Sunday, January 16, 2011

Speak Peace

More from "Speak Peace in a World of Conflict"

Rosenberg ends his book with a discussion of how to get social change in a peaceful way - by committing to understanding the people we deal with - what their human needs are and how we can help each other make the world a better place.  He says, however, that unless we can be at peace with ourselves and with the others in our lives, we don't have much in the way of hope for making social change but what else could we do that would do as much to create the life of our dreams?

Friday, January 7, 2011

What is Your Request?

More on "Speak Peace in a World of Conflict"

Since we've agreed that everyone without exception does what they do because it meets their needs, the answer to changing our own behavior and maybe helping others to change theirs, is to find the needs the behavior meets and then look for ways to meet those needs in a better way - a way that meets the needs better and maybe makes the world a little better.  That sounds pretty lofty to me but just maybe it could work. 

Those folks whose behavior we want to change - what are their needs, what's going on with them.  What do we want them to do differently (instead of just telling them to stop what they're doing)?  Will what we want them to do differently meet their needs?  When we want to change our own behavior, wouldn't it work best if we consciously knew why we were doing what we're doing and found a way to meet our needs in a better way?