Experience Week Archives - Holistic Centers Network

Exploring Holistic Education – Models of Group Development

April 13, 2012 by Centers' Gathering Leave a Comment

COMPONENTS OF HOLISTIC LEARNING

By Dave Till and Christine Lines

This is the twelfth article in our series on Holistic Learning, to read the introduction and view the other components to follow please click here.

12. Models of Group Development

Groups form and develop in well-recorded ways. M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Travelled, is a good source to understand the different stages of group development and of community.

Dave Till says, “These stages of group development need to be experienced as part of a holistic curriculum. On the Findhorn Community Semester three month programme we the staff would wait patiently until new groups passed their “polite” stage and got through to some real learning or through to their authentic selves. One particularly ‘right on’ group famously had a big party where everyone got very drunk, and after that they were much less ‘right on’ and much better to deal with. God works in wondrous ways!”

In 1984, Peck co-founded the Foundation for Community Encouragement (FCE), with the mission, “to teach the principles of community to individuals and organizations.” In his book The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, Peck says that community has three essential ingredients; inclusivity, commitment and consensus. [Read more…]

Exploring Holistic Education – Emotional Awareness

December 26, 2011 by Centers' Gathering 1 Comment

COMPONENTS OF HOLISTIC LEARNING

By Dave Till and Christine Lines

This is the fourth article in our series on Holistic Learning, to read the introduction and view the other components to follow please click here.

4. Emotional Awareness

In 1995, Daniel Goleman, author and science reporter, published his now well known book, “Emotional Intelligence”, five years after reading an article in a small academic journal by two psychologists, John Mayer and Peter Salovey.

Mayer and Salovey offered the first formulation of a concept they called “emotional intelligence”. Holistic educators categorised this learning as “EQ” and the phrase is now part of everyday language, along with “IQ”, previously the standard of intelligence.

In the early years of the Findhorn Foundation (FF), the focus was on action rather than emotion, however today in work departments within the Foundation there is the opportunity for people to share their feelings during a brief check-in at the beginning of each shift and develop their EQ.

Feelings are valued. Sharing is an important component of the essential FF programmes such as Experience Week and other FF workshops, and personal development / human potential workshops all over the planet. [Read more…]

How the Gathering led me to Findhorn

May 1, 2011 by Centers' Gathering Leave a Comment

by Christine Lines

The newsletter from Kalani Oceanside Retreat popped into my inbox and I scrolled down the page, viewing the different events. The heading “2010 Retreat Center’s Conference“ captured my interest immediately.

For two years I’d been the Retreats Manager of Byron Yoga Centre in Byron Bay, a small beach town and conscious community on the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. I lived in a beautiful place and loved my work, however I had the growing sense a new phase in my life was on the horizon.

Reading the description of the conference it was clearly an opportunity to meet my peers and I felt a strong intuition to participate. “Connect with Retreat Center Managers from different parts of the world. Learn and grow from participating in conference sessions on sustainability, marketing in a down-economy, connecting to the world-community, continued personal transformation, sharing what works and what doesn’t and “holding space” for a world in need of change and growth.”

[Read more…]