Divorce Sanity: The 8 Peace Practices
There are eight peace practices which are free and easy to stick to every day. They’ll help you stay sane no matter what, and we all know that sanity is at a premium at the moment of any divorce. An excerpt from the 8 Peace Practices chapter of Making Divorce Work, our comprehensive book on cooperative divorce, was published by Mediate.com.
Sure, we’ve all felt like screaming at the top of our lungs at times. But we also know what it does to our blood pressure and ability to think creatively and problem solve.
Using the eight peace practices contained in the 8 Peace Practices chapter will help provide some peace-of-mind even in the most difficult of times. Sure, they help during your divorce, but they also help when you’re stuck in traffic or in a meeting with co-workers.
Divorce mediation rather than a divorce lawyer helps maintain the peace in your family–after all, you remain a family even if you’re divorced. The opportunity to have an uncontested divorce increses, in California or elsewhere, when you mediate instead of litigating. Mediators in family law help you talk to each other and say what you really mean without getting shut down or intimidated. Most trained mediators will give you sound legal information, and help you make a solid decision that works for you, your spouse, and your children. Just remember, the settlement needs to work for your spouse also, or he or she won’t sign it. And for YOU to get a settlement, your spouse has to sign.
Everyone, divorcing couples and people on the street, sometimes think mediation is all about peace, love and warm feelings, and that mediators spend all their time talking about people’s feelings. That’s only partially true. Feelings between the divorcing couple are important. After all, you’re talking about everything you care anything about when you’re mediating: your future, your past, your financial security, how you’ll raise your children. There’s no avoiding it. Divorce includes feelings.
It also includes the legal requirements as mandated by divorce courts, and that needs to be informed, thoughtful, and thorough.
For you as an individual, you need both: a successful legal divorce, and a successful emotional divorce.
The 8 Peace Practices will help you get there.