Peaceful living. Changing the Story
Genuine everyday celebration of peace & connection
Course description

Peace is what we all are at the core of our being. Love is what we are here to do as it is the connecting energy of relationship and the creative impulse of all life. Authentic happiness and abundance is what arises after we have given selflessly with love.
Rediscovering and establishing our connection with inner and outer peace shall provide the space and time, shall pave the way for joy, deep and long-term personal and professional success, self-completion and a healthier life both in the physical and psychological plane.

Love connects, truth guides, happiness nourishes, purity reveals, compassion understands, kindness touches, forgiveness releases, patience waits, faith trusts, humility bows, respect builds, peace is …

  • Short phrases, condensed meaning.
  • Are we related to these in our everyday life?
  • Have we found ourselves in the position described by each value/quality (love, truth, purity, compassion, forgiveness…)?
  • Where does the phrase ‘peace is’ refer to?
Instructors

maria a. angeli is an educator and researcher on holistic learning, focusing on human values, peace interactions, peace food and the Language of Connection as a Game Changer and a global advocate. She is one of the members of the NGO, “the spiral, holistic education, human values, lifelong learning” and active in outreach programmes and networking for the triptych: social justice, sustainability and spirituality, such as Pachamama Alliance global family, Schools for Compassion, Humanity’s Team. She is member of the International Association of Art Critics and well experienced in the field of art curating, journalism, art & environment interventions, arts & museum education. She has worked for the National Youth Foundation and the Ministry of Education in Greece, the International Olympic Academy, museums in Athens and London. She has developed programmes, short handbooks and e-books under the following topics “From human rights to human values”, “Changing the game, living the story of connection” “Children and youth as global citizens” “Peace food and the New Story”.

Markos Perrakis holds a Ph.D. in Leadership Styles and their efficiency in organisations with publications in the fields of organizational psychology and coaching. trained in Systemic Consultation, certified provider of Vocational Guidance and Professional Orientation, multilingual psychometric assessments, and coaching tools for teams and individuals in organisational, career and personality issues He is representative of ANSE (Association of International institutions for coaching and Supervision in Europe), Scientific partner of EUMU (European Union of Small and Medium Enterprises) in Greece in fields of Strategic planning and Human capital development programmes. He is Founder and Managing Director of Fractality Organisational Development Services and ISO 9001:2008 Lead auditor.

Methodology

Inspired by Pythagoras, Aristotle, Gandhi, Charles Eisenstein, Marshall Rosenberg as well as, Frances Moore Lappé, Joanna Macy, Margaret Mead, Dominique Barter among others, we see communication as the generous field for miracles to happen. The communication of connection does not aim primarily at results. Result-driven behaviours serve the old Story of our world, the Story of competition, individuality, violence and disconnectedness. Connective and deep acceptance of our Selves and others open the path to the unknown possible. Studies have shown that when two people discuss a serious (professional or other) issue putting forward their genuine humane connection first and then the ‘result’, the results are coming easily and in a flow eventually. The key-word here is ‘genuine’. If people are faking that they are interested in connecting with the other human being, no connection is established and the ‘results’ are not positive in the long run. Peace leadership embraces the ability and skill to create the space and opportunity for other people to grow their abilities, gifts and preferences. It embraces the wisdom of giving unconditionally, securing simultaneously the same for the ‘leader’. Through peace interactions people cultivate and experience the potentiality of the Gift consciousness/performance. They feel abundant by giving their gifts (knowledge, honesty, experience, help, support) to other people and by receiving gifts back by people around them. Their interaction couldn’t be confined in the time and space of the interaction itself; it is, by its nature, promising and already gestated with the seeds of their future collaborations.

Application deadline

Please note that the application deadline for Erasmus+ funding is the 4th of February 2019, 12:00 CET.

Aims

The training Peaceful Living. Changing the Story aims at:

  • finding our connection with peace and establishing ways to ground it
  • invigorating any existing connection with peaceful thinking, speaking,
    acting/behaving
  • providing a variety of tools, exercises, practices, games for everyday
    application/experience of a living which ‘changes the game’ for the individual and the collective good
  • inspiring towards peace advocacy through a holistic approach methodology

In order to serve the above aims we have planned the following core sections for this Training

  • Peace interactions, communication & leadership
  • Peace food, material and non-material
  • Peaceful subtle advocacy. Game Changing. Contributing to the Story of Connection
Designed for

People from various walks of life

talk about peace these days: internal peace, external peace. They live and experience the turmoil of our globe and wonder whether it is possible to be in peace and if yes how.

