How To Find Peace Of MindHow To Find Peace Of Mind

Peace of mind and harmony – one of the prerequisites for finding a complete and happy life. We feel more confident and full when we are in a state of inner peace! This is the state when we are balanced, attentive, and conscious. Being in critical situations or circumstances that are not comfortable for us, peace begins to leave us. But having resumed classes that help to find inner silence, life is gradually improving again. Many people pass through this circle. From this, we can conclude: “If you do not have time for rest, it means that it is necessary for you.”

What is peace of mind, and why do we need it?

Peace of mind is a state of harmony with oneself and with the whole world. But above all, the order is a balance. If we compare the soul with a musical instrument, then the inner calm state is when the strings of the soul sound harmoniously and naturally. The sound is beautiful and pleasant for everyone! But when we are tense and fussy, the music will be strained, unnatural, and unpleasant.

Staying in the peace of mind, we are full of energy and in a good mood! We efficiently manage to resist the illnesses and bad attitude of others, and we are better at doing any work. We become more creative; we analyze better and solve problems faster. When peace of mind leaves us, and we get out of balance, the energy drops, we attract depression and illness. During the internal stress, we do not get much as we would like, and we make more mistakes.

Every time as soon as we get angry, fussing in vain, or fall into depression, etc., we seem to spill precious energy from our vessel of the soul. This energy is challenging to replenish! Think twice before the next time, indiscreetly, get out of yourself, start to get nervous, angry, think negatively, think, speak, and fuss about it in vain.

Peace of mind is a natural state for a person; that is why it is so necessary and desirable for us! When it disappears, we begin to experience discomfort and uncertainty. On the subconscious mind, we want to return to this state. There is a desire to “be yourself” or take a walk in the park to restore spiritual harmony.

The inner peace of mind is confused by many with lethargy, laziness, or apathy. But it is not so! You can make an active external activity while maintaining inner peace. An event even, as a rule, turns out to be an order of magnitude better when you are in a state of inner calm. This is the state in which you are collected, aware, and attentive.

Only within yourself can one find peace and confidence. There is no peace and stability in the world around us, and everything around is in a state of constant changeability. How can we cope with the unpredictability of life? Only by accepting it! Tell yourself: “I am ready for all surprises and meet them with calm clarity.” Make a decision: “Whatever happens, I can do it in the best way possible.” What is happening around is not so important, what is happening inside is essential! The ship does not sink when it is in water, and it drops when water is in it. Whatever the fuss and chaos you are in, it is much more critical to maintain inner peace of mind. You lose if you lose your awareness, tense, angry, or hurt. What matters is not the circumstances, but how we react to them!

How to keep the mind in peace under any circumstances?

• Adoption. Take everything as it is; it will give you ease. Learn to accept people and circumstances as they are, without the desire to adjust to their standards and wishes. Also, learn to accept and love yourself as you are, with all the mistakes and shortcomings!
• Attention. Remove the focus of attention from the stimulus and focus it on yourself, on your inner world, on the sensations in the body. Abstracted from external factors and irritants.
• Deep relaxation. Remove anxiety, haste, anger, resentment, etc. If there is tension in the body, remove it. Be inner relaxed!
• Breath. Watch your breath; breath evenly and calmly, with a full chest. Exhalation should not be shorter in the duration of inhalation. Take a deep breath and exhale. Keep breathing evenly and measured.
• Awareness. Be as conscious and collected as possible.
• Think positive. Stop creating negative thoughts, and if such people have still made their way into the consciousness, then watch them, watch how they leave you and dissolve, like waves from a stone thrown into the lake. Try to think well of others, about yourself, about life.
• Respect. Respect yourself and others.
• Confidence. Be confident in yourself. Encourage yourself; tell yourself, “I will succeed.”
• Naturalness. Try to be natural, relaxed, and liberated.
• Smile. Smile often. Smile always looking in the mirror, communicating with other people. Smile from the heart and be in a joyful mood. Treat everything with humor!

Be, without unnecessary thoughts. Be present in the current moment. Be a bystander. Watch the events taking place removed; track the causes of events, without feelings. Just be.

If you want to protect yourself from all adversity, you have chosen the wrong planet. Here we are always faced with situations pushing us out of the comfort zone and unbalancing. We must always be prepared for this challenge. There is always lesson to extract, a positive experience, and an opportunity to move on!

About the author

Melisa Marzett is a content writer who is currently working for http://www.essay-editor.net/ and enjoying life just the way it is. She lives in harmony and peace with herself and loves what she does for a living. She loves to move around, and she cannot stand still, traveling is something that excites her. Also, she is a healthy lifestyle and a gym enthusiast, so she makes it to where she can find a sports center to go to whatever place she visits.

WHERE IS YOUR INNER DEVELOPMENT LEADING YOU WHERE IS YOUR INNER DEVELOPMENT LEADING YOU

By Melisa Marzett

People happen to fall into the trap and I am not an exception. Do I know where my inner development is leading me? That is a good question I will try to answer with the following article. Therefore, there are many special-made psychological pictures and unfortunately, I belong to that kind of person who falls within most of them. Let me tell you about a few out of them so you could get an idea of my inner development.

A trap of promising future

This is kind of a trap I got it when I was a student. This trap, in which young people more often fall, can also be called a trap of unfulfilled expectations. The trap of a rainbow future lies in overly optimistic expectations about the future and the reassessment of one’s capabilities.

In particular, the majority of adolescent girls present their future husband as beautiful, attentive and well-to-do, without thinking about what the actual percentage of handsome, thoughtful and wealthy men is to the total male population, and how big the competition is in this regard.

