Creative Edge Focusing E-Newsletter

Instant "Ahah!"s #3:  Passive Listening Turns:

 Stop Argument. 
 
The "Popcorn!" Peace Plan: Social Action for Passive Listening?

                                                                 
 Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director                                Week Four 
Creative Edge Focusing E-Newsletter Weekly Support: Week Four 
 
For four weeks, we practice one Instant "Ahah!,", one Relaxation Exercise, and one Getting A Felt Sense Exercise, with e-reminders and tips each week. Our purpose:Helping you incorporate Listening and Focusing into your everyday life.

This month: From Instant "Ahah!" Mini-Manual, p. 10, #3.Passive Listening: Stopping Arguments With Friends, Partners, Children.

E-Newsletter Archives Now Available!
 
Newcomers, you can start with any issue and, in a year, you will have practiced all the exercises. To "catch up" with this cycle, please read, from the e-newsletter archives Passive Listening Week 1: Can Listening Turns Save The World, Week Two: Does Passive Listening Work?, and Week Three: The Al Gore of Passive Listening.
 
Anyone can also access the e-newsletter archives from the Free Resources submenu at Creative Edge Focusing.
The "Popcorn!" Peace Plan: Passive Listening=Active Solutions
 
I haven't heard from anyone about attempts to use the Passive Listening Turn protocol.
 
I did get one "delicious" email response to brainstorming request about how to have an Al Gore-like "campaign" to spread the idea of Passive Listening Turns worldwide.
 
Given that I had suggested "Popcorn!" as a possible neutral word that could be used between significant others as a signal to start the Passive Listening Protocol, the emailer suggested we name the campaign The "Popcorn!" Peace Plan, and that name makes me smile and sticks with me --- well, isn't that what you want from a campaign slogan?
 
Let's see: The "Popcorn" Peace Plan: Passive Listening=Active Solutions as a bumper sticker?
 
Brainstorm With Me To Find "The One Small Step"

 

So, I'm going to ask you again to send me any brainstorming ideas. Really, just that one email was so inspiring to me of creative thinking.

 

Do you think spreading Passive Listening Turns is a good first step, if there were to be a campaign to bring listening/focusing, and the "creation of the new" that can come when people can speak from felt-sensing, to everyone, every situation, worldwide? Do you have a better idea? I'm open!

 

Can you imagine participating in such a campaign? What "one-small-step" might you be willing to do, or willing to encourage your friends, neighbors, colleagues, elected officials, school systems, doctors and nurses, etc., to do or to spread?

 

I'd like to imagine a bumper sticker campaign: "Listen, Don't Lecture," "Speaking, Not Arguing,"  "Popcorn!" Get Out The Listening Timer!", "Passive Listening = Active Solutions" - got better ideas?!!! Certainly, I can use help!

 
A bookmark-sized handout that obstetricians, pediatricians, counselors, teachers could hand out, outlining the procedure (maybe with a magnet for sticking on the fridge!)

 

Maybe "Passive Listening Turns" isn't the right name for the process. What would be better? "Timed Turn-Taking"? I can't do this alone, but it would be fun to brain storm it! I know we would come up with something hugely creative.

 

So, for this week, besides setting up the structure and trying the Passive Listening Turns procedure if an opportunity arises, I'd welcome any consideration of the Passive Listening Turn "campaign," how we might do our own Nobel Peace Prize effort to get Listening/Focusing Conflict Resolution known. Email Dr. McGuire with your ideas and reactions. Thank you! 

The Basic Procedure
 

Here are the subheadings from the exercise which lay out the basic steps of this very simple procedure:
 

Agree on a signal during a peaceful time

Set a timer and take a seat

Use the timer to keep turns exactly even

Yell at a blank wall, if needed

Just keep going

Caution: Professional help needed?

Online support for conflict resolution

 

And those are the basics of this very simple procedure, which can be taught to anyone in five minutes.

 
Anyone can download the whole procedure under Listening Turns: Stop Arguments With Friends, Partners, Children, in the sidebar at Creative Edge Focusing (TM) website. Hand it out to everyone you know, or even on street corners!
"Relaxation" and "Getting A Felt Sense" Exercises for the Month
 
Later in the week, you will receive two other e-reminders, one for Relaxation Exercise #3. The Forest (p. 5 in Complete Focusing Instructions) and Getting A Felt Sense: Clearing A Space (p.10), the download free at the E-Support and Complete Focusing Instructions download icon)
 
If you order the Self-Help Package, you can use the Intuitive Focusing CD to follow Dr. McGuire as she speaks these exercises.
 
Click here to access Dr. McGuire's blog, Ultimate Self-Help, or find it in the right upper corner at Creative Edge Focusing
About Creative Edge Focusing (TM) 
 
Mission: bring Core Skills of Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening, and The Creative Edge Pyramid of applications from individual to interpersonal to organizational, to all audiences throughout the world.
 
Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director
Location: Beaver Lake in Rogers, AR
These materials are offered purely as self-help skills. In providing them, Dr. McGuire is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Creative Edge Focusing (TM)
Dr. Kathy McGuire
Director
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