Teachers, educators, trainers, volunteers, facilitators

come across with a rainbow of idiosyncrasies in their everyday life interactions with groups and individuals. They have a mission, the one of the educator, mentor, instigator who inspires creativity, builds collaborative spirit, invites thinking out of the box, welcomes innovative words, thoughts and deeds, serves the truth and the collective good. Many of them are sharing the fact of feeling dried out in order to meet their mission, exhausted, by their efforts to motivate people and take care of people, gain their attention and pass the message, or numbed and overwhelmed, surrendering to the superficial and the quick during the educational process.

Business people

take special seminars on non-violent communication, empathic leadership, peaceful communication. Being entrenched by the paradigms of competition, inequality, exclusion, individuality, disconnectedness, at least in our western or westernised world, they often feel weak and incompetent to deal with disagreements, insults, conflicts, negations, injustice, misfortunes during their performance and competitive attitude by other employees and ‘collaborators’ or even violence both physical and psychological.

Social workers, civil servants, people working in the health sector

are often ‘obliged’ to follow the ‘norm’ dictated by external factors, bigger than them, i.e. their superior’s word, money control, the big profit, universities’ curriculum. They get to serve a story written and cultivated by paradigms of separation and dishonesty. They are driven away from the true, and thus beautiful, feeling empty inside due to this disconnection. They may or may not realise this gap. In both cases, people try to justify their choices and by doing that they step even further away from the truth and the peace inside. They also make efforts to fill the gap, mainly in subconscious level, with superficial means (i.e. more food, junk food and drink, disastrous habits, frill gadgets etc.) without focusing on the root of the cause.

Parents

of our western world get deeply overwhelmed by their everyday tasks and the stimuli around them. Information, images, messages, announcements, screens…plus their responsibility towards their child(ren) and family, plus their taking care of themselves plus their interests and hobbies plus… It is amazingly easy to jump into the trap of pluralism, in order to feel competent, adequate, successful as parents, spouses and adults. They do not easily cooperate with teachers and educators when they hear something ‘negative’ regarding THEIR child, their prince/princess. They could reject pieces of information as threat or at least inconvenience to their own story. Not rarely are they not in the position to see facts and truths, acting through their mentality programs and established beliefs. Thus, they push people away, they do not get the support they need, they feel miserable and tired everyday, often drawn away from their own needs, the needs of their children and spouse. Do they really listen to what their child/teacher/spouse is telling them? Do they listen to his/her emotions and needs behind the words? Are they in the position to ‘fish’ the needs of an upset teacher or school principle? Do they try to connect with the other person, making clear at the same time their emotional state and needs as well? How could they do that?

Programme

Day 1

  • Introductions
  • Frameworks
  • Explorations

Day 2

Peace interactions, communication & leadership

Day 3

Peace food, material and non-material

Day 4

Peaceful subtle advocacy. Game Changing. Contributing to the Story of Connection

Day 5

  • Practical Implementation
  • Outdoor activity

Duration: 5 days

Dates: Upon request

Location: Athens

Participation fee

The fee for this course is 670 Euros. More information on these funding criteria can be found on our Erasmus+ Workshop pages.

It includes tuition fee and educational material, certificates of participation and Europasses, welcome reception, closure activities & peace food dinner, one week card for all means of transportation in the city of Athens, half day excursion to idyllic Neptune Temple at Sounion Cape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounion) in Attica seaside (or similar).

Accommodation and meals are not included in the above fee, but can be arranged by FRACTALITY at special price/low cost for half or full board, in three or four star hotels in the city center. We can always manage low prices for groups. Ask us about it!

Questions to explore

So, here are some questions for us:

  • How could we reconnect with our creative and true self so as to be able to connect with other people genuinely?
  • How could we master our inner noise which provides the space for worries, anxieties, animosity, conflicts, solitude, physical, psychological imbalance to flourish?
  • Which is the call of a peaceful, self-actualising, creative and beneficial to the collective leadership?
  • Which are the ways we support the manifestation of peace in our everyday life, through our everyday choices in our home and family life, in our workplace, through our meals and general consumption, our way of communicating and interacting with people, animals, resources, nature and any kind of environment?
  • Which are the tools to achieve a joyful and meaningful professional life?
  • How could we be peace advocates and subtle game changers in our life?