As one gains life experience from a person who adequately perceives reality, ideas about their capabilities and prospects change, becoming more objective, while a person trapped in a rainbow future, not noticing the obvious, continues to hover in the clouds until painful disappointment will not lower him to the ground.

Frustration, in this case, turns out to be much more difficult and painful than it would be for a person who is more soberly assessing reality. In this case, the pain is caused not so much by the circumstances that led to the collapse of hopes, but by the destruction of the carefully cherished and fostered “picture of the bright future.”

As a result, not too tragic life events can be perceived as a catastrophe, as “the end of everything,” although in reality, this is not the end of life, not the future, but the end of an unrealistic dream of the future, which, you see, is a different matter.

The counter-act, in this case, is the realization that our life, at any moment, can change in one direction or the other in the most unpredictable way. Instead of clinging to dubious fantasies about the future, increase your possibilities in the present, try to see and use the chances that life gives you, learn to be flexible and ready for change, and then, perhaps, in time you will achieve even more than you wanted — at the beginning, avoiding the pain and disappointment arising from the collapse of unfulfilled expectations.

The past-positive trap

This is what is happening to me now after divorce. It is one of the most common pitfalls that people over 30 years old mostly fall into.

Instead of living for today, a person with nostalgic melancholy recalls the past, dreaming of returning the “golden days of childhood,” first love, friends, the lost feeling of lightness and lightness of being, etc. As a result, he has the belief that “everything the best is over, «that he will never be so happy and other thoughts of this kind.

Living in the past, a person not only spends his emotional energy on nostalgic experiences but also programs himself to the fact that “he will never be so good again.” It is quite natural that under such conditions, he has neither the strength nor the desire to look for positive experiences in real life, in the events taking place now.

The counter-reception may not be a selectively positive memory of the past, but more complete memories, in which the good along with with with the bad, the pleasant with the unpleasant. This will help to understand that childhood or youth, as well as life now, besides enjoyable experiences, was also filled with problems and conflicts.

Remembering unpleasant episodes from the past, one should rethink his life strategy and understand that the problem is not that the present is worse than the past, but that a person immersed in nostalgic memories does not make active attempts to make his present better, to find more joy in it and opportunities.

A negative prediction trap

This trap is my current condition, along with the trap mentioned above. None other than our instinct of self-preservation places the trap into which many people fall. Thanks to civilization, man has got rid of practically all the dangers threatening him in nature: predators, hunger, and thirst do not threaten him or cold, even diseases, with rare exceptions, are treatable. As a result, the remaining almost out of work, but the instinct of self-preservation that has not disappeared switches from real danger to a person to imaginary threat, and the person begins to present all sorts of troubles that have not yet happened, but may well occur.

The mass media also contributes to the strengthening of negative fantasies – from the news that continually talks about the horrors of our lives and ending with soap operas, whose heroes suffer from compulsive regularity from misfortunes falling on them. Empathizing with the screen heroes, some people identify with them and begin to imagine that something similar could happen to them.

The experience of imaginary future troubles, tragedies and disasters not only takes a tremendous amount of energy, but also does not allow a person to focus on the events taking place at the moment, and effectively solve current problems. In most cases, negative forecasts are not justified, but despite this, the damage has already been done.

Often, the fear of what may happen, especially the pursuing of a person over time, does more harm than the unpleasant event itself.

The counter-act, in this case, is control over your thoughts. As soon as you notice that you have fallen into fantasies about a negative future, turn your attention to the present. Look for the right side in life; try to think about positive things. Predicting the future is impossible, and worrying about what you do not know is utterly pointless.

Convince yourself that if any trouble happens, you will find a way to overcome it, and having overcome it, you will forget about it.

About the author:
Melisa Marzett is a freelance writer and is fond of psychology. She is currently working for http://smartessayrewriter.com/ and practices meditation and positive thinking. She admires people who can do things with their hands and enjoy crafts

WHY HUMANITY WILL ALWAYS WINWHY HUMANITY WILL ALWAYS WIN

By Alice Gatignol

At a time like this where politics, inequalities, climate change and over-consumerism are grey zones that pollute our positivity, and trigger doubts on the integrity of humankind, it is important to take a step back from judgment and remember – we are all only human.

It took me a solid 26 years, a good share of experiences, and this moment of silence (silence from humans that is, as the sounds of the waterfall and humming insects guide my pen), to realise how much love, and kindness, compose happiness.
The best and foremost example I can turn to is children. Living a few months in one of the most rural of communities in Nepal, I have come across a good number of children; and in all honesty, other than the language, they are quite similar to everywhere else in the world! Well, some do tend to wear make-up, but that’s a traditional, cultural practice.
When a child cries, all he hopes for is a hug, care, affection, love. Being surrounded by other humans, feeling loved and looked after, are things babies long for; fulfill those needs and they will pop a smile. Shout at them and they will cry – whether it is justified or not. The test is quasi-inevitable. You can be in the busiest neighbourhood of Hong Kong, in a celebrity home in Hollywood, or in a brazilian slum, these reactions are natural, human instinct. Love, a feeling of kindness, makes people happy. It’s not culture, it’s nature. It’s human.

We’ve all had fights and disagreements that have kept our minds in a grey space without any prospect of an exit sign around, no access to a happier place. We’ve all fed off – and do everyday – from how we feel. There is a French expression that translates to “appetite comes as you eat,” it is applicable for every single human emotion, not just appetite. We lock ourselves up into our emotions, omitting the power we have to flip them over.

