Host Christian Pearson kicks off Season 2 of the podcast to share an in-depth discussion on building peace with Mr. Som Chanmony, program director of the Cambodian NGO, Peace Bridges. Som (Mony) explains how his background as a former gang member influences the way he now works for peace in his community. He also tackles hard questions, including how to address generational PTSD in Cambodia, and how to heal broken relationships.
For more information about Peace Bridges, visit their website at https://peacebridges.net/
Inside the Cambodia Project Episode 16: Peace Bridges
with Mr. Som Chanmony
[00:00:00.310] – Christian
Hello, I’m Christian, and you’re listening to Inside the Cambodia Project, an educational podcast where we discuss cutting-edge research on sustainable business in an emerging market. Thank you for tuning in to this new season of Inside the Cambodia Project. We’ve been on hiatus over the summer, but we’re back and ready to share more of what we hope is fascinating. We’re going to share learnings about Cambodia, humanitarian work, and more. In our last episode, which was published in late April, I talked with Dr. Ben Beck, the producer of this podcast. We were in the San Francisco airport waiting to board our flight to Cambodia where we would be launching the next phase of our humanitarian research project. In that podcast, we discussed our Cambodia project and the fun activities we were going to engage in on the trip. While in Cambodia, I had the chance to interview fascinating people doing great work to help others. Let’s go back in time to the first podcast we recorded while in Cambodia. Joining us today is Mr. Somme Charnmoni, the Director of the Peace Bridges NGO. Mr. Som Chanmony is a mediator, a trainer in peace building and conflict transformation and leadership.
[00:01:25.320] – Christian
He has served as a co founder and executive director of a local faith based organization in Cambodia called Peace Bridges since 2003. He earned his master’s degree in Applied Conflict Transformation Study from Bang Nasa University in Cambodia. Do you mind if I call you Mony? Yes. Okay, perfect. It’s hard for me to say, SOM Janmoni every time. Som Mony. Thank you so much for joining us today. It’s awesome to have you on the podcast, and I’m so excited to talk with you about peace making and reconciliation. I always like to start the podcast with a quote, and this one is near and dear to me because the author is Jesus Christ, who I believe is the savior of the world. No matter your religious beliefs, though, this quote should speak to you. In Matthew 5:9, as Jesus shared the sermon on the mount, he said, ‘Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God. So while this scripture is rather short and sweet, I really like the depth and the scope of its meaning. It means a lot to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts, though. What do you think Jesus was trying to say about Peacermakers?
[00:02:47.550] – Mony
Yeah, thank you. This is also a fundamental Bible verse we use in our training, especially when we train Christian leaders. Okay. That as a Christian, and we believe and we call ourselves as children of God, that peace building is part of our mission. In our everyday life, when we relate to other people, when we serve other people, how are we building peace in those services that we We provide or we serve other people. And when we respond to some of the situation, personally or professionally, are we choosing to build peace, to make peace in those responses. So for me, that was a core identity as as a Christian, that peace building must be one of the big mission of our life is how we bring about peace and smile on people’s faces every time we meet other people, every time we encounter or relates to other people around us.
[00:04:26.210] – Christian
That’s awesome, Mony. I think the message that you bring the table of building peace is one that we need to hear in the world. I think a lot of people are desperate for peace, but they don’t know quite where to find it.
[00:04:39.950] – Mony
And beyond that, Jesus go beyond just saying that bless those who are the peacemaker because they are children of God. Jesus actually show in several places how to build peace, how to actually live as a peacemaker. So for example, at the time at the Quesimini garden where he was arrested, one of the disciples took out a sword and cut off the ear of one of the God.
[00:05:16.210] – Christian
Peter, right?
[00:05:17.000] – Mony
Yeah. And then Jesus had to stop. And he not only stopped the violence, he also healed the ear of the God. And so this And then he said, Those who use sword will be banished, will die of violence. And so this is how he choose nonviolence over violence in this situation.
[00:05:51.730] – Christian
Right. Jesus didn’t just preach this. He really believed it, and he lived it throughout his life. Yeah.
[00:05:57.560] – Mony
And maybe if I may quote another one. Yeah, go ahead. When he say, Turn the other cheek. When people slap you on one cheek, you turn the other. He simply wants to, from our responsibility, to not do violence in response to the violence that someone did to us. So this is a principle of peace-making. And sometimes we miss understood, and we make it the responsibility of others. So I only be peaceful to you when you treat me peacefully. But Jesus is saying, no, even though if you are treated violently. You have to not respond in violence, but respond in peace to the other person who is committing violent.
