ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: training course
Venue: Woodstown, County Waterford, Ireland
Dates: 19—26 August 2023
Czech team: 3 youth workers
Please read the info-pack.
Hosting organisation: Waterford and South Tipperary Community Youth Service Ltd
Project report:
It was quite a shock for us when came from sunny and hot weather in Czech Republic to cloudy, cold and rainy Ireland. The training course Harmony within started on 19th of August and took place near Waterford. We stayed in spacious house just few meters from the beach.
In the beginning, we had to get to know everyone so played name games and luckily remembered the names of people from Spain, Estonia, Romania, Armenia, and Germany quite fast. In the afternoon we did a short yoga/workout session followed by guided meditation. We finished the day enjoying bonfire and singing. It was magical first day and we felt welcomed and comfortable in the group.
Program for the next days was quite similar. We usually worked out in the morning, meditated, did breathing exercises. The meditations were focused on different topics each day and after meditation we shared our feelings and thought in the group, and we could also write them down in notebooks which were given to us by the trainer in the first day. We talked about happiness, forgiveness, our ideal self, positive thinking, gratefulness and so on. In the afternoons we did sessions on our self-awareness, we learnt about stress management, and we also did art-therapy exercises. We, for example, painted our stress our craziest dream. We also had a possibility to talk about our painting with a psychologist afterwards.
Two afternoon we went on a trip with a bus. The first trip was to mountains where we reached a lake, where we could take a dip. We were lucky since the sun was shining the whole afternoon. In the evening we went to a pub where we listened and danced to traditional Irish music. The second trip started with a delicious lunch in a beautiful restaurant. Afterwards we did a walk in a forest, where we did another self-discovery exercise. Then the bus took as to a monastery, and we finished the day in the mountains doing another session.
When the training course ended on August the 26, we were all sad to say goodbye, because we had an amazing atmosphere in our group, made a lot of memories together. We could just disconnect from the real word, relax, spend time in the nature, meditate, learn a lot about ourselves. The trainers and organisers did an excellent job and they cared for us like parents, so we never miss anything. Thank you!
Tereza