Who hasn’t locked themself in a room, turned the lights out and bawled under a mountain of pillows and stuffed animals to the rhythm of a sad tune? It is all a question of context. We are the fruit of our own imagination, we create ourselves and we live through the contexts interpreted by our mind. Nothing exists, except in our soul. And forever, you will only ever experience your own vision of things, your own interpretation. Certainly, you will do things that will hurt others, due to the differences of interpretations, the different contexts, the clash of the minds. Likewise, you will certainly be hurt for the same exact reasons. Humans will do things they believe are right; for them, morally, sometimes for others. In fact, I would challenge you to find someone who sees themself as “the bad guy”. We are all ourselves’ “good guy”. We all try, as best as we can, with the tools we’ve got in hand, to do things “right”, according to our conceptions, to spread love and kindness in our own way, however we can, have been taught, observed, or interpreted as love. We all do our best to trust our minds on the context of our emotions, to be good, and to do good. Take the time to understand this, to understand how you work, to be more forgiving, more understanding, more positive. Believe in yourself, and believe in others. Once you are aware that this applies for yourself, be aware it applies to the other 7 billion people we share this planet with. Keep trying, we will all win, because we are all human, and we all aspire to feel, spread, and share love.

THE WELLBEING JOURNEY THE WELLBEING JOURNEY

By Andreas Heinecke.

Three quotes are in my mind:

“Yesterday I was clever and wanted to change the world. Today I am wise and want to change myself.” – Rumi

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi

“I am a worm. But at least a glow worm.” – Winston Churchill

Let’s keep the quotes in mind for the time being. How do I share my experiences? How do I talk about The Wellbeing Project? How do I find the right words for a matter of the heart? Let me start at the beginning. We all benefit from the newsletters and invitations we receive from the Schwab Foundation or Ashoka. Three years I received information about The Wellbeing Project with an invitation to apply. After a quick look I rejected the idea, as, under my German lens, the whole notion was a bit fluffy and, if I may say so: too American. What does wellbeing mean? Yoga and eating vegan came to mind, both things I do not practice. The idea was quickly forgotten, and I didn’t spend another minute thinking about becoming a traveler on a spiritual journey. Certainly I was far too busy, and not interested in spending time with other wellbeing seekers. Pressure in these days was extremely high. We were facing some serious financial issues, we wanted to merge with an international non-profit to gain scale and stability and then I became seriously sick with cancer. Despite financial troubles, we survived for another year. The merger failed with a lot of frustration. I underwent surgery. We all have times when we feel like hamsters in the wheel, see no way to get out, carry a huge load of responsibility, swing between megalomania and self-shrinkage, if I may say so. I am sure you know what I am talking about.

When I spoke with Bart Weetjens about my current challenges, he immediately pushed me to apply to The Wellbeing Project. I was a bit hesitant due to the mentioned reasons. Also, the deadline was too close to write a serious application. But I did it, and didn’t receive an answer. This was quite frustrating, and I dropped an angry line that I was at least expecting an answer. Wellbeing starts for me with respect, and I feel heavily disrespected when I do not receive an answer to a question. Very soon after my mail, I did receive a response, and was asked when I could meet Aaron Pereira, who was mentioned as the lead of The Wellbeing Project. Okay, no problem to meet Aaron, to talk with him and to learn more about The Wellbeing Project. We met, and he expressed pity for my situation, which wasn’t helpful for me. I don’t know how many times he said “I am so sorry,” which was irritating for me. Until then I had been able to get out of all the mess, and pity didn’t help me. In addition, I was pretty confused when he told me that The Wellbeing Project was not an occasion to better my professional performance and it had nothing to do with my career as a social entrepreneur. He knew cases where social entrepreneurs even stepped out and started something completely different. I remember thinking, “What the hell I am going to do with a program that may cause me to question and possibly give up my social enterprise?” A second interview with Nancy Mortifee, the dean of the Inner Development Program, followed. Another disappointment took place. If The Wellbeing Project was about my spiritual health, didn’t my wife need to join? How could I be healed without her? How could I implement the learnings when my better half wasn’t part of it? Nancy quickly made clear that the program was exclusively for me, and as much as she appreciated my attempt to bring my wife in, this was absolutely not possible. Okay, no wife, no job, fluffy perspectives, what the hell was I going to do with The Wellbeing Project? Shortly after the interview I got the good news of my acceptance as a member of the 3rd cohort. Great, but what did it mean?

I contacted two friends who had attended the program already and they praised the experience in the highest possible way. Life changing, no way to express the depth, you just have to do it, and so on. All this sounded like brainwashing, and I was quite skeptical of becoming a member of the wellbeing tribe. On the other hand, I was curious and eager to onboard and make the most of the opportunity. The perspectives were quite good: three retreats in nice places, all paid for and – most importantly – some holidays with like-minded people. I did receive an outline of the program, which gave me a bit more insight, and from this moment on, I took it very seriously. As the whole program was meant to help me as a person, I wanted to understand where I was in those days. What were my most bothering thoughts? How was I perceived by my closest friends?

I wrote a letter to myself, which I quickly stopped, because a rigid reflection about myself quickly led to a sort of self-destruction. Suddenly I questioned my whole narrative, and I wasn’t sure about the story I was telling. I felt fake, and had no answer to who I was after this psychological strip tease. I asked my friends how they saw me. What did they like and dislike? As they were real friends they didn’t just give me some nice remarks about how wonderful I was. I faced some critical remarks, which truly made sense for me. Wow, what a start.

