Reality check in the Field
During conflict work, one can conduct summary or fast reality checks too, in a way that the elicitive conflict worker integrates with awareness his/her own self-observation. A simple, but revealing reality check can be made out of the following array of questions:
- Is my breath calm, full and relaxed? Or are there any signs of flat, retained breath or hyperventilation that disclose agitation and might disturb the resonance in the encounter with the parties?
- Does my body chemistry signal a difficult or exceptional state?
- Is my body posture aligned with the mental interpretation of the situation? Am I expressing what I am feeling and do I feel comfortable?
- From a slightly elevated position of a ‘camera’, do I find a correspondence between my immediate environment and my body reactions? Do emotions, imagination or expectations hamper the sensorial perception of a resonating encounter with the parties?
- From an even higher position, metaphorically as ‘eagle’, how does the situation in which I find myself look like? Is the relation with the immediate environment aligned with the larger framing environment?
Based on this first round of questions, a second round can be conducted. Out of this round we can then extrapolate the elicitive conflict mapping:
- When I am placed in the reality of the episode, am I myself? Also, am I really the one who I thought I was in light of my previous narrative?
- Do I perceive the layers behind the episode and their correspondence?
- Do I feel resonance in the communication?
- Do I perceive the direction of the system’s homeostatic flow and its possible blockages?
- Do I communicate selectively authentic with the parties?
Continue surveying further: