Well, this is exciting! Here is a space for all of us to share our stories as we try out some of these restorative listening practices.
Start with listening to your own dear self first. Notice what is happening in your own body, in your own heart and mind when you encounter a view or a comment that causes you to contract or recoil, or attack or defend. Ask yourself, what might be underneath my reactivity? What might be underneath their comments, their reactivity? What hopes, fears, values are being activated in this moment? Can allow myself, and them, the space to be with this discomfort for a moment? In that space is there room for curiosity, compassion, and uncertainty? And what then?
Some films that examine the power of listening to bridge ideological difference
Hello everyone, Here is a resource about those social needs I spoke about--the need to be well regarded by others, the need for certainty, for autonomy and choice, for connection and belonging, for fairness and justice. These needs are deeply wired and when they are threatened, our limbic brain goes into a high alarm state that impacts our entire nervous system and our ability to think or listen well.
https://coe.uga.edu/assets/downloads/dei/internal-resources/conflict-scarf.pdf