[00:06:55.420] – Christian
I love that. I’m so excited to talk more with you about peace-making and reconciliation. But first, I really want to hear your story. How did you get started working in this important project of Peace Bridges? Where did you come from? How did you get here?
[00:07:14.650] – Mony
Well, there’s two important things. One is my personal life. I grew up in a violent situation where at schools, we have all gang issues, violence at schools. And so to protect myself, I had to choose to take part in the violent gang to protect myself, because if I don’t have any big people behind me, then I can get into trouble. Nobody help me. And so I was part of the gang group, and we do all sorts of violence to each other. And that continued with me until even I finished my high school, going into university, I still have a lot of violent behavior within me.
[00:08:09.230] – Christian
Were you still part of a gang at that point?
[00:08:11.190] – Mony
I left the gang, but we still have some interaction every now and then. But I was not active anymore. But still, still violent behaviors follow me everywhere. So I’m tempted to use all sorts of violence in different situation that I encountered, whether it is at home or at school. But I got English language, so that was the thing that got me into this field, because I was translating peace building materials and how to control my anger, how to be a good listener when it comes to conflict and how to resolve conflict peacefully. So these materials was new to me. And I was really interested in learning because I have always been justifying violence in my problem solving. But when I was translating material, there were all non-violent way of dealing with our conflict. And then I got into the material and I was interested in chasing the source of the material. And that’s where I learned that there’s an organization at that time was named Christian Peacebuilding Services, who was owning this material. And then I asked if I can be part of a team. And they said, Well, this is a new initiative. We haven’t got any staff or anything.
[00:10:08.140] – Mony
We just collect all material and translate them as we go. And then sometime later, they were looking for administrator and a translator. So then I applied for the job.
[00:10:24.920] – Christian
You stepped up.
[00:10:25.850] – Mony
Yeah. So I got the job and I was a part of a a training team, two experts, one from the UK and the other one from Australia. So I was assisting them for the first year for translation, producing material and things like that. By the second year, I start to take part in training. So that’s where I I test this material in my everyday life. So for example, listening skills. How do I listen to other people, especially when we have this agreement? And a lot of time I realized that I was not listening while the other person was talking. I was trying to find reason I want to respond back instead of listening. But when I do practice real listening, it helped me to understand the other person. And obviously, understanding doesn’t always bring agreement, but at least we can understand why the person have a different opinion. And we may agree or disagree with it. But if we disagree, that is okay, because we are meeting one of the human needs is the need for understood, for being heard. And that need is significant. So it part of me. That need also important. If I’m not being hurt, then I will try to communicate.
[00:12:06.630] – Mony
I will try to do anything to get my message across. And many times when this need is met in a conflict situation, you certainly can prevent the situation going further or become more complicated. For sure. And so I start applying all these lessons that I’m teaching in my life to test how it works so that when I teach to other people, I can give them real example of how the lesson can be used.
[00:12:45.570] – Christian
Did you ever imagine when you were younger in high school or middle school, did you ever imagine that you would be someday working as a director of a peace building organization?
[00:12:57.910] – Mony
No, I never… Yeah, somehow I think God put me in this position. God have used my experience in life and then turned this into something positive that I can be the soul and the light for my family and my community.
[00:13:19.340] – Christian
I love that. Yeah, like a soul to Paul transformation. If we’re talking about the Bible, that’s so awesome. Thank you for sharing that deeply vulnerable story with us, Moni. I want to dig deeper into what your organization really does. Sounds like there’s a lot of training going on. But first, I wanted to talk about the Cambodian people in general. I’ve been here for now a week and a half, and I’ve been learning about these people more and more every day. And I know that the Cambodian people have a rich cultural heritage, but also in the late 1970s, the Kamai Rouge disrupted that heritage with a horrible genocide. During the rule, many people had horrible experiences, and if they survived, that may have led to post-traumatic stress disorder in many cases. In your peace building and reconciliation work, have you seen the lingering effects of the Kamai Rouge? And if so, how have you worked through those or helped other people work through that lingering pain?