The first retreat started. It took place in a beautiful landscape in the Swiss mountains. We were told to stay offline and not to talk about our business. Who I am offline when I am not able to talk about the center of my life? I can make it short: this first retreat was truly groundbreaking, as it gave me a complete and totally unexpected shift for the future. I decided to explore my handwriting, find a new balance of being on and offline, control my alcohol consumption, write a book and to take a sabbatical. That’s quite a lot, and can be only explained through the intensity of being challenged and loved in the same moment. Our lead facilitator Judith had and has a very strong personality, with a real authority. We did a “family constellation” based on Bert Hellinger’s methodology, which was very, very demanding. Suddenly, you witness so much pain and suffering around you. You understand that we all are pretenders, carrying a double identity of being super successful but simultaneously in the depths of despair. We returned to an infant stage, swinging in a second from joyfulness and happiness to sadness and pain. It was super demanding to be confronted with all your hidden stories and repressed memories, but then to be collected by personal care, friendship and love in truly difficult moments of your life. This first retreat was magic. It gave me a completely new direction, and after leaving the retreat I went to Antwerp to thank Bart. What a wonderful moment it is now to stand beside him and to have the chance to share my journey with you.

We are all giants of comprehension and dwarfs of execution. How often do we have best intentions that are absorbed by the “reality” of life? But – to my surprise – it stayed with me. I practiced what I preached and pledged, and planned where to spend my sabbatical carefully. This was the first time in my 30 years of being a human rights fighter that I allowed myself to take a break. A second and a third retreat followed. It was an emotional roller coaster, feeling connected and disconnected, a victim of my high expectations, surprised by myself, sometimes disappointed by the others, being confronted with more questions than answers, but deeply assured that this was the right way. The Wellbeing Project was the right way for me in that particular moment of my life. It helped me to get out of my routines, to see myself more than “just” a social entrepreneur. As a super ambitions person, I reconciled with and could accept my limitations a little bit better. One main sentence will stay for me forever: mindfulness is the awareness of non-intervention and the boldness to acquire a country house in Portugal. That’s a place where I feel serenity. I am a part of nature, and can sit on my stool and peel bamboo sticks for hours. Aaron was right. The Wellbeing Project didn’t help me to become a <<better>> social entrepreneur, and I sometimes have the feeling that I am less engaged. Maybe I learned to give more space to others and to trust them to find alternative ways to drive our mission. Maybe. But it made me a better person, as I feel more balanced, calm and less pressured.

These might not be huge efforts. But for me they mean a lot.

 

Coming back to the quotes:

Yes, through pain you gain. The Wellbeing Project is painful, and it confronts you with yourself in an unavoidable way. You must be super ignorant, if you don’t take the lessons.

Yes, we can gain wisdom, when we start to look at ourselves. Our mission and vision shouldn’t be an excuse to flee from ourselves.

Yes, we are worms, but at least we are glow-worms.

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORYA LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

By Mireya Vargas

A little bit of history….

I lived the first part of my life saving the world. From a very young age I began to work for the poorest of the poor. I worked with the missionaries in Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the school I went to; I then worked at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB) in “faith & happiness”. Later, I worked with other organizations or with organizations I created myself. My life ranged from researching poverty issues, helping civil society organizations push their wagons of salvation, working with aid agencies and businesses to identify rescuers and measure the impact of their actions. For almost 40 years, my personal life did not count. The only thing that mattered was commitment and the possibility of salvation that guided my tireless work.

Concern for my own wellbeing came later in my life. At the beginning of the second half of my life I went through a difficult family moment that changed me forever. I began Jungian psychotherapy in 1998 after my divorce. Years later, in 1999, I began my psychotherapeutic work with Dr. Rafael López-Pedraza, with whom I kept working for 15 years. It was a hard, painful and difficult time; a time of falling and rising, working on unknown emotions, stuck complexes, trying to bring into consciousness some of those elements of the psyche, to connect and/or transform them.

After Raphael’s death, that personal work became an inner daily task, with its ups and downs. Talking about the psyche with my husband is like drinking “café con leche” (in López’s words). A harmony with and a passion for the psychic accompanies us as a couple and helps to nourish our own psychic life. Everyday life is all about remembering dreams and commenting on them, working on images, getting into my complexities, which has been part of López’s legacy in me. This continuous search in my personal life is incessant. I keep exploring new approaches, reflecting on my own wellbeing and the expansion or deepening of my psyche.

My personal wellbeing journey started when I met Solomon Raydan, who spoke highly about The Wellbeing Project (TWP), a program he had been involved with in 2015. Solomon told me about the general purpose of the program and gave me a few hints of what they were doing, which sparked my curiosity and interest.

I can no longer remember exactly the way I met Aaron Pereira – Founder of TWP. However, the idea was to contact him to establish some kind of agreement for us to replicate the initiative in Latin America. In that I was insistent, as with everything that I was passionate about. An instinct that there might be something valuable there was driving me.

Despite my limitations with the language, I finally met Aaron, who suggested that I apply to the program. He felt that only by living the experience would I be able to assess whether it was the type of initiative I wanted to promote. Also, he thought it would be useful to experience working in my own wellbeing. This seemed to me a bit of a strange answer. If there was anything I had experience in, it was personal psychotherapeutic work, but it seemed like a challenging offer at a time when López-Pedraza was no longer there and I found myself without any personal work.

I didn’t think twice about it. I didn’t have much information, beyond that described on the Web, but I agreed and started the journey. A letter of intent served as a prelude to the work ahead. Some very personal questions began to appear, and the only questions about my work were about my professional challenges. There were no questions regarding my work in sustainable development, no questions about poverty measurement, nothing about working methodologies in development or in measuring impacts. I did not understand why there were so many questions regarding my personal and professional challenges, how I addressed my personal wellbeing, or how I planned to work on my wellbeing. I ran out of answers and could only write a few babbles in that initial document.

I gained confidence on the program when I learned that the other participants were also agents of change. That made a difference because it gave me elements of belonging that were important. Entrepreneurs have a nature that coincide with mine: people who have intuitions and see solutions to problems, who build ideas like architects and who design work solutions to teach others. Entrepreneurs are passionate for their creations. They are committed to results as well as to changing the world. That generated an empathy that made me feel comfortable with the idea of being in the group and trust that I was in good hands.

