Now you can create peace wherever you go with this proven, step-by-step peacebuilding system
The violence and suffering is beyond comprehension – Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, to name but a handful of recent conflicts.
And what about the conflicts that aren’t played out in war zones or “political uprisings,” but hit much closer to home?
These are the petty family arguments, the words unspoken at work, the digs you intentionally or unintentionally inflict upon your partner (or vice versa), the internal strife over a decision you need to make...
Is peace is just a pipe dream? When will the violence and injustice end?
And how can we stop the war in our own minds?
For all of your deep concern about our world and your efforts to make a difference, peace can still seem like an impossible dream.
What can you really do to affect change within the larger world and your own everyday life – and become a highly effective peace leader?
The Cultivating Peace Method developed by peace visionary and pioneer James O’Dea, will give you the tools to build lasting peace in your community, non-profit organization or church, professional life, or school; or simply resolve conflicts in your own family – and the ones in your own head and heart.
And how can you synchronize the work of inner and outer peace – the work of transforming yourself as you participate in transforming societal aggression, violence and polarization?
Over these 7 modules, you’ll learn a roadmap and a new manifesto for peacebuilders. You’ll discover how to be a powerful healer of wounds and builder of bridges – and create tangible, measurable change both personally and globally.
O’Dea’s method is based on his new book Cultivating Peace: Becoming a 21st-Century Peace Ambassador, which when released achieved the #1 ranking from Amazon in International, World Politics and Violence in Our Society categories.
During this course with James O’Dea, you will learn to:
- Connect the inner and the outer – tap into your essence and act from a place of personal alignment to affect real outer change
- Become an "energy master" – the key to peacebuilding – and recognize your energy processing style
- Identify and deal with all forms of bullying
- Stand in the fire of opposing views and feel whole as well as hold space for others to do the same
- Transform fear and anger in yourself and among others into mutual trust and compassion
- Cultivate listening and dialogue to co-create a culture of peace in your family, workplace, organization or community
- Identify and heal old wounds in yourself and with loved ones, colleagues and community members
The Cultivating Peace Method can be applied to virtually every interaction and situation in your life. Ultimately, you will experience the deep satisfaction (that includes peace in your own heart) of knowing you’re part of a larger wave of peace and that your efforts, regardless of how local or "small" do matter!
The tools you’ll learn during this course can also have a powerful domino effect. Conflict, resentment, and violence-based communication and behaviors fall away, and peace and compassion arise.
Discover a tried-and-true toolkit for spreading peace, and realize your dream of a new world for all people
With the Cultivating Peace Method, you’ll receive a tried-and-true toolkit that you can tailor to your own peacebuilding efforts and audience. James O’Dea carefully weaves science, activism, spirituality, psychology and systems theory together with skills building work in a way that will give you both knowledge, understanding and expanded capacities to be a peacemaker.
You will be spiritually rewarded, emotionally challenged and intellectually sparked by this training!
This Method has proven to be equally effective resolving neighborhood disputes and facilitating healing in war-torn regions such as Rwanda, Israel/Palestine, and Northern Ireland, where O’Dea has worked with opposing sides to build peace.
You don’t have to go to Rwanda or Syria to be a peacemaker. There are opportunities for you to cultivate and spread peace right where you are.
Plus, becoming a peacemaker will arm you with skills that make you more valuable to your clients, employer or community.
You may not put this course on your resume – or maybe you will! – but when you start bringing these tools into your interactions, the people around you will see the value you bring.
This course is an opportunity to become a true cultivator and evolved leader of peace, and make a significant impact on spreading peace in our world.
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
Each training session will build harmoniously upon the next, so that you’ll develop a complete, holistic understanding of the practices, tools and principles you’ll need to heal conflict and spread peace in your life and throughout our world.
Module 1: Activate Your Inner Peace Inventory System
The Dalai Lama says, “Without inner peace it is impossible to have world peace.”
Your journey in Module 1 will begin with your own inner world inventory, which you’ll expand into an external worldview inventory.