[00:14:32.840] – Mony
Yes. So the trauma of the Khmer Rouge, actually, even before the Khmer Rouge, we also have been traumatized by different war and violence in the country as well. Specifically, it became worse during the Khmer Rouge when the prolonged suffering continued and not a lot of help for the people during the 1970 to 1979. Those are the years that Cambodian suffer from violence. And even up to today, and obviously, trauma is actually passing on from one generation to another. So even I was not living during the killing field. I was born when the killing field finished. But I can still have the negative impacts from my parents and my grandparents- Who lived through that. Who lived through the regime. And I can learn a lot of unhealthy habits and violence As I told you that I spent my youth time with a lot of violence. So that result, that violence in my youth time, resulted directly from the genocide the trauma. And then I’m treating other people, other younger generation, violently, like my younger brothers and all things. So I’m transferring that violence to them. And for them, they also learn violence and justify violence. So this is how you deal with conflict.
[00:16:40.730] – Christian
Right. It’s this generational violence, generational PTSD. That is just passed down over and over again. Yeah.
[00:16:48.610] – Mony
And so we often would observe two unique behavior in conflict. One is fly, like people will try to avoid and not to focus on the situation and pretend that they may not happen or it’s okay to not Do something about it. We just have to avoid. So it’s called avoiding. It’s one of the response in conflict. And if we don’t avoid, then we become competitive. We will fight and try to win the situation at all costs. So these two extreme behavior in conflict, avoid or fight. There are times, obviously in conflict, there are times we will avoid. If it is a small issue, we just overlook and doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it. But sometimes because it is big enough, then we have to take some action. So these two respond is also part of the conflict response as well. But what happened with people with trauma is that they default the two response. They make it the only option that they can do. But then people have to start to realize that how this is what we call preferred response. And And we have to help them to understand where it comes from and then help people to unlear and start seeing alternative to their conflict situation.
[00:18:43.460] – Mony
That you can actually do more than just avoid or fight. You can find other alternative to resolve the situation.
[00:18:57.750] – Christian
Yeah, Moni. So we actually have a saying in English, a phrase that we use to describe what you just talked about, which is fight or flight. And I think that’s super interesting. If I understand you correctly, you’re saying that a lot of these people who have experienced some form of trauma, whether themselves or it’s been passed down to them, generationally, they default to a fight or flight choice. Is that correct? Yeah. So that’s so interesting. I want to know what practical approaches have you seen been successful as far as trying to address that? How do you help someone who is experiencing the legacy of violent conflict? How do you help someone who maybe their parents have passed down habits of abuse or other negative cultural legacies from the Kamai Rouge? How do you help these people? Yeah.
[00:20:00.340] – Mony
So maybe I can tell you a story from a pastor. So he’s a pastor, and he was teaching his children, and he found himself doing all sorts of violence when he teach his children, and he didn’t like it. I’m a pastor. I’m supposed to be peaceful and gentle to my children. But I end up discipling them physically. So And then he was part of our training where we helped him to look at his river of life. So one of the tools we help people to understand who they are is the river of life, where they look at their life from as young as they can remember and thinking the violence that we are doing today, where does it come from? So for him, he is making all this violence to his children. Where did that violence come from? And as he traced back, he realized that when he was young, at that age, he was treated violently. His uncle, his parents, people around him punishing him when he doesn’t learn. And then he learned that behavior and got stuck into it until present day. And the moment he touched on that untouched wound in the past.
[00:21:47.880] – Mony
It helped him to realize and understand the suffering, the pain. And because part of the training we call for, we assign peer support for listening, he was able to tell that story, to look into that story when he was young and how he was treated violently. And it makes sense for him that this actually a generational curse of violence that he has been carrying for him. And the justification that because when I was young, someone beat me even worse than this. And what I’m doing to My son today is not as bad as when I was treated in the past. So there’s a narrative of comparison, like the suffering today is not as much as when I was young. And this is true. My teacher, every time I go to school and we don’t do well and we got punished physically, and the teacher would say every time after the punishment, he or she would say, When I was younger at school, it was worse than this. So don’t complain if you received some violence today, because this is not comparing to 20 or 40 years ago. And so for this pastor, he realized where the violence come from, and he starts to talk about it, and it helped him to heal and to be able to control his suffering, his pain, and realized that this is not 20 years ago.
[00:23:40.760] – Mony
This is a new different in my relationship. And I can find other alternative to help my children besides using violence to help them to learn. And then he starts to unlearnt these unhealthy ways and start to be more listening, empathy. So all trying to understand why they cannot get the point instead of asking all these unreasonable question or expectation on children. And so he was able to stop using violence on his children when he is teaching them. Wow. And so when you look at it, it’s actually the process of healing. It’s a long term healing because our training is not like three day or five days. It’s actually a progressive long term commitment. So that particular training we did for one year, where people come for four days every time, and we have a break for a month, and then they come for another four days after one month. So we do this for 12 months. And every month we meet, we help people to dig into their victimhood and heal and then reflect today. Actually, we work it backward, just like the story of the pastor, we work it backward. So what violence or struggle today and where it come from, we trace back.
