Nonviolence does not mean we do not react. 

It means we do not react with more violence. 

In being nonviolent, we are not indifferent. We proactively engage in finding solutions to underlying problems.And most of the time, they concern everyday situations.

If a flicker of displeasure stirs within us when the phone rings or when someone interrupts us, that flicker is an ember for violence. It is a seed for future conflict, and we just planted it deep within us. It will combine with other such seeds and together they will grow stronger.

If we can manage to reduce this preoccupation with ourselves and what we are doing, this self-absorption, the barriers we erect between self and others will come down. We will realize that the underlying problem, which caused our ire to rise, was our viewing what we were doing as more important than the other person's activity.

Having found our underlying problem—self-absorption—we will be in a much better frame of mind to not have that flicker of displeasure the next time we are interrupted.

Getting directions to Carnegie Hall. 

Have you heard the one about a visitor to New York City who stopped a passerby and asked how to get to Carnegie Hall?

The cheeky reply was “practice, practice, practice.”

No one gets to any level of proficiency without practice, focused practice. Consider mental afflictions and bad habits. Doing away with them is never an easy thing. We can all testify to that. It takes hard work and sustained effort to lessen and eventually eliminate them. To accomplish this, we need daily teachings to remind us of the importance of our work, and to encourage us.

We also need reminders to not be enticed by situations and people who consistently elicit our repetitive, harmful reactions. Suitably equipped, we need to put everything into practice. The more we do something, the better we get at it.

And gradually, with “practice, practice, practice,” we will remain calm in the face of situations that would have unsettled and waylaid us in the past.