safe!
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Seeing, being, and waging peace. Children’s mental health predicts the future of a society, of planetary conflict, and ultimately of life on the planet, so these are important!
The first ingredient for us all is seeing peace. We need to be able to imagine a better tomorrow and find peace in our daily lives through gratitude and a connection with nature and others.
Then, we need to demonstrate care for ourselves and others, and in so doing, we are being peace. Working out our problems peacefully and respectfully with each other demonstrates being peace and provides a lifelong tradition for our children who will ultimately be our world leaders.
Finally, waging peace helps us all to surmount difficult times, including those that tend to force us to focus inward, on our own misery. By finding something to be “FOR,” someone to help, some cause to support, something to create a better home, community, neighborhood, and/or world, we are waging peace.
Seeing Peace — Activities for Teaching the Concept
Seeing peace begins with simple observations of the world around us and enjoying time together creates a tradition of joy, respect for nature, and appreciation. For example, in one square foot of grass, a child can find at least ten magic, wonderful, creepy, crawling, manifestations of the earth’s remarkable creations!
Covid-19 isolation, a time to see peace in nature. This picture is from “I Can See Peace,” a children’s book guiding children in this skill and lifestyle. Find it here: http://bit.ly/smile4PEACE
Some simple ideas to get started.
Lie on the ground with your kids and study what’s in front of you! How many things can you find in one square foot?
Watch a sunset or sunrise together. Breathe deeply. See peace.
Check the new growth on the trees and bushes around your house or in the park. Watch the magic of spring birth and growth in the garden and on the trees. Marvel together. See peace.
Watch the raindrops on the window, or on a warm day with soft gentle rain, go out and feel it on your skin. Get drenched. See peace!
Sing together as you take a walk. How about, “You Are My Sunshine”? Music brings so much joy. It’s a wonderful way to see peace.
After Stopping to See Peace, and Breathing to Be Peace, It’s Time to Wage it!
Jack Doepke and Julie Penshorn sing “I Can See I Can Be I Can Wage Peace” by Julie Penshorn
Much of success in business depends on our ability to get along with others.
Social and emotional skills (SEL) are learned when kids do their own conflict resolution, perhaps better termed “conflict transformation”. Conflict transformation includes the reality that often conflict resolution is imposed from a more powerful country or individual (such as a teacher or parent) and in being top-down it misses something important and results in imperfect resolutions. Conflict transformation implies that people work to a solution that can actually help them move beyond the current anger and hostility to a much greater relationship as they have come to a deeper understanding and are ready and able to move beyond where they started.
Waging peace goes beyond typical mental health approaches for children.
It gives children something to be “for” rather than spending all their energies focusing on all the challenges they face. It fits under the umbrella of SEL (social and emotional learning) beautifully but goes beyond. Instead of just seeking skills for getting along, it positions kids to build a purposeful future, as they seek peace, through generosity, positive action, and mindfulness as a way of life.
This is a time to take stock of practices and policies, habits, and attitudes and really ask: who and what am I supporting by my actions? How can I be a role model for a child and wage peace today?
Track from “I STOP for Peace”. Music and short children’s dialogues make learning fun and easy.
Conflict transformation in our families can be life-changing.
What do you do when you have a problem with a spouse or child? Most of us can’t claim great skills for working it out. Most of us never learned how. Kids are learning, however. Often it’s not until fourth grade, but most children get some education in conflict resolution at school. In this article, I’ll catch you up to what they are learning and give you four simple steps to use that will transform the conflicts in your home. These steps are appropriate for you, and even for your three-year-old.
In this ever-more complicated world, inter-personal conflicts and inter-familial conflicts may be what causes us the most anguish. Transforming our conflicts is a key to our happiness and is critical for our children’s futures.
What’s the difference between conflict resolution and conflict transformation?