[00:25:29.650] – Mony
We also realized that the process of practices over and over again of the skills that we teach them is important. So And each one of the participants have their own way of application, and they need to find the appropriate way to apply the tools and then personalize the tools. So we like, here is the tool for you. When you’re angry, this is how you deal with your anger. But then they have to take it away and personalize the tools. And then they come back and share their story. So this is how I use the tools when I get angry. And then everyone starts to share their story as well. Okay.
[00:26:24.210] – Christian
So there’s like a support group there. They go home from the workshop, they come back a week later, and they I’ll share. This is how I use the tool. That’s probably really helpful because maybe some of them, they didn’t use the tool, but then they can hear some of their friends, Oh, okay, I guess it actually works. Maybe I’ll try it this time. Yeah.
[00:26:45.170] – Mony
And that’s how the learning circle is created and it’s based on trust, where people are willing to be vulnerable to tell their story. And so we It’s a close group. And once we have the group, we will never add new people for the length of 12 months, where the group will take the journey of trust building, relationship building, and story sharing, and helping each other learn and unlear. So the process of learning and unlear. Actually, we have a specific term for this. We call it peace cash. Peace Cash.
[00:27:28.860] – Christian
Peace Cash?
[00:27:29.940] – Mony
Yeah. Cash is K-A-S-H. So K is knowledge, A is attitudes, S is skills and habits. So in the training that we provide, we not only provide knowledge and skills, which is normally the learning or training you receive anywhere, you will have knowledge about certain things and the skills to do something, right? But we spend a lot more time to convert this knowledge and skills into challenging our attitudes and then creating new habits in our life. So for example, listening Listening. Listening is a skill-based lesson. And we say, Okay, what is a good listening? It’s the knowledge, right? And then how do you become a good listener? It’s a skill. But we convert them into the attitude challenging. Is there a time I don’t listen to other people?
[00:28:39.470] – Christian
So it’s more reflective when you’re talking about cash, right? It’s knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits.
[00:28:46.470] – Mony
Yeah. And then creating our new habits of being a good listener. And then bring that experience to the class and share. And then everyone can learn from each other. So it’s a piece cash. It’s a model that we use in our training.
[00:29:04.730] – Christian
Wow. Is it trademarked? I don’t want to steal it. Sounds like something I could definitely use. No, seriously, that is so cool. I’m so glad that you shared the story of the pastor, I think that’s really interesting. I think a lot of people look at pastors and think they have their lives set. They probably don’t do anything wrong because they’re here telling me how to live my life in church, right? But it’s not true. And I think everyone can use a little bit of introspection. Everyone can afford to look at their lives and think, what do I need to learn and unlear? Which relationships do I need to build or which ones do I need to leave? And I actually want to talk about that just for a sec. Relationships. You mentioned that you give trainings about relationships at times. What do you do to help people with relationships that have already gone bad? For example, with the pastor, maybe he didn’t have the best relationship with his parents because of the way they treated him when he was young. Or for these people who are experiencing generational legacies of violence, maybe they don’t have great relationships with their brothers and sisters, with their parents and grandparents.
[00:30:28.030] – Christian
How do you help people heal or mend broken relationships?
[00:30:34.940] – Mony
So the process, as I mentioned, it’s required peer support. So we had to build a classroom where people understand that while they can be independent, they can be interdependent on each other. And building a safe community where they can bring their issue, their challenges in their life into the room and tell their story and at the same time receive encouragement or hear other people dealing with their story more successfully and things like that. And for the person who have broken relationship to sit on their story and look into the facts rather than narrative, because people can have a lot of story in their thinking.
[00:31:48.860] – Christian
Sure. In their heads.
[00:31:49.690] – Mony
Yeah. And then a lot of those stories, what we call evaluation story. They always evaluate things. So for example, When they see me walking into the room and I don’t smile, people would say, Oh, he must have some problem, or maybe, Oh, he get upset with me. But the fact I was not smiling. And that’s the fact. But it has nothing to do that I’m unhappy with the other person or something like that. Sure. So we try to help them to look at facts. What are the facts in their relationship? And what are the narrative? What are the story that they tell themselves? And try to stay to the facts instead of the narrative, because a lot of the narrative are illusion, adding fuel into the fire. And so we look at facts and then checking where we can, we can promote dialog with the other person, where facts can be checked. So for example, this morning when you walk in and you don’t smile, I thought you were upset with me. Is that true? And then it could be a whole new story. Like, look, I wasn’t happy because on the way I hit a cat, and I was not happy about it because I just killed a cat.
