Inner and Outer Peace Blog
Reflections on the training on mental health and psychosocial well-being in peacebuilding
Day 1
Welcome to the first day of the training course “Inner and Outer Peace on mental health and psychological well-being in peace building” in Evian-les-Bains that started today. The 20 participants and four trainers found their way from: Kosovo, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Belarus, Germany and France. We started the day with the objectives, aims and the introduction to the YPA network.
And continued with talking and discussing about the needs, expectations, fears and non-formal-education and for this part we split in 4 smaller groups to create the frame for the upcoming week, and came together in the bigger circle to share the outcomes.
In various energizers, learning games and methods we discussed and learned about topics such as: trust, safety, imaginery boundaries, wellbeing, teaching and learning and what does it mean to work together?
“Trust is something you built- it’s a process. Anna”
The second part of the day was about creating our own definitions and descriptions of violence, conflict, peace and well-being and dıscussed them.
At the end of this first day we got together in our reflection teams led by one of the trainers: we talked and expressed our feelings, and reflected about our personal highs and lows.
It was a tiring day but our brains are working, and we are hungry and eager to continue to learn and dıscover more in the upcoming days.
PS: we found a common ground.
DAY 2
Does your inner and outer peace ever made you gather with people in a total safe space?
Because we already made it to the second day of our training course “Inner and Outer Peace on mental health and physiological well-being in peace building” and it completely took us to another stage of the importance of well-being in peace-building process.
Our journey started by trying to give a specific meaning to well-being and dive our roots all deep into the impact internal, external and organizational elements have on our own definition of well-being. To do so, we worked in small groups to discuss how factors such as: age, gender, education, religion or even political events affect our well-being.
Our second destination was emotional field where we were able to identify and express emotions in different ways. We shared a lot of smiles, laughs and doubts. “Even some little ignorance turned into hugs”
Putting balance between our inner body and the environment around us, we let ourselves to flow the rhythm of mindfulness.
Many days ahead are waiting for us to complete our mission and be always familiar with it.
DAY 3
What a better way to start this third day of our training than trying to make mindfulness a habit by practicing it at the start of the day?
That way, we were relaxed and peaceful, in perfect conditions to discover the non-violent communication method, developed by M.B.Rosenberg. It consists on sharing our observations, emotions, needs and requests to have a more efficient communication.
Let’s make place for the participants in the bazar of competences. Each one of us had the opportunity to propose an activity to share our competences with others. “Reflectioniser”, “Body Mantras”, “Active Listening”, “Social media as a tool”, “Share of self-compassion”, so many skills hidden in our group.
After a satisfying lunch it was time for us to explore the wellbeing in the Local Realities. And here is what we found…
DAY 4
The fourth day of the training course started with the session on Conflict transformation runned by Rami. There we had an opportunity to learn five main methods of conflict solving that people use in their daily life. We were presented with a couple of imaginary conflicts and our task was to choose a solving strategy and then discuss it with the group.
The second session was about Trauma awareness held by Anna. During the session we defined what trauma is, learned about different types of trauma, their symptoms and sources. We discussed how to implement trauma informed practice in youth work, peace building, formal and non-formal education so people could be more aware of traumas and possible solutions.
The afternoon session was done by Rami as well on the topic of Conflict mapping and analysis. Each one participant from the group chose a conflict that they would like to work on the most and then we categorized them: reproductive and sexual health, Kosovo-Serbian conflict, LGBT + rights + mental health, women rights, youth socio-economic inequality and youth mental health. We used a method of the conflict tree and analyzed problems.
The last session was about Solving conflicts in practice and it was a game led by Maria and Rami. We were faced with a scenario where 4 groups were divided into different institutions that had a conflict with each other. The goal was to solve the conflict by coming up with strategies and approaching each other to discuss them. In the end, the solution wasn’t the best one because the two institutions that had a conflict of interests didn’t find common ground. But we learned a lot from the experience and realized again how hard, energy and time consuming conflict solving can be.
DAY 5
Our agenda for today, day five, was based around two big words: planning and creating.
We reflected a bit about our experience of the game on the previous day, and what we would like to improve. With this frame setting we were introduced to “conflict transformation in practice”. An invitation to create our own game with the knowledge of the past few days and the guiding topics and questions, or as Rami put it: “release your chakras in creativity”.
With seven groups we were ready for action: scenario&instructions, roles, objectives, tips for facilitators, debriefing, coordinators and IT. Before we started to work in our small groups we came up with some topics for the game in the brainstorming session: Mars, colonisation, US, UN, ecologists, etc. For this gamification process and simulation of a conflict situation — who needs what and what are the interests of the actors- we had around one hour to work on.
During this time we did not only collaborate in our own small groups but also with the other groups (scenario team with the roles team, and the coordinator checking in with all of the groups, etc). With a coffee break in between our time to create this game, we were guided back to the room with “let’s go walk to the room of love… and knowledge” by Ines.
The second part of the day started with a reflection part of the creation of the game, how we are doing, what steps would be the next and how did we feel.
Afterwards we continued with planning, and worked in our groups around the topics of: LGBTQ*, disadvantaged youth, domestic violence, reproduction rights, mental health and Kosovo-Serbia-situation. You might want to keep an eye on the Conference of the Future of Europe for some of the projects.
We closed the day by being introduced to the SWOT analysis tool. We had the opportunity to reflect on our action planning and realise our internal strengths, external opportunities but also possible weaknesses and threats.
DAY 6
The last day of the training course welcomed us with a snowy surprise. Everything was covered with white and fluffy cover. It put the moods up (and yes indeed, more than one snow ball was thrown this day). And so, we started the last sessions with creating the guideline for psychosocial support for Youth NGOs. We shared all the knowledge and skills we gained throughout the week. Among others, the following parts got included in the guide: non-violent communication, active listening, mindfulness, trauma awareness, safe space… Not bad, to create the guide in only 3 hours 😊
After the intense work, it was time to finally relax and unwind. Laura took us into the journey of self-appreciation with the exercise called “love letter to yourself” and to reconciliation with others. How often do you say complements to yourself? How often do you tell the message of appreciation to people around you? These are powerful tools for well-being too.
We finished this day with the feeling of connection and love. And this is something to celebrate (with fireworks for example) and to keep with us. See you soon…
INNER AND OUTER PEACE is a project financed by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme.
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