After almost two years I read this initial questionnaire again and it showed me the reason why I was looking for a greater wellbeing. I saw the shallow relationship I had with my emotional life and its varieties, I saw how disconnected I was from my physical body, I saw how hyperactive I was in order to avoid missing my purpose and/or action, I saw how I was filling my life with activities and how I never stopped. With that expectation I was accepted and the story began (or continued).

The first meeting: Puerto Escondido

I arrived in Mexico City full of expectations and internal conflicts. That same day I traveled to Puerto Escondido, and arrived in the afternoon at a hotel in the city. I saw an elderly woman sitting in a secluded place with her veil on. I locked myself in my room and, although there was a dinner announced, I decided to stay there and wait.

The next day was the first meeting. We departed to Puerto Escondido and arrived at a house. Three people were expected in my room but no one arrived during the day. I was relieved because I was going to sleep alone and it was a real achievement, after having insisted on having a room for myself and not getting it. When I returned from dinner to the room, an open, messy suitcase on my bed… the other person had arrived. I met her later that night: she was Vera, a Brazilian who spoke some Spanish, but most of the time in Portuguese and who ended up being a blessing in my life.

I can tell you thousands of anecdotes about this first meeting in Puerto Escondido. The truth was that everything was disconcerting to me, but I decided to give myself to whatever came along. As the Mercedes Sosa song says, “Change, everything changes, and if everything changes, it is not strange that I change….”.

The first big shock was when we showed up and were given the instruction that we could not talk about our work. It was as if we were suddenly left naked – how could we not talk about our work? About our successes and failures in saving others? About our methodologies and our research? About everything we know about poverty? This had a huge impact on me and left me completely adrift. Showing myself in this way made my stay more difficult, but I was willing.

Chris, Steve and Patrice would take care of the group work and our body work. With Nancy, I had one-on-one sessions. Little by little I began to enter into the dynamic. I understood that this work was inward: a journey into my psyche, an introspection into my depths, into everything that I value that costs me and that constitutes my life. My own psychic life. But step by step, little by little, connecting thousands of disconnected cables that I hadn’t noticed before.

First of all: the connection to breathing. Breathing, that mechanical act that gives us life, about which we have no reflection or consciousness. That mystery that shakes our body but puts us in life, in its continuity. That essential, primary, ground wire that is very easily faded but is fundamental to life itself. It is the essential reality that puts us here and now, that connects us to each lived instant, to the immediate, imminent, continuous reality.

Then: breathe and meditate. A progression I’m still working on. Learning to breathe, to be conscious, which necessarily involves an introspection that is difficult to achieve. In that task I continue… breathing, meditating. Learning to do both routines, trying to make people aware of them. One because it is so immersed in the body’s routines that it is imperceptible and difficult to notice, even though it is totally evident. The other, because it supposes a disposition, a connection, to calm your thoughts, to calm your anguishes, which assails your consciousness, your thoughts. It is all about being still with nothing in your mind, just feelings, emotions, or simply in stillness.

One more step: breathe, meditate and connect with the body. Body work has also been central. To make sounds, to recognize oneself in them. To move, to feel that you release the body, to feel that you have a body, to feel with the body, to read your emotions with the body, to move and to be moved by the body, to feel the body. Recognize the sounds your body makes, the sensations on your skin, what moves the movement in you, the connection with sounds, music, body expression. Express yourself with the body, speak from the body, understand the body language. Feel nothing or feel everything, differentiate sensations, feel emotions in the body and cry or laugh with the body.

All this was very confusing and demanding for me. I felt like I was at a minus-zero level. I “realized” that despite all the work I had done in psychotherapy, my body and my emotional body did not match. My body had no real emotions, or was far from being aware of that combination of body and soul, of psyche, of integrated psychic life. It was as if I suddenly realized that I had a body beyond what I recognized.

And then the group work: more breathing, more meditating, more body. For some it meant bringing their personal history and stuck pieces of history to the group. For others it was working on their current complexes, their shadows, their dissonances in personal life. And for some of us the work was on the emotions, on the disconnection from them, their ignorance or their recognition. The personal work was contained in the group and the simple question of what you want to work on gave way to individuality with repercussions in the group.

A tone of respect, high-level facilitators and individual commitment gave way to each other’s work as a group. Tears, laughter, silences, varied emotions and “locha falls” accompanied us in each session. For me it was part of the same axis of introspection with meditation, breathing, the body and my personal complexities. A first level that placed us in the psychic life and the commitment to work in our own personal wellbeing.

Then the first reflections on one’s own wellbeing began to appear. Now I understood that it had to do with taking care of myself, my physical life, my psychic life, doing routines of care. It was an aspect that went beyond my psychotherapy, being aware of my complexities, working with the dark or unknown. It was like working on that brighter, more skin-like, outer aspect, which would lead to a better balance with my inner self. In that sense, wellbeing began to be a notion of skin, of body, of personal care.

In between

We left with the task of continuing the personal work. And the return to everyday life brought back an emotional memory of the experience.

The first few days the routines were filled with information and practice. As the days went by, I began to do some routines of meditation and breathing on my own. Just that, sometimes without continuity, sometimes with determination. Nothing was easy about these changes in routines, as they were changes in practices that have been in place for years of my life.

To realize the emotion experienced at every moment was much more difficult, and the body was always the most forgotten aspect. However, in practice, I continued in my daily life with my gymnastics/dance, taking care of food, walking once a week and enjoying what I did. I still deal with the anxiety, the sadness and the depression, but a kind of serenity began to appear. An inner silence, a bit of peace which was shading all those experiences.

