A wonderful Kenyan woman, Karambu Ringera, visited the community of the Findhorn Foundation to join The Way of Council workshop last year. We’re delighted to welcome Karambu back to participate in the Holistic Centres Gathering.
Karambu says, “I want to learn as much as I can because I want to create a centre similar to Findhorn in Meru, Kenya. I want to be able to do things that bring peace and wellbeing into people’s lives. I have lots to learn, but my heart resonates with such spaces.”
The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) was set up in 1995 to support the experimental creation and preservation of human settlements that not only sustain, but regenerate their social and natural environments.
Ecovillages are communities with vibrant social structures, vastly diverse, yet united in common ecological, economic, social and cultural values and goals. They spring from the good intentions and creativity of citizens, and their willingness to make a difference. [Read more…]
COMPONENTS OF HOLISTIC LEARNING
By Dave Till and Christine Lines
This is the fourteenth article in our series on Holistic Learning, to read the introduction and view the other components to follow please click here.
14. Supervision
The culture of supervision has grown in the community of the Findhorn Foundation over recent years. Each working team or service department has regular sessions, (approx. every 6 – 8 weeks unless required more frequently), with a trained supervisor from the Spiritual and Personal Development team who will help them with any ‘illusions, confusions and collusions’ that might exist within the group.
Having a supervisor (in a similar way to having supervision when you are training as a therapist), is an important aspect of holistic practice that can prevent facilitators from building their own unseen patterns into holistic learning.
Supervision can be scheduled even when there are no particular issues at hand and is a valuable opportunity for team building. I’ve heard people say, “I never look forward to supervision but then afterwards look back and think actually that was really helpful and I quite enjoyed it.” [Read more…]
COMPONENTS OF HOLISTIC LEARNING
By Dave Till and Christine Lines
This is the thirteenth article in our series on Holistic Learning, to read the introduction and view the other components to follow please click here.
13. Mental Learning
There have been many breakthroughs in recent years regarding the mental task of learning information. Conventional education is quite focused on mental learning however there are new ways of using the mind to utilise more of its full capacity.
The whole field of study around Accelerated Learning (AL) suggests that we each have a preferred learning style — a way of learning that suits us best. If you know and use the techniques that match your preferred way of learning, you learn more naturally. Because it is more natural for you, it becomes easier. There are a number of AL techniques e.g. teaching someone else what you are learning, practicing the accelerated learning system in short bursts of 30 minutes of study, and taking frequent rests. And there are many more ways of practicing AL. [Read more…]
Chanthalangsy Sisouvanh, Training Division Leader of The Participatory Development Training Center, will be attending the 2012 Gathering hosted by the Findhorn Foundation. PADETC is a private, non-profit institution dedicated to helping Lao people solve their own problems in ways that are economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable and just.
PADETC has evolved from twenty years of innovative work in agricultural and participatory community development in the rural areas of the Lao PDR, and was officially established in late 1996 under the Department of Private Education of the Ministry of Education as an independent Training Center.
When I attended the 2011 Holistic Centers Gathering on behalf of the Findhorn Foundation, one of the questions people in other communities asked me most often was, “How does Findhorn deal with conflict?”
Life here in a spiritual community, just as anywhere, is full of joys and challenges and it sometimes feels intense, sharing in such closeness with others, especially when conflict arises. As a person whose defense is more likely to withdraw than confront, dealing with conflict is a real growing edge! Living and working closely together in community there are times when I’m faced with the question can I keep my heart open, even in difficult circumstances?
I recognise how sensitive I am when communication is less than clear and harmonious and find such conversations painful. I’ve been exploring the idea lately that perhaps people in community hope to create the family around them that they never had growing up? For me this is deep, authentic communication where feelings match what is being expressed and there is less confusion and anxiety about what’s really going on around and within me… [Read more…]
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…]
Daniel Li Ox, the founder of Wandering Dao, will be attending the 2012 Gathering at the Findhorn Foundation. His main goal has always been to make self-healing and alchemical practices accessible to westerners. In the ‘9os he founded Tao Quebec, a Qi Gong School in Canada, which changed name for Wandering Dao Qi Gong School when he left Canada to teach on the road.
After 25 years of practices and deepening his knowledge of the traditional system and of the teaching methods that suits better the western mind, Daniel reorganized the system in a very practical way without compromising the traditional training. For more details about the Outreach Program he would like to bring forth click here.
COMPONENTS OF HOLISTIC LEARNING
By Dave Till and Christine Lines
This is the eleventh article in our series on Holistic Learning, to read the introduction and view the other components to follow please click here.
11. The Value of Service
Service is an integral part of an holistic life and even within communities that focus on the spiritual, the value of service needs to be reinforced and encouraged.
The path of selfless service is an ancient and well-respected tradition that needs to have its place restored in the modern world. The word seva comes from the Sanskrit root, sev, meaning to “attend” or “to go towards.” Seva is generally understood to be “service” and one way to look at seva is simply as volunteer service, and in the case of a community, this could mean cleaning the kitchen after a shared meal, caring for the garden, or the offering of professional services such as bookkeeping or architectural skills.
In the community of the Findhorn Foundation, the concept of service is called ‘love in action’ and this is one of the three founding pillars, the other two being inner listening and co-creation with nature. ‘Work’ departments are called service departments instead and a mixture of education and service is common for most guests at Findhorn. [Read more…]
In the 25th birthday edition of the Findhorn Foundation Magazine, One Earth, Peter Caddy, one of the three co-founders of the community, said back in 1987;
“The community has changed the lives of thousands of people throughout the world. Nobody comes to the Findhorn Foundation without being changed in some way. Remember, it is the vibrations here that have been been built up over time that really bring about changes in people. It is a centre of light, a place of spiritual power. There is a lot of love here.”
Today a further 25 years later as we celebrate our 50th birthday, the community continues to transform the lives of the many people who are drawn here. Some come just for a week, others stay for years or even decades, some visit again and again, and all are touched in some way by the love that emanates in the spiritual community. [Read more…]