We held our regular Sunday Zoom earlier than usual, at 4:00 pm, as we had a special guest speaker, Franka Rauch, hailing from Germany. Trained in yoga, social work, and international peace efforts and conflict resolution, Franka has come to specialize in what she describes as “somatic conflict resolution.” We found her in coordination again with the New York Peace Museum, for which we provided a recording of the talk. We learned this somatic work can be applied at all levels, individually and for more global attempts of bringing peace. As we communicate non verbally in so many ways, she is teaching people to find peace in their bodies so they can approach conflict from a centered place of calmness. She started out leading us in a simple meditation to find the calm in ourselves, and she posited that if we take that calm into the world, focusing on calming the space between our hearts and our navel center, and face our conflicts from that stance we will have more success is resolving interpersonal trouble. She treated us to a very detailed PowerPoint presentation and took questions afterward. Generously, she stayed on well past her bedtime as the questions went on for a couple more hours. We brought up general questions, and then more personal instances of how to deal with interpersonal conflict, even the question of God and how can this non sectarian process jive with people who look to a higher power for resolution. She allowed that not everything is easily resolved, people are different from one another and you can’t control their response, and some issues are more difficult than others to fix. However, focusing on calming ourselves and our own responses, from our bodies rather than our emotions, helps us to respond rather than react. Very excellent advice as tensions are growing now with protests still happening and the election looming and the global pandemic still surging.
Sunday August 16 – Peace, Love & Understanding with “Somatic Conflict Resolution”
