Written by by MJ Park, Executive Director at Little Friends For Peace
Little Friends for Peace (LFFP) has been Circling Up with people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities and stages for years. Despite the pandemic impacting the entire world, we made the shift to virtual circles in order to continue on with our “check-ins.” We feel now more than ever LFFP needs to help bring people together in order to connect and find tools to help navigate peacefully throughout this new journey.
Since the world has been put to a STOP, this has put added stress on our wellness wheels – impacting our mind, body, and feelings. From the teachings of Pema Chodron, I have learned and believe that when things fall apart we have choices to either fall apart or embrace the experience as an opportunity and time to reset, renew, and rewire ourselves.
During these past three weeks of adjustment to our new normal, LFFP has been doing virtual peace circles for different age groups. It has been amazing and full of connection, inspiration, and practices to help us. Not only to get through these times, but also to see this period as an opportunity to make changes in the way we live and care for ourselves and others.
LFFP Virtual Peace Circle in Session
As said by one of our virtual peace circle participants: “I think that when the dust settles, we will realize how little we need, how very much we actually have, and the true value of human connection.”
People have been coming to the circle with anxiety, fear, concern, loss of center, feeling less grounded, and loss of connections within the community.
However, after the circles people are leaving the circle feeling more calm, grounded, hopeful, joyful, creative, energized, connected, and motivated to embrace the now. People are given time to reflect on the silver lining and enjoy what they can do and not what they can’t do.
A Peace Circle Participant at The Father McKenna Center
With compassion and respect as the key ingredients in the virtual peace circles, the Zoom sessions turn into safe and welcoming spaces where everyone can share from the heart when talking about what they are thinking and feeling. To finish off our time together, LFFP leaves the attendees with a peaceful tool with ideas on how to use it in daily life. If put into practice, these tools will help bring yourself as well as others to a more peaceful state.
As another virtual peace circle attendee states: “What I take from this beautiful peace circle is the peace circle per se, like how necessary it is to have more peace circles in the world, and how that can bring more peace culture & education to my country. I learned how necessary it is to do inner work. We need to seize this crisis as an opportunity to redefine what is really important for us and take more joy in the moments we live, in our own realities.”
LFFP will be Circling Up Monday through Friday at 3:00 PM EST with different groups. Check our website for more details and information to sign up. Hope to see you in the circle!