Creating World Peace Workshops

Connect to your vision of world peace with body, heart and soul.

I run a workshop called 'Creating 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.

In short, the more we describe in detail how a world would look like (with: a human sustaining sustainable biosphere; total peace for all the population; and abundance of resources for every person) the more we can accurately measure if each action, step or thought takes us towards or away from that vision. We can then make a conscious decision. And then another one. But without that detailed vision we are constantly reacting to negative scenarios from a place of fear - and our reactions will then always be short term. So, first we need the vision and then we can start walking towards it. Everything else is fluff and treacle sent to get in our way. There's much more process than this but that's a start.

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 and venues where I hope to be running the workshops in 2011:

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.

One thing that has become blatantly clear is the importance for people to use their own words. One can support and make stronger ones own vision using ones own words. Concepts then are secondary to giving each person a voice and enabling them to validate their own words and their own existence.

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 creating 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: daniel at creatingpeace dot org dot uk - you'll need to replace the " at " and " dot " with "@" and "."!

  • 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. I'm also happy to do early afternoon slots starting at 1430.
  • 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.

I have run workshops since 2004 at the following events:

2010:

2009:

2008:

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
  • Beltane Rainbow Gathering - 24 April to 10 May 2007 - UK
  • Ragley Green Fair - 5 to 7 May 2007 - UK

2006:

2005:

2004:

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:

  • Our thoughts create our create our reality
  • 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
  • Self awareness
  • Equal access to resources
  • Sharing
  • Uniting
  • Knowing that we are all one, united and connected
  • Genuinely caring about oneself
  • Saying hello to each other
  • Building bridges between different communities
  • Music and celebration
  • Cultural exchange
  • Food and houses/homes

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
  • Concept of "human nature"
  • Country borders
  • Material wealth
  • Money

There is Hope

It's a bright sunny day in a back garden somewhere in London. I'm talking with Robby about worldly things. I'm feeling a bit despondent with the world - it happens. I'm asking how, given our (the human race's) current state and our apparent desire to reap destruction on our own people and our life support system - the biosphere - how, can we hope to build a better world. There's a twinkle in Robby's eye. And I'm sure his feet do a little shuffle and his hands a slight flurry. All bubbles as the anecdote rises to the surface. I remain patiently quiet...

Take a lily pond. Today the pond is full of lilies. These particular lilies, everyone of them grows a child lily every day, so they double their surface area every day. Yesterday the pond was only half full. The day before that a quarter full. The day before that an eighth. And before a sixteenth. Five days ago a thirty tooth. And 6 days a 64th. And on and on...

Only a month ago when we looked at the pond we didn't see any lilies and, furthermore, couldn't have imagined that here we would be standing by this pond full of lilies in a month's time - right now. Geddit?

Yeah, I get it. Things change. That's the nature of things. Sometimes in ways that we don't expect and at speeds we couldn't have anticipated. Solutions can arrive apparently instantly to problems that have lasted years. There's so many reasons to be positive about the future and to live in hope. Tomorrow may be a completely different day.

So, the question for me is how can I be a part of the process of positive change? How can I be most effective to bring about a better world?

I'm looking at the lily pond full of lilies. There's a gentle breeze. The sun is going down. Its reflection is dancing on the water - slight gaps the lilies have graciously left. It's a beautiful sight. And the scent is oh so sweet...

Age Of Sensible

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 07:37 — dahacouk

In a few years' time we'll be looking back and laughing at how easy it was to get to a world at peace.

Buzz Words

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 07:36 — dahacouk

There is no alternative!

What would happen is everybody did it?

The Age Of Sensible

Philanthropic Organisations

We need a list of companies, charities and philanthropic organisations to that will help fund scholarships for Visioning World Peace Retreats...

* http://www.philanthropyuk.org

Peace Centres

We need a list of peace centres around the world that we can inform about these Visioning World Peace workshops and retreats.

Creating World Peace Retreats

I'll be running the Creating World Peace Retreat at Mountain Sanctuary - 10 to 17 October 2009 - France. I have yet to fix dates on the second week so if you can't make the week of 10 to 17 let me know what dates would work for you.

Connect to your inner vision of world peace with body, mind, heart and soul.

What to expect from the retreat:

Over the week we shall go deeper in the work of discovering our inner visions and hopes for our future world. We will clarify, amplify and sharpen these visions within the group as practice to spread our personal positive visions into the world at large. Sharing and reflecting will be facilitated through art, discussion and stillness. You will leave the week not only with tools to assist you to bring your visions to reality but also with the ability to create tools where none existed before and also to teach this ability to others.

By examining our relationship to our vision of world peace we can begin to realise it in harmony with our most outlandish desires. World peace is so emotive that our blocks and dodges become visible before us. World peace becomes a metaphor for things that we truly want in our lives but seem unobtainable. We can pass beyond and around these blocks by understanding their influence on our decisions and actions. We break through by describing, visioning and sharing our future world desire.

"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." says Chris Johnstone, author of Find Your Power.

£499* per person includes:

• 7 nights luxury chalet accommodation
• Duvets and Bed linen
• Large bath towels, changed mid week
• Personal bathrobes
• Complimentary toiletries
• Daily housekeeping
• Dedicated retreat leaders and private chef
• Continental and cooked breakfast
• Lunch
• 6 evening meals
• Use of hot tub and sauna suite
• Fresh fruit and drinks all day
• Yoga in the morning every day
• Meditation in the evening every day
• Guided mountain walks
• Visioning World Peace workshops, morning and afternoon every day

* We are approaching companies, charities and philanthropic organisations to help fund scholarships - so get in touch if you're keen but need a little support.

Please email me at: daniel at visioningpeace dot org dot uk - you'll need to replace the " at " and " dot " with "@" and "."!

About me:

I have been running Creating World Peace workshops at festivals and positive change events for the last five years. Since early on in my life I've been drawn to being concerned for the human condition. Initially this manifested through song writing. I continue to write my own songs and perform them. I studied art and design at Camberwell for a year before diving headlong into a roller coaster of the media and Internet industries. It's OK. I survived and learnt a little more about the human condition along the way. Now drawing on the skills of process management and creative design I have created a retreat to assist us all to connect to ourselves and manifest our inner visions for peace within our own lives and the world at large.

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