Peace reflexes are calming and/or protective responses to violent reflexes (physical, verbal, psychological, etc.). They are one of the most effective and least-used peace skills.
They are also tools for calming and resolving conflicts, with an emphasis on :
- the desire to quickly calm the other person’s heart, before anything else
- to protect yourself and make yourself heard
- the desire to contribute to appeasement (proactive responsibility)
- allows you to be valued and appreciated by those around you and by others
- respect for the dignity of others and their physical and mental integrity
- allows us to respect ourselves.
They are used upstream of the conflict resolution process, to prepare the climate and the listening skills needed to start the resolution process. Because, as we all know, if the other person’s anger dominates, and they haven’t been helped to calm down, they won’t hear anything.
You’ll find the definition of a peace reflex in the Peace/Education Dictionary and a detailed description of the different categories of peace reflexes in the Concepts section.
Real-life and imagined examples are provided at the bottom of this Concepts section.