Conflict transformation benefits from sharing deeply. For partners, it is important to talk about the underlying feelings of fear, hurt, sadness, loneliness, worry, or frustration, rather than trying to be right. It’s far more beneficial to demonstrate to spouse and onlooking kids that you care about each other than it is to show them you can win an argument.
The transformation of children’s conflicts requires the same things, with one more important component. A valid solution is not a top-down solution. Often conflict resolution is. For example, a resolution imposed by a more powerful country or individual (such as a teacher or parent) is now “resolved” but it’s not “transformed”. That may be why it usually reappears! Top-down solutions lack buy-in and often result in imperfect resolutions. Conflict transformation implies that people work to a solution that can actually help them move beyond the current anger and hostility to a much greater relationship having come to a deeper understanding. They are ready and able to move beyond where they started.
Tough times can be opportunities to partner with family.
Using our tough times as opportunities, we can find partners in family members. Of course, you don’t want to share every problem with young children. It may cause anxiety. However, they appreciate knowing, as an example, that you are sad or angry because you can’t go to work, and you love your job. They like to understand that whatever you are bothered by is not their fault. That is reassuring. So, some sharing invites more collaboration from members of your family. Even three-year-olds often have wonderful help to offer! “Dad, don’t worry! I can keep you company if you’re lonesome for your work friends.” Or, “Mom, I want to be your work partner today. Let’s plant the garden.”
Missing interaction with peers can cause slower social skill development
Since kids who have missed interacting with their peers lately are missing valuable social and emotional learning, you get to home-school it. To build better relationships and skills for dealing with others in school, home, or the workplace, you can help them learn the valuable skills to transform conflicts from sentences of isolation to opportunities for connection. It takes practice. And, like baseball or tennis, the more kids practice, the better they will be as adults, and the more likely they will be to have work and social success. The skills they learn help prepare them for more happiness and deeper relationships.
As children are isolated from others, including their grandparents, social skills can suffer.
You can reduce the impact of Covid-19 isolation on your kids.
To ward off the impact of Covid-19 on our kids, we need to innoculate them against the PTSD and trauma experts expect them to suffer. (This article by Sonali Kohli offers a comprehensive look at the mental health consequences of Covid-19 for California’s children–a microcosm of those in the entire country.) You have the best medicine! Guide them with conflict transformation skills, skills for seeing peace, and help them find purpose in serving others. For this blog, the focus is on skills for conflict transformation. It is a key ingredient in social skill education. According to Nadine Burke Harris, who cites a longitudinal study in her TED talk, health, happiness, and even ability to earn a living are at stake.
Learning versus teaching. . .
Kids are not interested in being “taught”, but they are fully ready to “learn.” What hampers buy-in for kids is being told to do something. They want to discover it! They want to know, “What’s in it for me?” It’s definitely helpful if they see the benefit of learning to work out problems. Thus, experiencing you and your spouse or friend working out problems and celebrating your success is a great way for kids to learn. However, when they are working it out with someone, not you, and you interfere too much it will be YOUR solution and they won’t learn nearly as well.
The capable parent sometimes helps too much.
Well-meaning, capable parents (who remind me of me, so this hits me first-hand), sometimes don’t let kids do the struggling, the seeking, the challenging work of finding peace themselves. Instead, they are coaching and solving all the time. It’s hard! Try to see not helping as part of the educational journey for all. As your child develops independence with the skills, you will be impressed!
Use a story to do the teaching.
The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace children’s book illustrates and inspires conflict transformation as it teaches through story.
There is research about the benefits of storytelling as a tool for teaching. Do a Google search and you’ll see more than enough to convince you! Here is a lovely article on the topic. Using stories, parents don’t even have to “teach.” by taking yourself out of the equation, you reduce the likelihood of a power struggle preventing learning (“Mom wants me to do this, so I will say ‘No.'”).
Start with a good story about stopping!
Because I felt so strongly about the need for a story to empower young children to solve their problems, I wrote the children’s book, “The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace.”If you like, read the reviews to see how other parents and teachers have been using this book, and why. Since I am a singer and songwriter, I added a musical component. The “I STOP for Peace” CD or electronic music offers a real-life story with young kids singing and telling it.
The “STOP for Peace” process offers conflict transformation for all ages.
Conflicts over scarce resources can be transformed at the peace table.
Establish your own special place for working out problems–maybe a peace table!
“Since children are concrete learners, they appreciate having a specific place designated for problem-solving or conflict resolution. The peace table is in that space, which becomes a respected and appreciated area representing empowerment, not punishment.” (Janke, Penshorn, 1995, page 40. From our 1995 book, “Peacemaker’s A, B, Cs for Young Children: A Guide for Teaching Conflict Resolution With a Peace Table” by Rebecca Janke, M.Ed. and Julie Penshorn which is out-of-print, but a few copies are available by emailing julie@smarttoolsforlife.com.).
After we stop and breathe we can sit at a peace table and work it out.
Decorate your peace table
It’s helpful to place the peace table in a space where the steps for conflict resolution can also be posted. You can use the coloring page on the home page of this site or order a full-color version in our store. Children often enjoy decorating their peace table. There are more ideas on Pinterest. Of course, if you’re not at home you can just use whatever is handy (such as a rock, a talking piece, an upturned bucket) as a peace table. You are just looking for an energetic focal point.
A peace table in your home reduces whining, tattling, and bullying, and increases kids’ power to succeed in life. It gives them the confidence to try even more peacemaking, and wage peace in more ways.
Parents and teachers can dampen children’s enthusiasm.
Compare these requests: 1). “Sam, you and Jamal go to the peace table and work this out.” or 2). “Sam, you and Jamal will have time to go to the peace table after lunch. Do you think you will be cooled off by then?” The second feels quite different but uses almost the same words. Teaching is a bit like filling a helium balloon. You fill it with love, fill it with stories, fill it with role modeling, and then, ultimately, you can just let it go and it will fly!
Adults and children can both use the peace table but don’t interfere with the children unless the conflict involves you.
Steps for the STOP for Peace process
Step 1: Stop and breathe.
Start by stopping to breathe and calm down. Here’s a song to help guide young children. The CD or E-music is available here.
It may take some time to cool off. It’s going to take a least 20 minutes for the chemicals in the brain to settle down, so don’t rush the process. Tell your conflict partner you need time to cool off and then demonstrate deep breathing for him or her. Especially if it’s a child. Your demonstration does a great deal to aid the learning process.
Conflict transformation can begin by getting back to personal peace with breathing.
Step 2: Tell how you feel.
Use an I-message when you are ready to work it out. See this blog for an extensive look at this step and how it relates to developing empathy in kids. This step is the essence of the work. Once you care enough to learn how each other feels your compassion is inspired and you have done most of the hard work.
Guard against making the other person responsible for your feelings. You have your feelings. They are yours. no one “made” you have that feeling. That’s why the format of the I-message tries to avoid using the word “you”. It’s not, “You make me sad because you are ignoring me.” It works much better to use something like, “I feel sad when I am left alone to work on my schoolwork alone for too long.” Active listening includes repeating what your conflict partner has said, so you are sure you fully understand and they are honored by your deep listening and respect of their feelings.
Step 3: Open your mind.
This is the brainstorming phase. If your children don’t write yet, they can still be independent at the peace table process. They can draw a picture of their ideas or ask you for help writing down their ideas. When brainstorming, don’t evaluate. Don’t censor. Just write down every idea, even if it seems to be a crazy thing. Then, in the next step, you will edit, combine, or eliminate ideas that don’t fit the criteria.
Step 4: Plan a deal.
