Henry Yampolsky ”Finding Peace Amid Chaos” on Why Do Pets Matter? with Debra Hamilton, Esq. Podcast #132

Henry Yampolsky "Finding Peace Amid Chaos" on Why Do Pets Matter? with Debra Hamilton, Esq. Podcast #132

In this episode, Henry Yampolsky, J.D. shares insight into living in peace even during Pandemic. A peace educator, mediator and conflict coach, Yampolsky and host Debra Hamilton talk about the opportunity for peace even as massive change is underway.

More About Henry Yampolsky

Henry Yampolsky, J.D. is the co-founder, president, and CEO of Living Peace Institute.  Trained as a lawyer, Henry is a peace educator, mediator, conflict coach,  author and Tedx speaker.  He is passionate about empowering people to have transformative conversations and brings compassionate, intuitive, and mindful demeanor to his work.   

Henry has lectured at Columbia University School of Law and has taught conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation, restorative justice, and mindfulness skills to senior UN diplomats, members of the New York Police Department, and top executives around the world.  He has also mediated and facilitated hundreds of complex conflicts.

Henry is also a master-level Sattva Yoga teacher, trained in Rishikesh, India. He frequently teaches yoga and leads yoga and meditation workshops and retreats. Henry incorporates the deep wisdom of yoga in his conflict resolution, coaching, training, and consulting practices.

https://www.livingpeaceinstitute.com/home/about/

 

More About Debra Hamilton, Esq.

Debra Hamilton is a pet lover extraordinaire! Debra is a full-time mediator and conflict coach for people in disputes over animals and hosts Why Do Pets Matter? to further understanding, compassion and respect for animals globally. She is also a preservationist breeder of Irish Setters!

Go here for more:

https://hamiltonlawandmediation.com/

e-mail: Info@HamiltonLawandMediation.com

phone: 914.552.5021

Debra works both nationwide and internationally. She has far-reaching experience in resolving interpersonal conflicts involving animals, and she is also well-known in the world of purebred dogs as a top breeder and exhibitor of Irish setters and long-haired dachshunds. Debra speaks widely on the topic of how mediation techniques can help people address conflicts without litigation. She has presented at veterinary schools, the American Kennel Club, the American Veterinary Medical Law Association, the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators, the Living With Animals conference, state bar association Animal Law Committee meetings, and animal interest group meetings. Debra also writes a blog for Hamilton Law and Mediation and is a past contributor to the Solo Practice University blog and the Canine Chronicle. She has been featured in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report, and the New York Times, just to name a few. As the principal at Hamilton Law and Mediation, PLLC—the nation’s first solo mediation practice dedicated to helping people resolve conflicts over animals—Debra uses alternative dispute resolution to help address disagreements over the family pet during divorce, neighbors’ arguments over a barking dog, and confrontations between clients and veterinarians and other professionals who work with animals. HLM also looks forward to helping animal rights and welfare advocates see the benefit of having a conversation about the best interests of all parties—especially the animals—to resolve animal-related disputes. Debra is admitted to practice law in all New York State courts. She is certified as a mediator and collaborative professional and has worked with various court-based mediation programs in New York City (Queens-Community Mediation Service) and in Westchester and Rockland Counties in New York (Westchester and Rockland Mediation Centers).

More from Henry Yampolsky on Coronavirus

There is no denial that the spread of the COVID-19 virus presents a serious threat to vulnerable individuals and an existential threat to an already strained health care system. Vulnerable individuals are not just the sick and the elderly, but are those whose immune systems are compromised in any way. In light of pollution, overexposure to antibiotics in meat and meat products, overimmunization, growing reliance on pharmaceuticals and on illicit drugs, and due to many other factors, each and every one of us, regardless of age or current state of health, is vulnerable to the virus. Each and everyone of us could also be the carrier and spread the virus to someone even more vulnerable than we are. Therefore, it is important that all of us head warnings from public heath officials, and to the extent possible, limit our in-person interactions with other people. Let us view quarantines, school closures, and event cancellations as acts of deep compassion towards our fellow beings. Let each of us gracefully accept the responsibility for the well-being of every other being and for the humanity and the planet as a whole.

While these times will challenge us beyond anything we have experienced before, they also present immense opportunities. These include: opportunities to appreciate the importance of in-person connections with fellow beings; opportunities to learn and expand; opportunities to move beyond our identities, which while defining us, can also confine and limit us; opportunities to consider how, despite walls and closed borders, deeply interconnected we are. Most importantly, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go deeply within us and to experience the fact that we are humanbeings and not humandoings; that we are so much more than accumulation of food that is our body and accumulation of ideas, judgments, prejudices, conditioning, and information that is our mind. Now is the time to ask life's most profound quesions and to sit with the uncertainty and the discomfort of not knowing the answers. Asking these questions can bring a profound transformation within us. And, we need a profound transformation if we are truly to face global challenges facing us which require a profoundly different, more inclusive, more collaborative, and more nuanced understanding of the very nature of life and of who we are.

So, we can react to the current crisis with fear; with avoidance; or with aggression, or we can respond with strenth; with clarity; and with compassion. The choice we make will determine the future of this planet. The time is Now!

To anyone who is interested in the tools for going inward, I would like to make them as available as possible. If you would like to learn: how to meditate; how to breathe through challenging times; how to use powerful yogic practices to strengthen your immune systems; and how to use the Dis-Solving Conflict from Within process to deal with conflict and fear, please message me to schedule free on-line sessions. And, if you simply feel lonely, sad or anxious, please message me as well. I would like to support you in all ways I can!

The virus epidemic can become the most precious gift - connecting us with our vulnerability, humanity, and love! Let us not waste this precious gift or squander this time. Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu (may all the sentient beings be happy and free!).