Pathways of Peace

by AnnMarie Glodich, Ph.D.

Have you ever known someone stuck in a self-defeating pattern? Someone who gets into trouble repeatedly, or stays sad or angry and can’t shift out of it? Have you ever experienced this for yourself? Most of us have.

Several years back, I was working at a major psychiatric clinic with teenagers who had been exposed to violence and abuse. I was searching for ways to help them recognize self-defeating patterns and to empower them to create their own destiny. I wanted to get their attention quickly, to teach them effective skills, so that they would not lose heart.

I developed a series of groups in high schools to teach kids about psychological trauma. The idea was that by giving them relevant information about the effects of trauma, they could understand what was happening to them. The information did help—they did feel more in control. But they continued to get themselves into trouble, either by putting themselves or others into risky situations.

Three years after I developed these groups, my husband and I did the Avatar and Master courses. Not only did Avatar have a powerful impact on our lives, I realized that the self-development exercises from the ReSurfacing workshop could be just the ticket in working with these kids. So in collaboration with Star’s Edge, I added to our group five ReSurfacing exercises that develop a person’s attention, will and compassion. What a difference!

ReSurfacing Attention Exercises helped the participants to see that they decide where their attention goes. They started to notice how much of their attention went to past traumas and current dramas. And they began to see how shifting their attention to their goals would create the experiences that they preferred. The ReSurfacing Will Exercises helped the kids feel the difference between exercising their will and being swept along by past patterns. They could choose to be in charge of their lives.

At first in our groups, we only taught about default roles that traumatized people often find themselves in: victim, helpless bystander, rescuer, perpetrator, etc. We did not provide any new patterns as alternative choices. In order to introduce a new choice, we added the Compassion Exercise from ReSurfacing. This exercise trains a person to have compassion for another and can also help a person have compassion for him or her self.

Amazing as it might seem, many of the kids in our groups had never experienced compassion for themselves. As the students practiced the Compassion Exercise in each group, they began to see how they could deliberately act with compassion. And with the Enlightened Justice Procedure from Inside Avatar*, they could build their integrity and reduce the guilt that kept them stuck . They could choose pathways to peace instead of pathways to more trouble or suffering.

Providing healthy options is not always common in this kind of work. This message came home when I presented my research in Paris at the 17th World Conference on Health Promotion and Health Education in July 2001. An official from Norway noted that many programs focus solely on problems. She was delighted to find a program that taught positive skills, as we do with the Compassion Exercise.

In addition to helping students, our program benefits program facilitators and schoolteachers as well. As they learn and practice the exercises along with the students, they feel less helpless and more capable. Instead of feeling burned out and hopeless, they are inspired to create better conditions for their students.

I am grateful for the gifts that the ReSurfacing exercises have provided to the teenagers and my teammates. And I have a deep personal appreciation for the transformational power of Avatar in my own life. With Avatar, I set goals with absolute certainty that I will do whatever it takes to achieve them. Instead of focusing on doubts and obstacles, I now direct my attention and efforts toward creating pathways of peace in the world.

AnnMarie Glodich, PhD, Lawrence, Kansas

 

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