Week 6 (Talking Stick)
I took this opportunity to show this video to my older brother and explained to him what the talking stick was. He thought it was a little childish at first, but we talked it over and we have had many disagreements in the past because of how our personalities are, so this might be a good exercise to develop a different understanding.
We talked about an incident a couple weeks back and why it happened. He had the talking stick first and I was there listening with intent. While he was telling me the reasoning of what happened, I slowly started to understand, but had questions; I think it was easier for myself to understand what kind of message he was trying to get across because there were no interruptions and he was able to talk about everything at once with all the reasons. This also gave me the chance to clearly understand as I was not able to say anything right away. When I was given the stick, I asked my questions and what I wanted him to hear from my perspective; I think this was also easier on him because he didnât hesitate when answering my questions. I feel like this exercise really opens a new space when youâre trying to understand the next person. The talking stick makes it easier to develop trust between people when there isnât constant arguing in the conversation; the conversation I had with my brother was peaceful and very informative from both sides. In the future, I think this method would help communicate problems much quicker than just a regular conversation. Conflict resolution with the talking stick can help create harmony in the group.

