The monthly follow-up was used to reinforce the work. The intimate conversation with the psychotherapist about aspects of the life of each of the three of us allowed us to discuss issues that affected us in some way in our daily lives or in life in general. The topics that came up were very personal. We witnessed each other’s work, which always left a learning curve.

In my case, the suffering for the country, the forced move, the foot in and out, the loss of relationships and affections, the loss of routines, my anxiety levels, the changes in my way of working, the weaning of many initiatives driven by me in my country, the distance from the office, the geographical complexes that were expressed in longings for places, the strangeness of the new, life outside. In short, each month was an opportunity for reflection, for interior work, for the revision of life itself.

Containment was provided by the group. Emotional memory plays a central role in what happens when you need support: you remember what someone said, or you get excited by a memory, or you repeat an exercise done, a phrase said, your notes. From the small group of three, containment was provided on a monthly basis at each teleconference. A kind of mutual support developed in listening to each other, in the silences, in the spontaneous laughter or even in the shared crying. The mediator (the psychotherapist), served as a guiding thread and brought us into the process.

The work of each and every one at once was part of the call. An initial breathing exercise, a few minutes to feel the body, was the beginning of the two-hour journey we had to make every month. And it was a reminder of all the essentials of personal care, being present, awareness and routine care.

Two hours was the limit, and in that time the work was given. Setting limits on all program activities has also been important for learning about what you should not go beyond, what you should not violate, respect for what is established, for each other’s time, and for your own time. Time was undoubtedly a critical element of the process and the limits around it derive learning for other spheres of life.

Also the limits in secrecy. Intimacy, secrecy, privacy, caring for the life of the other was part of that containment and those limits of the program. Not only because of the signed confidentiality agreement, but because those limits were set from the beginning. It was part of the respect for the other, the integrity of the process and the people involved, the very inspiration of the programme.

All this follow-up work provided the necessary continuity for the process to take shape and become a daily practice. But, in addition, it was deepened in oneself, so that the activity offered the support and the necessary elements to continue.

The second meeting: Esalen

Going to the Mecca of personal wellbeing awakened a lot of excitement in me. Esalen is well known in the psychotherapeutic world as the place of arrival, where everything related to personal therapies is learned. For me it was a reference for my work. It is said to be an ideal place to learn everything about methodologies such as Gestalt, Mindfulness, body work, building relationships and yoga, among many others. But above all, it is nature: open, splendid, welcoming.

We arrived at Esalen with more elements than at the first meeting. We knew each other, somehow we loved each other, we were surprised and longed to continue working together. Smiles, hugs, an enormous emotion, a great affinity, feeling like travel companions, one body, was the general feeling that reigned.

In Esalen, nature imposes itself. A wide esplanade that ends in an immense sea. A few trees that accompany the view of the sea or the cliffs. That immense, untamed, mysterious nature invaded and superimposed itself on us. Also the intimacy of the space where we did the activities, the ways to arrive or leave, those sunsets of silence, or the sunrises full of a special light. Greys accompanied by intense blues of the sea and sky, inviting you to stare at them in ecstasy.

This second trip marked a turning point for me. It was the deepest level of work in all this transit through TWP. Not only because of the body work we deepened, but also because of the levels of work with the psyche itself.

Most importantly, I achieved an almost primordial level of introspection. We went to a forest to do a session in nature. A task was entrusted to us and we had to connect. An image of a woman (Chris) dressed as a leopard in the middle of the forest with a ray of light resting on top of her disturbed me. The next day’s session, it was my turn to present and I couldn’t do it. I threw up, I lost consciousness, I still wonder: What happened? What connected that primordial image? What brought that Artemisal image to my life? What meaning does the connection with that pure nature in the forest have? Is it hunting, are they wild animals, is it the virgin land? Or is it with the virginal, virginity, maidens? What impact does that image have on my psyche?

At this level I began to understand the value of the image. That’s the real transformation. The image brings us the possibility of connection with the archetypal, with what is essential to the psyche. And in my case, that Artemisal image has a real psychic impact. But that showing up is not a task to be done. It is a happening, an epiphany, an apparition in my here and now, an instinctive reflection which demands an individual response, a connection with one’s own complexities and a good dose of emotional energy.

I am still reflecting on the same thing and that image of the forest remains in me in an intimate, disturbing, appeasing way. With that confusion I closed Esalen and continued in it. But the emotional connection remains.

What I believe I have learned from this process is about reading the image in me. Because it is not only that “appearing” of the image, but the relationship with the dream life itself, with dreams, with the images of dreaming, or the fantasy that I have developed in everyday life. All the psychological work that I have been doing for years with psychotherapy is finally done in the body, embodied in the emotional body and brings a connection to the images with which I try to maintain an emotional connection. Esalen brought that synthesis and opened a way for me to reflect on the image in the body, in the emotional body that I am just beginning to understand.

The third meeting: Morocco

Morocco is the synthesis of a process. Not only because it opened up a new continent for me, Africa, but also because it put me in a territory of unlived emotions, full of the colours of that country.

This third encounter was charged with an openness to learning the unknown. The knowledge of oneself, of the relationship with the other, of the emotional life, of the emotional body, of the varieties of psychic life. An accumulation of learning that was settling down, that was consolidating, that was closing in on itself.

Everything was aimed at consolidating what had been learned, at working on “weaning”, separation and closing the process. Many insecurities, questions arose in me about how to continue, how to keep alive the relationship with others, how to reinforce the work of full attention, or meditation or appreciation of the little things in life, or the inner emotional resonance, the connection with the here and now, the enjoyment and suffering, or the emotions of life.

