Peace Experiment

This is an exercise to help point people to the true nature of any human being and the capacities we have built in

SET UP – this is an invitation to take a few moments of calm. Nothing to 'do', just relax and enjoy! It is an experiment - not a meditation.

PROCESS

Includes video and illustration

Follow the visualisation guide (link) to start the exercise

• Invite people to imagine a time that they were at peace and transport themselves there (or imagine one if they can’t think of one)

• Ask them to focus on what feelings it brings to them

• Maybe have 20 – 30 seconds of quiet or more if you think it's appropriate. Use your judgement.

• What is the feeling you are experiencing?

• Focus on the 'qualities' of peace rather than the 'place' they are imagining

• Ask what having those qualities enables in them?

• Gently bring them back

DEBRIEF

Generally how was it, how did it feel, easy / hard? Acknowledge some people find it very difficult to distance themselves from their thoughts.

In pairs, share their experience, how did it feel, were there any similarities?

Debrief as a group. Capture the 'qualities' of peace. They normally include settled, calm, powerful, spacious etc. These are UNIVERSAL feelings that happen when we are settled. To help get qualities you can ask what it enables in them.

Explore where the feeing arose from. Not the place because they weren’t there. Point to the fact that was 'inside' and reached in a short space of time.

Video Block

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We want to show people that the qualities of peace are universal to all. These are responses we get frequently from our participants. This is to provide you with some examples to look out for/notice when discussing the qualities of peace with your participants.

DEBRIEF – Common sense of peace

We want people to realise that this experiment enables a number of capacities they already have built-in and they are useful and relevant to life (intelligent, not just nice to have).

Build on the list of peace qualities you have created :

• If somebody had these qualities how would they show up to you?

  • i.e. confident, capable, responsive, attractive etc

• If you had a group of people who had these qualities, how would they show up as a team?

  • i.e. productive, connected, respectful, impactful

This isn’t just about going to a warm and fuzzy memory, it’s that when our minds quiet on the inside it enables desirable, and helpful qualities in us.