My Further Civic Involvement: Meditation on the Future

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This method creates impulses for strong imagination of future by meditation and visioning the future plans in the meditation process.

Time 45 minutes

Material Room in a comfortable setting, laptop and speakers for music, prepared text for meditation and music; formulated questions for discussion.

Group Size 20-25 people

Created By Ekaterine Danelia

Keywords Meditation


Related:


Goal

The activity provides an opportunity for reflection on personal attitudes towards civic involvement, reflection on possible future involvement in the organization providing the and beyond.

Steps

1. Preparation and introduction: Choose the space accordingly and ask participants to sit comfortably and close the eyes. Music is on. Facilitator is reading the text which is about the flashbacking about a person’s life, who had birthday recently and became old (90 years). Now is sitting in the park and remembering about her/his life. Many people know him and appreciate the work (s)he did and that is why she/he is very satisfied with her/his life. The person is happy with the path chosen in the life, since it was useful for other people too. The whole text is in second person (e.g. you are sitting in the park), and gradually the text leads participants to imagining themselves at their current age – back from the future, asking which path did they choose.

2. After the meditation, the participants, either in a big group or two-three small groups, discuss the future plans guided by the facilitator's’ questions.

Questions
  • How did they feel during the meditation?
  • How did they imagine the life of this person?
  • What were the things they liked?
  • What are the things they would do to have such life?
  • What are their plans for the future?
  • Are they willing to be active in certain field and why?
  • What motivates them?

3. Summary: After the discussion co-facilitators are summarizing the findings in participants’ reflection.

Experience

For some participants it can be quite hard to imagine themselves positively at the age of 90, therefore another age range can be used for instance the age group of around 50 years old may be better.

Experience

The meditative approach is powerful, however it is not welcomed by all kind of participants. Especially the music seems to support some and disturb other participants. Therefore, it might be a good idea to turn it off and focus on a quiet space.

Don't shape the space too much in a certain manner (i. e. enriching it with flavors, sounds, decoration), some learners might feel overwhelmed...

Be aware to leave enough imaginationary space and being non-directive in your text.