Another goal was to consolidate the affective network that was created among the members of the group. A chat open to the attention and care of the other, to be present; a word that gives you emotional support at a given time.

Meanwhile we enjoyed the geography, the cuisine, the colours of Morocco and learned to enjoy the everyday things of life in a different way. We learned to appreciate the other, the relationship with oneself, from the difficulties or goodness, from what each one of us is, with its complexities, its slowness, its shadows, its power, its goodness.

We close Morocco with a suitcase full of reflections, thoughts, tools, new forms, becoming customs, becoming a habit, but, above all, a reflection on oneself and one’s own wellbeing.

Today I understand my own personal wellbeing as a process, as a journey to my own inner self, to my own psychic life, to the re-knowledge of my psyche and its complexities. Wellbeing is having a profound relationship with what one is in essence, with life from within and without, with the divine and the human, with what I am and can become, with my silences and my noises, with my peace and my anxiety, with my sadness or joys, with my complexities and my shadows, with my entire emotional life. It is psychic life full of images, of moving, connecting, disturbing images. It’s suffering, it’s growing up with difficulty, it’s falling and rising. It is, in short, to live life psychically.

WE ARE THRILLED TO START EXPLORING THE ISSUE OF INNER WELLBEING IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL CHANGE MORE BROADLY – LOOKING AT “HOW ARE WE DOING?” – TOGETHER WITH IMPACT HUB AND THE FORD FOUNDATION, WHO ARE TWO KEY ANCHORS WITHIN THIS 6-MONTH SURVEY PROCESS. WE ARE THRILLED TO START EXPLORING THE ISSUE OF INNER WELLBEING IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL CHANGE MORE BROADLY – LOOKING AT “HOW ARE WE DOING?” – TOGETHER WITH IMPACT HUB AND THE FORD FOUNDATION, WHO ARE TWO KEY ANCHORS WITHIN THIS 6-MONTH SURVEY PROCESS.

By Sean Bellamy-  Founder and teacher at Sands School, 1987- present day.

“To care for the teacher is to love the learner” Lao Tzu, founder of Daoism

Teaching is one of the best jobs in the world. Watching our students grow and blossom is the reward for our efforts. Watching the shy child take centre stage and the questioning child open our eyes with their ideas: this is the lifeblood that feeds our hearts and makes us want to get up in the morning to do it all over again. But the pressure of targets, league tables and exam results dilutes the magic that makes a great teacher.

Teaching is a form of magic. It is alchemy in which we try to help young people find the gold within themselves. We hold, inspire, support, care for and transform the opportunities of our next generation.

The anthropologist and author Ursula le Guin wrote a beautiful novel, the Earthsea Trilogy, about a young wizard called Ged. In his training, he was taught this fundamental truth about the act of magic: to change a thing, you must first know its ‘real name’. To change a rock into a flower you must first understand the qualities of both. Every child has a real name. The essence of who they are and who they may become. If we understand their real names, we can help them transform. If we teach them without ‘knowing them’, we are teaching rocks. We make this magic of transformation happen every day, in every culture and every situation across the globe. In war zones, in ghettos and in the inner cities we turn rocks into flowers. In classrooms across the planet, from the remote village school of a few children to schools where children are invisible within the sheer scale of the learning enterprise, we weave our spells and struggle to find the ‘real name’ of every child. Yet we work in a world that asks endlessly of us and gives back too rarely. As such, we often walk into our classrooms unfit for the very thing we care so much about. If we are unable to cope with the never-ending, ever-changing series of demands and pressures we face, we cannot provide the quality teaching and learning experience expected of us. We will not be the great teachers we aspired to be when we entered the profession.

Stress is now our constant companion.

Self doubt is its bed fellow. They walk into class with us and leave with us at the end of each day. Stress weakens the immune system. A weakened immune system means sickness. Sickness leads to teacher absence. Teacher absence generates extra workload for our colleagues, a disrupted curriculum and inadequate learning. Long term unaddressed stress equals long term absence.

Our stress is not sustainable.

From a certain angle we all seem well, energised and creative. And yet each of us radiates tension, as if each of our lives has been built upon the skin of a balloon and something or someone is inflating us toward the breaking point. Do we know that we exist on the skin and that as we expand towards achievement and good deeds the skin becomes more fragile? Maybe we cannot. We only know that we are busy and always doing. Because someone expects that of us. Children, parents, our colleagues, our superiors and ourselves. And we have forgotten what it is to stop.

When you are on a wave surfing towards the rocks, you only know that you are on the wave. Movement, just like expansion, is an illusion that holds collapse in its trajectory. We are heading towards the rocks. And yet we cannot get off. We stay on because we care so much that there is no choice. That is what stress feels like. We all recognise the ill effects of stress. We feel the adrenaline pumping through our bodies. Our heart rate elevates. We are more easily agitated, less tolerant, quicker to judge and feel fatigued and run down. I feel it now as I write. A memory of the day and a foresight of tomorrow. I feel the rushing or at least feel rushed inside. My mind is full, racing and turbulent. Negative thoughts are rampant, and yet again, the inner critic is at the helm of my mind’s narrative. In this state, my creative powers are used only to survive. And I know that I cannot do this joyous thing called teaching.

<strong>I am not good enough.</strong> Why am I not the teacher I could be? I think we all know. Teaching is bad for your health. Former Primary Head teacher John Illingworth is just one casualty of chronic stress rife in the education system. He believes, “Depression, anxiety and burnout have become the teachers’ diseases…” The Teacher Support Network survey stated, “Working in education is bad for your health!”