Any good solution has to be good for me, good for you, and good for the community (from “Peacemaker’s A, B, Cs for Young Children: A Guide for Teaching Conflict Resolution with a Peace Table”). Applying this standard helps make sure the solution is workable and sustainable. Be sure to celebrate your success in making a plan! After reaching a resolution, it’s great to celebrate overtly, like by having a “problem-solving-pizza-party,” or a “solution-special-snowshoe-trip,” or a “transformation-time-TV-show”. If your solution doesn’t work out, go back to step O, Open your mind. Brainstorm some more ideas, choose one, and try again!
Peace education is a comprehensive approach to children’s mental health.
It gives children something to be “for” rather than spending all their energies focusing on all the challenges they face. It fits under the umbrella of SEL (social and emotional learning) beautifully but goes beyond. Instead of just seeking skills for getting along, it positions kids to build a purposeful future. Seeking personal and interpersonal peace, doing kind and compassionate acts, being generous, and taking creative, positive actions all contribute to this way of life. Show your enthusiasm for children’s efforts to be peacemakers!
Effective negotiating often isn’t modeled by government
Effective negotiating. I remember my teachers using our U.S. Congress to show me how it was done. However, right now effective negotiating and dialogue seem to be a thing of the past, and many wonder, “What happened to civility? What happened to basic decency and social skills? How we are ever going to get back to bipartisan debate? Or intelligent and truthful conversations in our lawmaking bodies?”
Teens model effective negotiating and learning to be civil
While we are hoping that our “leaders” can take steps toward higher ground, we can be hopeful. People like Brooke Deterline—a cofounder of the Courageous Leadership consulting firm, are working to guide kids to find the skills for civility in conversations, particularly with those who don’t share their point-of-view. These kids are likely to grow up having the skills to move beyond partisan bickering and toward problem-solving.
An inspirational article about work with kids
You’ll find an inspirational article from The Greater Good Magazine: Here’s the link directly to the article: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/these_kids_are_learning_how_to_have_bipartisan_conversations. To summarize: Deterline gets a group of teenagers together and educates them in courageous leadership! She says, “What often shuts down conversations across the political aisle, . . . is when our brains go into what she calls ‘the red zone.’ . . .When we’re stressed, our natural compassion is cut off. . . .We don’t want to have compassion for the lion if we’re actually in a life-or-death situation. Our bodies are getting ready to fight or flee, sometimes freeze. It happens in less than a second.”
Working with Teens is Great
I have often marvelled at the wonderful work being done by people working with teens. And, yet, even with teens, we are doing remediation. We are fixing an already existing challenge. We need to start in the womb and continue with every day of a child’s life to provide a safe and welcoming environment for kids that allows them to think clearly and without fear clouding their responses.
Every day of a child’s life has a lasting impact
The incredible impact of early experiences on young children is why we are so concerned about US policies on the US/Mexico border. Whether it’s separation of families or just extensive stays for youngsters, none of it is okay for their development!
Children from birth to age 9 are sponges. When we provide a fear-filled environment, we create trauma that often causes lifelong consequences. When we provide safety, security, love, and decency, we provide tools for them to learn the very skills that these teens are learning — at an early enough age that these skills become their new normal. If we can also offer cultural tools like books and music to support their negotiating skills we are smart! Then we are enhancing their Smart Tools for Life.
The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace has a teen mentor component to it, so teens can bring the younger kid these skills.
Our Payhip store can be posted on your website. Your friends, co-workers, business associates, and family can find these materials and you can even make 40% of their purchase price. Do good while making money. Gotta like that!
Without skills for peaceful conflict resolution and problem solving, children are often labeled “bad,” “acting out,” and “disruptive.” But what are they to do when they have strong emotions and no social skills for working out their problems? And what are adults to do to cope with violent behavior at home or at school/preschool?
Boys in conflict over toys can cause injury.
Conflict over limited resources can be an opportunity!
Is this a picture of life at your house or in your classroom? There will always be limited resources in our worlds, whether it’s a classroom or a nation. It’s simply not possible to provide everything every child wants all the time. And, this gives us opportunities for learning as we guide children. But children need tools and skills for managing their anger and staying in community when faced with limited resources and other situations that prompt their frustration, anger, or other emotions. Without these tools they may feel compelled to lash out and potentially hurt themselves and/or others.