Developing a mapping process of your beliefs and values will provide the foundation for you to spread peace in this new and very different kind of peace movement.
In this session you will:
- Get to the heart of your personal core belief systems and values
- Learn how to help others share their core belief systems and values and understand how belief is truly the rudder of change
- Examine unsustainable worldviews that lead to war and violence and broader systemic breakdown and outline the emerging worldviews that contribute to creating a planetary culture of peace as well as learn how to express this to others in a helpful, productive format
- Get a clear overview of the movement from one set of beliefs to another set, which fosters cultures of peace.
Module 2: Become a Creative Peacebuilder AND a Sacred Activist
There is a dynamic relationship between the inner and outer experiences of life. You mirror peace from the inside out.
So a necessary aspect of skillful peacebuilding is synchronizing BOTH as you learn to participate in transforming societal aggression, violence and polarization.
The central theme of this module is how you can sustain creative peacebuilding and become a healthy and generative sacred activist who models the changes needed for social transformation and conflict resolution.
In this session you will:
- Develop a clear understanding of how our spiritual, psychological, and emotional field determines how skillfully you reflect peace and transform aggression and how you can effectively share this concept with others
- Familiarize yourself with important contributions of the New Peace to understand how to synchronize inner and outer, and communicate these concepts to others
- Learn how to sustain creative peacebuilding in a balanced way and how to guide others in this process
- Learn how to model the changes needed for social transformation and conflict resolution and in turn teach others to model the changes in themselves.
Module 3: The Social Healing Toolkit
Without healing, there can be no peace.
In Module 3, you’ll learn about the emerging field of social healing pioneered by James O’Dea. This is the time for you to explore the effects of the wounds of society on the individual, and learn proven methods for healing both.
In this session you will:
- Learn key features of the emerging field of social healing and how to frame its new insights for others
- Examine wound attachment and the transmission of wounding between generations
- Explore perpetration of violence from the perspective of wounding and psychological scarring
- Build on your understanding of worldview formation in Module 1, and address moving from right/wrong paradigms to wounding/healing frameworks
- Clarify the dynamics of forgiveness, the reconciliation process and restorative justice
- Explore how to teach peace through transformational stories of truth, reconciliation and forgiveness
Module 4: Master the Essential Communications Skills of Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution
In this session you will:
- Learn an in-depth treatment for using listening as a tactical and surgical tool of peacebuilding
- Break down listening skills for engaged and constructive communication so that you can guide others through this process
- Learn how to create conditions for compassionate listening and review six distinct modes of listening essential for any peacebuilder
- Review guidelines for non-violent communication, addressing the needs of hostile communicators and how to conduct self-care in hostile environments
- Explore how to teach these aspects of peacebuilding in experiential formats, allowing people to practice the skills being taught
Module 5: Tap the Collective Intelligence to Build Peace
Dialogue is the cornerstone of peacebuilding and social healing; its many facets can be practiced and learned.
By suspending polarizing judgment and holding deep space, emotionally charged experiences can be effectively shared in safe environments.
In this session you will:
- Learn how to tap into fields of collective intelligence and guide others in listening with both heart and mind
- Review different dialogic formats such as council, conversation, appreciative inquiry, consensus and deep dialogue – the tools for the peacebuilder in you and those you may guide
- Learn how to link effective dialogue and communication with new perspectives on energy mastery and how to guide others in this process as well
Module 6: Discover the Essential Role of Whole-Systems Thinking in Peacebuilding
It’s vital to understand the basic concepts of whole-systems thinking and frame its relationship to peacebuilding.
This approach allows you to tie in all of our work so that integrated worldviews, healing perspectives and holistic thinking are part of a consciousness shift, which can manifest in whole system changes.
In this session, you will:
- Learn the 12 Simple Rules for Systems Thinking developed by a Washington think tank
- Examine case studies related to whole-systems thinking
- Build on these concepts and learn how to teach the basics of whole-systems thinking
Module 7: Express Your New Peacemaking Skills
Your final class will summarize all the tools and strategies you’ve learned over the past 6 modules – with time for you to address how to cultivate peace among different audiences and in different formats.
