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Cultivating A Meaningfulworld View Sacred Activism and Forgiveness Stage IIIYogaFit.com Jolene.com

Lorraine Simmons, Kathy Orchen and Pam Timmins On Saturday 28 March, 2015, we walked into a comfortable Upper East Side location to experience an all day workshop on Meaningfulworld View, Sacred Activism, Forgiveness, Mindfulness, and Meditation. The morning began with the warm greetings, heartfelt hugs, and smudging with the comforting scent of sage to clear our energy. We enjoyed a healthy breakfast of fresh fruits, organic eggs, nuts and grains to get energized for the lively day of learning, healing, and transformative experience. While breakfast was consumed, people enjoyed conversations and completed the pre-session questionnaire about previous traumas and life experiences. A community of psychologists, students, interns, peace and human rights activists, and integrative healers gathered for ATOP Meaningfulworld’s Humanitarian Certificate Training Program. The training provides attendees with trauma prevention and intervention and education to prepare them to cope and integrate trauma. In addition, the program is designed to teach, organize, inspire, and spread awareness about ATOP’s peace building and humanitarian missions around the world. Lorraine Simmons, ATOP Clinical Coordinator, welcomed participants with a moment of silence to take time to ground them and to set the intention for the day. After announcements and introductions were shared, Dr. Kalayjian opened her lecture by passionately reciting her original poem, “The Other Side of Love.” Her heart felt words integrated our minds and hearts, reinforced by Aristotle’s quote, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” The group was then led through an interactive lecture on Sacred Activism and Forgiveness with the aid of an engaging PowerPoint presentation. We learned nonviolent communication skills, how to identify and transform anger, how to transform depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with EQ and forgiveness to build peaceful relationships at home, in local communities, workplaces, and globally. The PowerPoint presentation also included: case findings, observations from the field, research conducted by ATOP teams, as well as other most up to date research. Dr. Kalayjian presented the Five Shadows of the World: poverty, ignorance, violence, disease and racism; followed by the Five Pillars of Service: service to the Divine Father and Mother, service to the Divine self, service to family, local community, as well as service to the Global Community. ATOP training recommends selections from a reading list which includes; Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Psychological Pathways to Conflict Transformation and Peace Building written by Dr. Kalayjian. Participants were encouraged to ask that their local libraries add these valuable books to their community resources. The lecture was concluded with a photo of a colorful valley in India. Dr. Kalayjian explained that this is the work of one woman, for twenty five years she planted flower seeds and bulbs, as her way of giving service to community honoring the natural world. Dr. Kalayjian ends with the question; “Where are your flower seeds and bulbs, and how mindful and consistent are you in planting, caring and nurturing them”? Rick Ulfik, founder of We, The World and the WE Campaign at WE.net was our Meaningfulworld Visionary Speaker. He discussed the main components of Non Violent Communication, a program designed by Marshal Rosenberg. This model focuses on a survey, a list of universal needs, as a method to resolve conflicts with compassion and empathy. Rick presented that we as human beings all have the same needs and that our strategies for meeting those needs are different. Rick discussed how NVC cultivates bringing people together to help them identify their own individual needs, and the needs of other’s and to help them build common strategies to meet those needs. After a delicious lunch of completely home cooked organic food, Dr. Kalayjian showed the film, “The Power of Forgiveness” which provided information and insights of challenges people face globally and how they have achieved transformation utilizing forgiveness. Natalia Tomassini gave a 5 minute presentation, “What is meaningful in my life” and how practicing the 7-Step Integrative Healing Model has validated her purpose as a teacher and writer. Dr. Kalayjian educated the group on the use of healing oils and flower essences as well as the use of nutritional foods and supplements for relieving stress and restoring well being – reminding us to drink plenty of fresh water (with fresh ginger and lemon) and enjoy healing teas. After a brief reprieve to stretch and move, the group engaged in a healing circle utilizing Dr. Kalayjian’s signature 7-Step Integrative Healing Model. The 7-Step Integrative Healing Model is a Biopsychosocial & Eco-Spiritual Healing Model. The steps are (1) Assess Levels of Distress, Disagreement, or Conflict, (2) Encourage Expression of Feelings (3) Provide Empathy and Validation (4) Encourage Discovery and Expression of Meaning (5) Provide Information (6) Instill Eco-Centered Caring and (7) Release trauma through Breath and Movement Centered Healing. Further details are provided on our website: www.Meaningfulworld.com We summarized traumas of participants as follows: physical abuse, witness to violence or death, bullying, and racial or Sexual discrimination. Participants had the opportunity to share personal stories, the theme of sharing was based on racism, fear and being bullied, several members reflected on haunting experiences in their lives that changed their view of safety in the world and each shared how those experiences have come to change them in their daily lives. Dr. Kalayjian expressed that some generational trauma was present as well. Following each step with care, co-facilitators Kathy Orchen and Pamela Timmons guided participants to work together to provide authentic and heartfelt empathy. During step four, where we shift from a ‘victim to a victor’ (Kalayjian, 2015) several participants discovered meaning from the stories that were shared. The positive lessons were: empathy for minorities and youth, understanding of how generational trauma can be passed on, motivation to help others who are abused and discriminated against, and the value of sacred activism. Dr. Kalayjian reminded the group that self-care is a priority and to be cautious of using helping others as a distraction from healing the self. In caring for our mother earth participants shared that they took steps to keep their neighborhoods

  On 21-22 March 2015, over 250 academicians, scholars, students of law and humanities gathered at the Arizona State University Law School to Commemorate the Centennial of the Ottoman Turkish Genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities. It was 100 years ago that the genocide began with the execution of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 2015. In the years that followed, the Ottoman Empire engages in a campaign of extermination that included children, women, and the elderly. According to the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (U. Minn), census figures show that there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1914. By the end of 1922, that number had been reduced to 387,800. The State of Arizona recognized the Genocide of Armenians in 1990, declaring April 24th a day of Armenian remembrance. The weekend was filled with educational programs to bear witness to this tragedy and the ASU honored the memory of the dead through education. The conference organizing committee, co-chaired by Jennifer Hammerschmidt and Zari Panosian, carefully selected a diverse group of speakers, constructing panels to kindle thoughtful discussion in which audience participation played a central role. Senior Vice President of ASU, Dr. Christine Wilkinson, opened the conference by welcoming the audience, followed by a key note address by a Turkish Scholar, Taner Akcam, currently Professor of History, Kaloosdian & Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. The two-day program had panels addressing the legal perspectives, comparative perspectives, reconciliation and remediation, and perspective on post-genocide culture. Other presenters were Peter Balakian, Prof of English at Colgate University. Dr. Kalayjian was invited to bring a unique perspective to the conference. She was invited to address healing perspective through acknowledgment, forgiveness, transforming generational trauma, and much more. Her presentation was very powerful, dynamic, interactive, and filled the audience with thoughtful but non-traditional reflections. She presented on horizontal violence, generational transmission, and how to heal and be empowered. She revised an anonymous quote and said, “Trauma and pain that is not transformed will be transferred to 7- generations” and described the findings of her research indicating how the trauma of Genocide had passed already through 2 generations. A rich reception followed each day of events and panel discussions. During Q&A session most were eager to learn how to forgive, why to forgive, when to forgive, and how to empower the next generations.  

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