[00:33:26.200] – Mony
It has nothing to do with this person. I And so then the person facts can be can be clarified, can be what we call can be healed, because now it’s not about this person get upset with me. And that was the narrative that we tell ourselves. And so we help them to look at facts and then checking those. A lot of time people will come to, oh, Is that true? And it comes down to the basic skill is listening. Is when we’re actually using good listening skills, when When we, for example, when we observe this person coming in and not smiling, we can listen to the person. And if we are a good listener, we will ask good question. Hey, you’re not smiling. And that is the fact, right? Hey, you’re not smiling. What’s the problem? What can I help you? And then right away, maybe the person will say, Oh, it was said I hit a cat with my motorbike, and I’m not happy about it. Then there’s no further fuel to add in this situation. I don’t tell myself, Oh, he must be unhappy with me or something like that. So where the fact can be verified by the other person.
[00:35:17.020] – Mony
Obviously, in my experience, not every relationship, not every of them were saving. In some relationship, it’s very damaging for the person to stay together. And that friendship, like friends or marriage, brother or sister. Some of the relationship are so abusive. And if we force the party to stay together. We are killing the other one who is weaker. And so we have to also be looking into the level of violence and the habits of violence in the relationship and the pattern. If this is a pattern that come and go, come and go, it’s called cycle of violence, where People exploded into violence, and then they feel that they were wrong, and they apologize, and try to change or maybe quiet for a period of time. Sure. And then things start build up again.
[00:36:29.740] – Christian
And they fall into the same habit. Yeah.
[00:36:32.510] – Mony
And so if you observe the cycle of violence, and that is the notes that we need to be really careful, that if we ask the person to remain in relationship without fixing the cycle of violence, we are not going to do good for the person. In fact, we have probably just worsen the situation because every cycle of violence means that thing going worse every time.
[00:37:06.220] – Christian
So in those cases, you would say it’s better to just terminate the relationship?
[00:37:12.220] – Mony
Yeah, or having a temporary separation. And then each of them try to work on their own issues. And in relationship, there are some people respond for more problem than the others. And that also affects how the reconciliation goes. And there’s two terms I want to stress here. One is forgiveness, and the other I want is reconciliation. These two are not the same. Forgiveness is about personal, and it’s a choice that we can make without any effort from the other person. And we have misunderstood that. If he doesn’t change, I will not forgive him. Forgiveness doesn’t work that way. If you make that conviction, we never forgive anyone. So forgiveness is a personal choice, and it’s actually turned out to be good for the one who forgive, for our self, not for the others.
[00:38:26.850] – Christian
It lets you heal yourself.
[00:38:28.640] – Mony
Yeah. I allow you to heal and grow yourself, get yourself out of the prison. Reconciliation is another step in a relationship where it will have to be engaged with the other person. It requires change, or in the biblical term, it requires repenting. The party in the situation will to change. And obviously, those who are responsible for more problem will have to do more change. And then when they are making commitment for change, then it’s good for the journey of reconciliation. But if the party doesn’t commit for changing themselves, it’s just a matter of time before the violence erupt again. And every Every new eruption is worse than the situation. In some cases, it’s probably causing life. And especially in marriage, a relationship, it’s important. And as a church leader, I have trained a lot of church leader to work on supporting marriages. Actually, the intervention for marriages, I’ll say, focus on two main things. One is called prevention. That means we have to work with younger people and training them on the prevention side, give them skills and attitudes and habits and all of this thing that will help them, all these toolboxes. And then the treatment when conflict happened in the family and how the pastor, how the church leader can help respond to those situations.
[00:40:42.070] – Mony
But also looking at analyzing the cycle of violence, the pattern of violence as well. And if the pattern of violence is concerning, Then the pastor or the church leader should approach the situation carefully and not imposing on forcing people to stay together while the situation can actually be dangerous for one party.
