One Wild Life: testemunhos

O curso de formação One Wild Life decorreu de 15 a 25 de Junho de 2017 em Sintra. Aqui ficam mais testemunhos de alguns dos participantes.

Teja Pahor, Eslovénia 

This journey was something I will never forget. It was the first time I ever experienced something like that. And it was above all the expectations. It was not only about learning ourselves a different methods and receiving a lot of new knowledge of how to do training. The best value of OWL training was a personal development which came naturally and no one expected it. In 10 days I think I was manage to grow personally more then I have ever before. I am still in research of my vocation but that doesn't mean I am not grateful from the bottom of my heart for this experience. I will never forget the people, the coop and some useful methods which I will hopefully use in the future. 

Nil Roda Noguera, Espanha 

We live in a time of detachment and liquid societies, where individuals struggle to find their place in a highly globalized, ever-changing context. We live in a time deeply suffering from three major divides: the divide between self and nature - I am not my environment, I am not Earth; the divide between self and other - I am not you, your problem is yours; and the divide between self and Self - I am not playing my fullest potential, because I don't even know what that is. However, we also live in the time of data and information, a time where interconnectedness, interdependence and the living globality of the world are a matter of fact. A time where the complexity is visible, tangible and where we are just awakening to the understanding that, it's time to learn how to truly work together. It doesn't take much for youth to understand this reality: they are embedded in it, they both suffer and benefit from it. Formal and informal education are yet to truly evolve to be able to offer the right spaces to support this youth, manly because the People behind the structures, often doesn't have an embodied experience of how to proactively live in complexity and uncertainty, and therefore it is difficult to bring theory into practice. Everywhere I see in youth a growing and deep longing to consciously explore the question Who am I in relationship to the world? What can I do in such a complex world? What is my gift I can/want to offer? And what do I need to unfold my potential? One Wild Life was Experiencial learning for youth workers to get this embodied experience of connection, collaboration and interconnection. One Wild Life helped us be able to practice being the professionals we want to be, so we can be better examples to the people we work with. One Wild Life was the What and How of how to create the right spaces to host youth in this exploration. 

Nicoletta Benfatti, Itália

This experience was very interesting for me. It meant to discover myself and my ability expressing and telling my past and future projects. I learned that the images and the drawings are most important that lots of words, when you need to describe a project to other people. I took home a method with which I could tell and describe my future project of the ecological park that I am realizing in Italy, on the hills near Verona, in a more amazing and interesting way. At the same time I'll share my experience and teach this method to all the people with which I'm working in RIVE, the Italian Ecovillage Network. I suggest to other people to participate at this training course with Reka and Sara, because they are amazing and their sweetness and clarity in ascertaining the concepts are involving. All the people I met made me very happy and comfortable. I hope to see them again. 

Andrada Vaidos, Roménia
What am I going to do with this One Wild Life? This was a thing that I always had in my mind: we have ONE wild life. So why not make the most of it?! Though I kept having a hard time in figuring out HOW to make the most of it. The best gift we have in this life is humanity. And this self-explorative, intense, challenging training course accomplished it`s mission of giving us a vision, a direction about HOW we could make the most of this one wild life by using this gift of being humans. The structure was fascinating and extremely revealing. It`s as simple as that: in order to get an understanding about the world, we need to understand ourselves, so in order to make a change in the world, we need to make a change within ourselves. Each authentic action is driven by inner dreams, wishes, challenges. So first step is to make them clear in our mind. To make some order in the chaos. All the techniques used, all the exercises, all that sharing in circle what was in our mind and what we have been working on was extremely helpful in crystallising and prioritising thoughts. What is what I truly stand for in this world is a question that will probably stay in my mind always from now on. Because it is pointless to do things just because they need to be done and not because something inside drives you, pushes you towards that. Humanity consists in feelings, feelings that lead to action. Feelings need to be expressed, it`s unhuman to lock them inside, though we do that so much nowadays, out of fear of judgement, probably. Humanity is also about people getting united and fulfilling dreams together. One cannot do anything alone. We are meant to do things together, to listen and support each other. And, just like magic, the team and participants from One Wild Life were all there for the others. The connections that had been formed between people were out of this world. For those 10 days, we were a family, for the next decades we will keep on being connected. And this happened because we got a great context to open and connect, a safe and trustworthy one. The team knew what they were doing and how to make us feel comfortable with being ourselves and sharing, expressing what is in our mind and souls. We received priceless tools to work with in this lifelong mission of making the most of our (one wild) life. Long story short, One Wild Life was the trigger. A trigger to understand ourselves, to crystalize what we are standing for and to figure out HOW to take action and to make a difference in this world by doing things that we truly, honestly believe in. Some of us already knew, some others had their revelation, their “AHA” moment there, during the training course, and some others (including myself) didn`t know what they believe in, but now, after this experience they have a strong clue and some useful tools to keep on working on to find what is there worth to stand for. 

