I currently read Ken Cloke's "Conflict Revolution. Mediating Evil, War, Injustice and Terrorism". It is a long and dense read, full of insights, suggestions, theses, with a focus on rethinking and redesigning the systems we operate in (incl. our judicial, economic, political systems, which are intertwined and therewith based on the same principles anyway). (…)

It was during my studies in Israel when I dived into the connection between meditation, spirituality and its connection to conflicts and their resolution. At that time I thought this to be the most natural, accessible connection - not only for me obviously, but for everyone else. How would anyone deny the impact of our spirit, our values, our personal insight to how we deal with conflicts? And yet, it was this setting, in which I backtracked from my newly formed and formulated insights. (…)

Now that I’ve started teaching meditation to a larger group of people in an organizational setting, I’ve quickly noticed the points, in which I really get self-conscious. “Will he return to the class? Oh gosh, how does my voice sound! Oh man, there are a couple experienced meditators…what guidance can I possibly offer them??” (…)

This weekend, I went to my first nonviolent communication (NVC) training in a while. Actually, ever. I've been doing practice groups before. They go on for weeks but do not focus on any specific quality of the method. This weekend focused on empathy. At first, I was sceptical. (…)