[00:41:20.490] – Christian
Yeah, or it can get worse. I’m so glad you made a distinction between forgiveness and reconciliation. I think that’s something that a a lot of people fail to understand. And it’s very important that we give ourselves permission to move on, give ourselves permission to say, Okay, that happened, but I can move forward. I don’t need to hurt anymore because of that. I can let them go. But I also think it’s super important that we give ourselves permission to change, that we say, I was one way, but But I can be a new person today. I can change, and not let our past decisions define our future. A big component of our humanitarian research project here in Cambodia is to help empower women in their homes and to reduce domestic violence, domestic abuse, which is a big issue in Cambodia for some of the reasons we’ve already mentioned, generational violence, PTSD from the Kamai Rouge. So this has been super great. But before we go, I do want to ask you just one more question relating to this, specifically. In light of your experiences with peacemaking, reconciliation, both personally and professionally, what would you recommend to a family where one of the partners is abusing the other, either physically or emotionally?
[00:42:57.090] – Christian
Do you have some specific action items you would give that couple in order to heal the relationship?
[00:43:07.290] – Mony
I would come back to the pitch cash that I mentioned. We have trained the peace cash to couple. And it’s important that both of them, also if they have children, that they receive some similar capacity. So that they have toolbox. One is to prevent conflicts, if they can do something or a habit that help prevent conflicts in their family. If they happen to have to go through conflict, because sometimes conflict is unavoidable, we have to go through a conflict, then you go with skills, with the right attitudes in the conflict situation. Sure. And then because you have already spent effort to prevent it from happening, it’s like you are having a COVID injection, A vaccine? The vaccine. And then when you have the COVID, it’s probably less life-threatening. So if you have spent time and effort to prevent a conflict, and if it still happen, that conflict may not as bad as if we were not trying to preventing it. And every conflict requires people in the relationship to change, whether the person who is innocent or the one who caused problem. Both or everyone in the situation will have to change because the reason they have the conflict is mean that their relationship somehow need to be need to change.
[00:44:58.260] – Mony
And so when they resolve the situation, they need to look, Is there a way I need to change? I have to stop doing something that caused the conflict. Or otherwise it will keep going. And some of the conflict in marriages, they go on and on in cycle, like 10 or 15 years or 20 years or 40 years, because the people don’t quit their habits that contribute to the conflict.
[00:45:33.720] – Christian
So they don’t change. And so it’s just a cycle of conflict.
[00:45:37.980] – Mony
Yeah. Having said that, there are some people in the relationship that are not willing to invest all of this good effort in the relationship. And maybe it just happened that this is a really bad person who doesn’t care. And that as a person who support the victim, we should be able to identify that because some person just happen to be a bad person. Not a lot of them, but…
[00:46:26.500] – Christian
Yeah, there are some cases where maybe one of the partners isn’t willing to invest, isn’t willing to change, to make meaningful changes in that relationship.
[00:46:36.280] – Mony
Then we become the advocate for the victim, where their safety is the priority. So in this case, women and children, they need to have a platform where they can be protected, where they can raise their voice and their concern. The work that we do with women in our project, we help train them, but we also engage with their spouse, with their husband, and also their parents about the training that their daughter or their wife have received from us. And if there are something that they are not happy about it, then we can help them to talk about it and help the women who receive the training from us to apply those principle and see how those principle and skills and habits can help them to address their family issues. And so it’s not like a one-off thing. It’s a progress. Sure. So where we We provide capacity building and we provide ongoing support when the application is taking place. And then we also bring them together. So for the women, one of the project we are working with about 100 women. We bring them once a year, these women, to come back and share their experience.
[00:48:25.820] – Mony
So they know that the struggle that they are struggling is shared by other women as well, and also know that they can always learn best practices from other women.
[00:48:41.220] – Christian
Yeah, they don’t feel alone. They have a support network. Yeah. That’s awesome. Thank you so much, Moni. I have learned so much in this short time we’ve been together, not only about reconciliation. I think I’ve learned some meaningful skills. The cast, knowledge and attitude, skills and habits. You talked about fight and flight. You talked about some of your own personal experiences, and you were vulnerable with me, and I really appreciate that. That means a lot. I really hope that for our listeners out there, this has been an insightful episode of the podcast. You’ve been able to learn, just as I have, more about how you can build peace in your own life. Hopefully, as you go forth throughout the world, wherever you are today, you’ll find an opportunity to maybe mend a broken relationship, or maybe you’ll find a way to resolve conflict that doesn’t involve a fight or flight response. But no matter what, remember that you have power to make a difference, and that even small actions can have huge repercussions, hopefully positive repercussions. And so, as always, remember to lift where you stand.