I run a workshop called 'Visioning World Peace'. It takes me to various events around the world...
"Discover and share your vision of peace"
"What does it look like? Sound like? Feel like? Smell like? Taste like?"
I want people to leave the workshop buzzing about the possibilities of World Peace. It's simple but effective. It's aim is to give people space and time to imagine themselves in a world at peace. Many people don't even believe World Peace is possible. So, within the workshop we play with the idea - softly - using imagination - without thinking about all the 'bad' things that could get in the way. We then share our visions of a world at peace. By talking about these visions we can assist each other into bringing them to reality. That's the idea.
What people have said:
- Chris Johnstone, author of Find Your Power, said: "Daniel is an excellent group facilitator. His workshop invited me to connect with my vision for a positive future - I found it inspiring. I really liked his approach and I'd strongly recommend his workshops."
Events where I will (or hope to) run the workshops in 2008:
- Buddhafield - 16 to 20 July 2008 - UK - CONFIRMED
- Healing Field Gathering - 30 July to 3 August 2008 - UK - CONFIRMED
- Earthwise Gathering - 8 to 10 August 2008 - UK - CONFIRMED
- Unity Gathering - 9 to 16 August 2008 - UK - CONFIRMED
- Out of the Ordinary Festival - 12 to 14 September 2008 - UK - CONFIRMED
I'll also be hanging out at:
- WOMAD Charlton Park - 25 to 27 July 2008 - UK
But feel free to invite me (see below)...
This workshop is transforming each time I run it. Things become more clear... When we think about a World at Peace it's very easy to get frustrated and confused as all these conflicting thoughts come in to our head. It's also very easy to go round in circles to the point that thinking about it is just painful. But in taking the Visions workshop I'm seeing that the more we can consciously analyze our thoughts the more we can deal with the issues in a calm and rational way. What's really become clear - thanks to all of the participants working on this - is that if we can take our Visions of a World at Peace through a design process then we can be a lot clearer about how to proceed.
So, thoughts can be put in boxes: aims/goals, hinderances, resources, materials, processes, etc. Then we can look at dependancies between different ideas and so make decisions about what can be done first and build a timeline of action. All in a clear and rational way. What's also interesting is that this clarity of thought and design can be applied to any goal. In picking world peace the challenges are so much more acute and the emotional responses so much greater that one can really see the benefits of clear thinking straight away.
Feedback has been really great and leads me to proceed with running with the workshop. People seem to appreciate the space to play with and express their own vision of a world at peace - without having to justify the possibility of it happening - we stress that we should concentrate on the positive. I, for one, get an immense sense of hope, clarity and happiness by just sitting and visioning a beautiful world at peace. And seeing everyone share their own visions gives me such a confidence boost to carry on, I can tell you! ;-)
I'm very open to invitations to run this workshop at events and festivals - please email me at: visions at daha dot co dot uk .
- My preferred time to run the workshop is in the late morning, starting between 1100 and 1130 and lasting between 1 and 1.5 hours.
- My desire is for a self-contained space that'll hold around 10 people, comfortably and quietly, with space to move around yet also without us being lost in a huge space.
- I prefer not to use amplified sound for my voice.
- I like to hold my workshop everyday so that there's some continuity though the festival and a sense of growing the ideas that we gather. But obviously that's down to time/space availability.
Past events. Been and gone and great...
2007:
- Big Green Gathering - 1 to 5 August 2007 - UK
- Thursday 02/08/2007 1400-1530 - Little Bag End, Ethics Spirituality Philosophy Field
- Glastonbury - 22 to 24 June 2007 - UK
- Friday 22/06/2007 1700-1800 - Speakers Forum, Green Futures Field
- Buddhafield - 11 to 15 July 2007 - UK
- Sunrise Celebration - 31 May to 3 June 2007 - UK
- Thursday 31/05/2007 1445-1645 - Solar Temple, Sacred Heart Area
- Friday 01/06/2007 1500-1600 - Rainbow Fayre Workshops Space, Tipi Village
- Saturday 02/06/2007 1230-1330 - Earth Circus Dome, Campaigns Area
- UK National Rainbow Family Beltane Gathering - 24 April to 10 May 2007 - UK
- Ragley Green Fair - 5 to 7 May 2007 - UK 2006:
- Big Green Gathering - 2 to 6 August 2006 - UK
- Buddhafield - 12 to 16 July 2006 - UK
- Sunrise Summer Solstice Celebration - 16 to 21 June 2006 - UK
- Earthwise - 1 to 4 June 2006 - UK 2005:
- Festival of Life - September 2005 - London, UK
- Big Green Gathering - August 2005 - UK
- Buddhafield - July 2005 - UK
- Sydney Confest - April 2005 - AU 2004:
- Confest - December 2004 - AU
- United Diversity - February 2004 - London, UK
Reoccurring themes:
Over time themes and ideas keep popping up in the workshop. These themes seem to mainly fall into one of two camps: ideas that hinder us and ideas and assist us going forward to realising inner and outer peace. Here are some of them...
Things that assist us:
- We are all one
- Action
- Responsibility
- Talking from the self - using the "I" word
- Openness and transparency
- Creating
- Abundance - there's always enough
- Truth
- Understanding that the "means create the ends"
- Distributed power structure - autonomy
- Love
- Acceptance and appreciation of the now - but the next moment is full of new possibilities
Things that hinder us:
- Blame
- Protest
- Destroying
- It's got to get worse before it gets better
- Scarcity - there's not enough
- Playing the Devil's advocate
- Centralised and/or global government
- Fear
- World Peace is not possible
- Human nature