How many times have I stood before my class, head thumping, fatigued, struggling to stay calm, yet handling a provocative situation and knowing that I want to be the one that gets ‘time out?’ They cannot learn when I feel like this. They feel my discomfort. I snap, have no patience and my lesson falls apart. I know that my relationships with my students are at the heart of my teaching. But how can I know them or pay attention to their needs when I am only able to pay attention to my own stress, the deadlines, the targets and my hope that they will do well?

Where is the learning in that? What am I teaching them?

<strong>I believe that to cast our spell of transformation, to work our magic, we need to be well. Being well is a fundamental need for us to continue our work.</strong> I believe that Well-being for teachers is not a fluffy, nice-to-have. It is not a luxury for the end of term and it should not be seen as a bolt-on or added extra. Well-being in schools is a prerequisite for healthy, constructive and productive quality teaching and learning.

Teaching at its best arises from healthy teachers who are well rested, open minded, clear thinking and compassionate towards the challenges of learning. A Mindful teacher is fully present, able to support and encourage whilst simultaneously challenge their students to reach beyond expectations or self-doubt. Mindful and not mind-full. Relaxed teachers are flexible teachers. Flexible teachers are more likely to be resilient.

Felicia Huppert, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Well-Being Institute at Cambridge University, describes how economic growth is not the only indicator of progress for many governments. Citizen well-being is becoming accepted as equally important. Well-being is not just about happiness. It is much more than this. It is about living life well, developing and knowing ourselves and our full potential; developing relationships with ourselves and others and contributing to our society, our world. This is “flourishing”! The UN High Level Meeting on Happiness and Well-Being (April 2012) advocates a new economic paradigm with well-being at its core. Why would education not do the same? Flourishing schools provide the bedrock for balanced perspectives, balanced approaches, balanced attitudes and balanced living – for all.

<strong>We are not asking for easy lives. Know that we choose to give of ourselves to effect change in others. We know that there is a price</strong>. And I think we are all happy to pay that price because…

<strong>“A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.” ~ Author Unknown</strong>

And if we are to find the real name of each child and practice the art of transformation, then we will do this better, so much better, if we are well. We will burn brighter and longer if ‘well-being’ is at the heart of our practice.

If we were to offer a well-being programme, centered in deep inner work, that offered insights into the challenges you face, the time, space, skills and tools to cope in a more resilient and flexible fashion, and if that were to impact each teacher to then impact the quality of each child’s experience, would you be interested to know more? Remember: “No education system can be better than its teachers.” Lord Adonis, Global Teacher Prize 2013.

WE ARE THRILLED TO START EXPLORING THE ISSUE OF INNER WELLBEING IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL CHANGE MORE BROADLY – LOOKING AT “HOW ARE WE DOING?” – TOGETHER WITH IMPACT HUB AND THE FORD FOUNDATION, WHO ARE TWO KEY ANCHORS WITHIN THIS 6-MONTH SURVEY PROCESS. WE ARE THRILLED TO START EXPLORING THE ISSUE OF INNER WELLBEING IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL CHANGE MORE BROADLY – LOOKING AT “HOW ARE WE DOING?” – TOGETHER WITH IMPACT HUB AND THE FORD FOUNDATION, WHO ARE TWO KEY ANCHORS WITHIN THIS 6-MONTH SURVEY PROCESS.

By Catalina Cock Duque

Building a peaceful, democratic and inclusive country is a long term challenge which requires systemic changes to face the roots of our problems. Such changes imply transformations in politics, power, relationships, attitudes and values. In order to achieve this, alliances between the public, private and social sectors are necessary, as well as between leaders with diverse approaches who can support alliances to adopt new ways of doing things.

This may sound obvious, but working with different actors can be difficult. For instance, the building of trust is a great challenge and, as has been expressed by Katherine Milligan and Nicole Schwab in their article “The Inner Path to Become a Systems Entrepreneur”, competition over financial resources for social investment discourage collaboration, and there could be rivalries over who gets the credit within a coalition around a specific issue. How to cultivate a context where egos can be left aside, and the common interest comes before individual interest? Such question must be answered in order to achieve structural changes.

There is increasing evidence that the inner condition of a leader is crucial to achieve meaningful changes, and that it can be cultivated through a path leading to greater awareness of oneself and to inner well-being. Along the same line, great names in the field of social entrepreneurship such as Skoll, Synergos, Ashoka and Schwab Foundation, are promoting a global movement, through their “Wellbeing Project”, to support inner growth as an essential aspect of social change.

There are many options to advance along an inner path, including a deep process of self-knowledge. Getting to know ourselves in all our dimensions allows us to project our greater strengths and to work on our weaknesses. The mere fact of becoming aware of the latter may allow us greater control over our emotions, such as fear or anger, which in turn may undermine confidence and hamper the building of bridges between different sectors. Through inner work, confidence in oneself may be developed, as well as the ability to listen, empathize and follow your intuition, among other crucial skills in the construction of common projects departing from difference.

Investing in the inner well-being of leaders is a way to support the sustainability of their initiatives, or, is it possible for a leader to reach his or her maximum potential when emotional health is at risk or human relations are weak? Will it be possible for his or her impact and leadership to prevail in the long term? I don’t think so. When people invest in their personal well-being, when their deeper purpose is clear, when their greater inner connection is achieved, they reach their extended-self or their greater-self; according to Peggy Dulany, founder of Synergos, such people have an open heart, which can feel gratefulness and access more creativity; they are connected with a greater whole, they know who they are and they like who they are.

If we get closer to our extended self we can feel more confident and connected in a broader sense, and thus explore our maximum potential as human beings. This is crucial to building high potential teams, networks and movements, to overcoming egos and personal interests, and to understanding the complexity of our reality from different perspectives. Only by advancing along our individual path, will we be able to advance in the political, economic, social and cultural changes Colombia requires to build a fairer, more peaceful and inclusive society.