As we watch how people are sharing resources as they recover from hurricanes Harvey and Irma, we can be inspired to believe that people can make smart decisions that are good for all, their relationships with each other, and the planet.
Skills for peaceful conflict resolution provide key social and emotional skills!
Over the years, recognition of the importance of social emotional learning (SEL) has swelled. Now, we have governors of several states talking about their goals for educating preschoolers in SEL, based on research showing its importance for adult lives. Hanna Melnick, Channa M. Cook-Harvey, and Linda Darling-Hammond recently wrote in “Encouraging Social and Emotional Learning in the Context of New Accountability” (2017 — provides numerous links and references for further reading):
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) . . . provides an important opportunity for states to broaden the definition of student success to include measures of students’ social-emotional, as well as academic, development. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a broad and multifaceted concept, which the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines as “the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” Well-implemented programs designed to foster SEL are associated with positive outcomes, ranging from better test scores and higher graduation rates to improved social behavior.
Of course, children will continue to be significantly impacted throughout their lives by many challenges! But the tools we provide in our children’s books and children’s music are useful for navigating the world safely, with self confidence and joy. We call our tools, “Smart Tools for Life” because it is smart to learn them! Further, they are memorable and engaging, and sink deeply into children’s hearts and minds — often for life.
“I STOP for Peace” music and “The Barnyard Buddies Stop for Peace”
Our first children’s book is called, “The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace.” In it, the characters experience a conflict over resources, and work it out peacefully. They don’t stop there, however, they regain their trust in each other, renew their relationships, and celebrate their success.
Share social and other peacemaking skills with children and build a culture of peace!
The book is enhanced by two music CDs: “Songs for Peace,” by Julie Penshorn with Rebecca Janke, and one that specifically supports the learning in the book: “I STOP for Peace,” also by Penshorn with Janke. The children on the music CD refer to the book and connect the dots for you! You can purchase all at www.Amazon.com. Here’s the link for I Stop for Peace music on Amazon, or get it at Smart Tools for Life.
Children’s music, conflict resolution songs for ages 3 to 9. I STOP for Peace, by Julie Penshorn
Tools in your “smart” toolbox!
When you have a tool like The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace, in your parenting and teacher toolbox, you can connect it to any ongoing program you have, or it can be a freestanding program. It’s especially appropriate to the needs of young children ages 3 to 9.
Children develop relationships with the characters that can be used to enhance their learning in a variety of ways. For example, when children are in conflict you can ask: “Now how would Mrs. McCloud (the owl, and the key peacemaker in the story) solve that?” The end result in the story is better relationships, more community, and no blame, shame, or harsh punishments. Why shouldn’t all our conflicts end that way?
A Story
A friend brought a four-year-old to the book reading (partially shown on the video above). After the book reading, she, her boyfriend, and the child went to the zoo. It was a rainy day like in the book. My friend told me later that when they walked by the zebras the child said, “Look at that zebra! He’s just like King! He’s not sharing the space under the leanto!” Already, she was connecting the characters in the book to her daily life and to others in it.
Teacher and parent guide in the book
An added benefit of the book, “The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace,” is that it contains a teacher and parent guide, plus the music for the “I STOP for Peace” song. You don’t have to struggle to integrate this book with your curriculum. It effortlessly flows into it. In fact, it can BE your conflict resolution curriculum! With the music to enhance memorability, children will soon be conflict resolution experts!
There are as many ways to be peacemakers as there are people. The joy of finding a resolution to conflict that enhances our lives rather than detracts from it, is sublime! So, we learn the skills, we practice, and it becomes easier and more natural every time.
Next time we’ll talk about the most important step in that conflict resolution process: STOP and breathe. See you next time!
