Active Hope: The Work That Reconnects in China

We name our workshops “Active Hope, the Work That Reconnects.” We recently held our fourth two and a half day long workshop since Covid started back in 2020.

We did these exercises:

The Gratitude Circle, Mirror Walk, Milling, Opening Sentences, Truth Mandala followed by painting together, Who are You?, Council of All Beings, Four Voices (Widening Circles), Seventh Generation, Callings and Resources, Action Planning and Commitment Circle. We also shared Elm Dance twice, once after lunch and one on the last day before closing.

The group is getting bigger with more people from various backgrounds, including freelancers in coaching, training, consulting, and HR, talent development, technology, and business people from different corporations. This is the most rewarding part, knowing that the work touches and reaches different layers of the society, and witnessing the ripples extending ongoing and endlessly.

We also see more and more connections between participants and nature. People slow down their life pace and are being present with what’s happening right there and right then.

Meanwhile we see heavier and stronger emotions in this group. It could be that people are opening up more these days or that people have built up emotions over the past years…and they are more courageous to trust, trust themselves, others and the space. It keeps reminding me to think how many people might be living a life where they don’t have enough opportunity to release emotion and to even tell the truth. Hence how important the work is to offer a safe space for people to tell the truth, to have their senses and life back, even for the short two and half days, or even as short as two hours.

It’s very hard to make the work visible, touchable, and specific or realistic for people to see, to hear, and to touch. Luckily those who can feel are able to feel us and are drawn to the work. My active hope is that more and more people will be able to see and hear the work; the work will be passed on with ripples spreading to spaces we don’t see but can sense….