Chaotic thoughts about One Wild Life: 

• It was the confirmation that one can feel most valuable and useful when doing things together with others. 
• It was the push for setting an intention. 
• In order to take action out there in the world, first the healthy thing to do is to take action within oneself. 
• It was the challenge of being completely open and honest towards people around. 
• It was the revelation that giving and receiving support is one of the most human and constructive attitudes possible. 
• Introspection.
• Collecting the energy within and motivation to release it with a specific and clear direction. 
• Putting the chaos in order. 
• All the inspiring people! 
• Authenticity in the behavior, in the words spoken, in the actions taken.
• Pushing the limits. 
• Do it the hard way. 
• Self exploration and being self centered does not mean selfish. 
• It`s just that the balance within oneself is able and will bring balance in the world around us .
• You give what you are. 

Simina Tureac, Roménia

“One Wild Life” was a beautiful, rewarding experience for me. It was like a labyrinth with a lot of unknown paths and each path made my fears one by one to come up and at the end just standing there –being myself – trying to find out the way out. Even before coming to the training, I knew that the methods were interesting (knowing that some were based on the work of Bill Plotkin and Mary Oliver) but my expectations were over reached while participating in the training. Now, after one month, I still have glimpses of the best moments in the training, of the beautiful Eco Village and of the great people I met. I went through a deep learning process starting from who I truly am beyond the roles that we usually play in the society, connecting with myself and speaking about myself from the heart. Related to this, the methods used for this (map of life, charismatic communication) made me remember the relevant moments in my life, the ups and downs, but the most important were the threads – those states when I was driven by passion and excitement in my life for creating something/doing something. Going forward, remembering those moments, I had to confirm to myself that I still have the passion and the inspiration to create again and to know what I want to create: and here it goes the artistic techniques (Double circle and the Dyade) for taking a moment to write everything that comes to my mind and bringing the dream close to reality. 
Further on, with the session “me and the world” I went deeper in the emotional state of being by remembering and sharing moments when I felt “hit” by the world, meaning those moments when I felt meaningless and full of fears because I couldn’t control something bad happening from the outside. Actually, going through a few exercises, made me understand that I am the only one who can control the state I want to feel, maybe there is nothing to do to save the whole world, but for sure there is a solution for everything. It’s up to me to take action instead of watching TV and complain that nobody is not doing anything. The AMOEBA model by Alan Atkinson was for me the most relevant to understand how actually cultural change happens and how can an idea become an innovation, a part of the system. Furthermore, I find that the Nature Quest from Day 6 was really important for discovering how nature always helped me learn new things about myself, especially the things I could see differently- a new perspective for my life, new possibilities for starting something new or just confirmation about what I truly like to do. The quest in nature and the living beings from nature taught me a lot about weakness, being strong, not being afraid of showing vulnerability as long as I am honest and true to my soul. And of course, the most important, the nature circle of everything being perfect as it is, of everything happening for a reason, within a given moment in time and space. A lesson from nature’s order. 
The rest of the learning process that followed until the last day was for me about being inspired, finding partners and collaborators for the dream project idea I wanted to develop. Second by second, I felt inspired, stimulated and excited to make the plan for my dream project and the strategy to develop it once I arrive back home. Except for the project idea I discovered I want to create, I also brought home a lot of new techniques and methods that I can use for supporting a learning group towards personal and professional development. All the processes I learnt and the methods about facilitation at the end of each session are very helpful to make other volunteers and youngsters in my organization finding their own authentic vocation and encourage them to take action towards their dream projects. In the present moment, being at home, I have been working hard on my project since 4 weeks, it’s not easy, but I am working with a joyful heart and it feels great. The enthusiasm is still here. 

Anni Shakur, Estónia

Training course 'One wild life' is mainly a wild journey to inner self. I remember the day when I saw the call and I knew I'll be there. My struggles with world, other people, society, 'system' and myself got many answers. I'd say that many problems got finally talked out and even solved. With those people and environment I felt so comfortable that when I felt like crying I could do it. And of course this course was full of laughs too. I understood much more about my fears, passions and other people around me. What I loved the most about this training course was that I had the space to be myself and people from all over the world had the same opportunity. And that's where the magic started. The beauty of human being without any borders. I'm forever grateful for this life changing experience.