The Cultivating Peace Bonus Collection
In addition to James O’Dea’s transformative 7-module course you’ll also receive these powerful bonuses from some of world’s leading visionaries and peace-builders, which complement the core teachings. These bonus sessions will help you take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Bonus Audio #1: Spiritual Solutions
Guest Faculty: Deepak Chopra
According to Deepak Chopra, “There is no greater power for success and personal growth than your own awareness.” This bonus audio session with one of the most celebrated spiritual teachers of our time is a powerful complement to your experience in the Cultivating Peace Method. Journey with Deepak into the frontiers of science and spirituality, and learn his secrets for tapping your inner resources of peace and self-fulfillment.
As a global leader and pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, Deepak Chopra transforms the way the world views physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellness. Known as a prolific author of over sixty-four books with eighteen New York Times best sellers in both the fiction and non-fiction categories, his books have been published in more than eighty-five languages. His New York Times bestsellers, “Peace Is the Way “ received the Religion and Spirituality Quill Award in 2005, and “The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life” was awarded the 2005 Nautilus Grand Prize. FINS - Wall Street Journal, mentioned his book, “The Soul of Leadership”, as one of five best business books to read for your career. His latest book coauthored with Leonard Mlodinow titled the War of the Worldviews: Science vs Spirituality will be released October 4, 2011.
He is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post On Faith and contributes regularly to Oprah.com, Intent.com, and The Huffington Post.
Bonus Audio #2: The Power of Partnership: Building Bridges Across Great Divides
Guest Faculty: Ocean Robbins
Visionary and inspiring youth leader Ocean Robbins shares with you the power of partnership and authentic leadership, as well as illuminates the crucial link between personal development and social transformation.
A younger leader with an old soul, Ocean will call on you to live in integrity with your values by learning how to build healing bridges across historic divides. This is one empowering session you won’t want to miss!
About Ocean Robbins: In 1990, at age 16, Ocean Robbins was founder of Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!), which he directed for 20 years. He has spoken to numerous groups and facilitated hundreds of gatherings for leaders from 65+ nations.
Author of The Power of Partnership and Choices for Our Future, Ocean has served as board member for many organizations including Friends of the Earth and EarthSave. He is a 2008 recipient of the Freedom’s Flame Award and of the national Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Younger. Ocean and his wife Michele are the parents of River and Bodhi Robbins, identical twin boys born in 2001.
Bonus Audio #3: Humanity’s Journey of Transformation & Your Exceptional Role
Guest Faculty: Dr. Jean Houston
In this special audio training, renowned scholar, author and philosopher Jean Houston explores humanity’s journey of transformation and how it relates to you
Jean will share how we have now come to the stage where we must partner with Creation in the deepest expression of ourselves and in the restoration of the biosphere – and build a whole new type of culture. The real work of humanity begins now. Delve into a new knowledge of the cosmos, cross-cultural understanding, and the potential for new evolutionary direction on this exciting bonus audio!
About Dr. Jean Houston: A pioneer, scholar and researcher in human capacities, Dr. Jean Houston is the author of numerous books and the founder of a cross-cultural mythic and spiritual studies program-dedicated to empowering change agents and people around the world by teaching history, philosophy, the new physics, psychology, anthropology, myth, and the many dimensions of our human potential.
She is also the founder of training programs in social artistry, which enables leaders to extend their own development so as to more adequately deal with the social challenges of today’s world. Her specialty is in the development and application of multiple methods of increasing physical and mental skills, learning and creativity.
Bonus Audio #4: Transform Everyday Conflicts into Everyday Peace
Guest Faculty: Susan Collin Marks
In this powerful audio session with the number two executive of Search for Common Ground, you’ll discover the keys to transforming everyday conflict and differences into peace and common ground. With wisdom and humility, Susan describes her insights about peacebuilding and draws from her experiences on the frontlines of conflict-ridden regions.
