Moving Together: Embodied Dialogue and Collective Rhythm for Education and Peace

Group Submission Type: Workshop

Description of Session

In a time of widespread suffering, social fragmentation, and ecological crisis, the call to cultivate peace must begin within. This workshop offers a contemplative, embodied experience of love, light, peace, joy, and hope—vital energies essential for healing ourselves and our world. Designed in alignment with the 2026 CIES Conference theme of peace, this 2.5-hour session brings together five scholar-practitioners who will guide participants through a journey of inner awakening and collective renewal.

Grounded in spiritual, cultural, and philosophical traditions from around the world, each presenter will offer a brief theoretical foundation rooted in their area of expertise, such as Daoist and Indigenous wisdom, heart coherence research, trauma-informed education, and quantum consciousness. These frameworks help us reconceptualize love not just as sentiment, but as a powerful life force, a vital current of energy that flows through the universe, connecting all beings.

Each theoretical reflection will be followed by a contemplative practice designed to bring the concept to life in participants’ bodies, hearts, and spirits. These immersive practices include:

● Loving-kindness meditation to open the heart, extend compassion, and generate inner peace. And Reiki energy healing the world

● Labyrinth journey to symbolically walk into the heart’s center, rekindling our deepest sense of love, purpose, and belonging.

● Healing practices like the butterfly hug—a trauma-informed bilateral stimulation practice—to calm the nervous system, build resilience, and foster inner safety. Other practices will also be introduced.

● Creative visualization to imagine light radiating from within us into the world, affirming our spiritual agency and power to heal.

● Joyful dance and movement to celebrate hope, vitality, and interconnectedness through the body’s natural rhythm.

Together, these practices offer a unique fusion of mind, body, spirit, and emotion, creating an energetic field of collective transformation and healing.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore diverse theoretical foundations for love, peace, and healing as dynamic energies for education and social change.

2. Engage in contemplative and somatic practices that embody inner peace, joy, and resilience.

3. Learn techniques applicable in classrooms and communities for cultivating well-being and compassionate presence.

4. Co-create a sacred space of light and love that models holistic and relational peacebuilding.

Delivery Plan (2.5 hours):

● Welcome Circle & Intention Setting (15 minutes)

● Segment 1: Theory + Loving-Kindness Meditation (25 minutes)

● Segment 2: Theory + Labyrinth Visualization (25 minutes)

● Segment 3: Theory + Butterfly Hug Practice (25 minutes)

● Break (10 minutes)

● Segment 4: Theory + Creative Visualization for Global Healing (25 minutes)

● Segment 5: Theory + Joyful Movement & Dance (25 minutes)

● Closing Reflection & Integration Circle (20 minutes)

Participants will leave feeling reconnected to their inner light and equipped with accessible, impactful contemplative tools. This workshop does not just talk about peace, it embodies it. Together, we will plant seeds of hope, love, and joy in the hearts of all who attend, rippling outward into a world that urgently needs healing.

Sub Unit

• Book Launches and Workshops / Workshop

Chair

• Jing Lin, University of Maryland, College Park

Workshop Organizer

• Jing Lin, University of Maryland, College Park

Presenters

• Denise McHugh, University of Maryland

• Virginia C. Gomes, University of Maryland - College Park