Susan Collin Marks is senior vice president of Search for Common Ground. She is a South African who served as a peacemaker and peacebuilder during South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. Her book, Watching the Wind: Conflict Resolution during South Africa's Transition to Democracy (USIP, Washington DC, 2000) was also published in Arabic (Dar Al Ahliah, Amman, 2004.) She serves on numerous boards, including the Advisory Council of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Leadership, and as Vice Chair of the Board of the Abraham Path Initiative. She is the founding editor of Track Two, a quarterly publication on community and political conflict resolution.
What Respected Leaders Say About James O’Dea
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Cultivate Peace
We at The Shift Network feel deeply honored that James O’Dea has chosen to partner with us on this exclusive online training. As you may know, this is a rare opportunity to learn directly from a world renowned peace builder dedicated to helping others find the perspectives, tools and wisdom needed to be true ambassadors of peace.
Through this powerful online format, you’ll not only save time and money on workshop costs (plus travel, accommodations and meals, which would cost thousands of dollars). But you’ll be able to benefit from James’ incredible teachings and exercises from the comfort of your home – at your own pace!
If you are serious about living a more peaceful life, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training with James O’Dea.
If you’re ready to take the next step on your powerful journey, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-minute Audio sessions with James O’Dea, including Q&A Recordings
Unlimited access to recordings of all class sessions (listen online or download the mp3 file to your iPod or audio player)
Seven PDF Transcripts of Each Class Session
In addition to the high quality MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format after each session is completed. This way you can review, print and highlight the most important insights and practices that you’ll learn.
Seven exercises and practices for deep inquiry and action-learning
The Cultivating Peace Bonus Collection
- Spiritual Solutions
Guest Faculty: Deepak Chopra - The Power of Partnership: Building Bridges Across Great Divides
Guest Faculty: Ocean Robbins - Humanity’s Journey of Transformation & Your Exceptional Role
Guest Faculty: Dr. Jean Houston - Transform Everyday Conflicts into Everyday Peace
Guest Faculty: Susan Collin Marks
What James O’Dea’s Students Say
About James O’Dea
James O’Dea is a well-known figure in international social healing who has conducted healing and reconciliation dialogues for 15 years. He is currently the co-director of The Social Healing Project, whose work has led him to Rwanda, Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland. In addition to teaching the Path of the Peacemaker and Peace Ambassador Training programs at The Shift Network, he is also on the extended faculty of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and is its immediate past president.
The former Washington office director of Amnesty International and CEO of the Seva Foundation, O’Dea is a member of The Evolutionary Leaders Group founded by Deepak Chopra. His most recent book, Creative Stress: A Path for Evolving Souls Living through Personal and Planetary Upheaval (2010), was featured and reviewed in dozens of media outlets.
James is committed to dialogue as a practice and is engaged in dialogues at SEED Graduate Institute between native elders, physicists, and thought leaders; between Israeli and Palestinian psychologists and social workers; and contributes to dialogue on systems thinking and government policy making with the Washington, D.C.-based Global Systems Initiatives.
In August 2010, O’Dea was recognized with the honor of “Champion of Peace, Reconciliation and Forgiveness” by the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance. James lectures and gives workshops all over the world and was a keynote speaker at the Berlin Peace Festival in August 2011. He is also an advisory board member of the Peace Alliance and just published a book called Cultivating Peace.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! If you find that the course is not meeting your needs, please submit a request at support.theshiftnetwork.com so that we can address your concerns. We offer a satisfaction guarantee for a full 2 weeks so that you can try out the course risk-free. The deadline to receive a full refund is 2 weeks from your date and time of purchase; submit refund requests at support.theshiftnetwork.com with the subject line "Refund request."
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to a problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you. support.theshiftnetwork.com
Q: What are the benefits of telling my friends to join the program?
A: You can sign up as an Affiliate of The Shift Network and receive 20% for anyone that you introduce who registers for the virtual event. If you bring five friends into the event, you can cover your own! Register at theshiftnetwork.com/affiliate and you’ll receive a promotional link to use.
