Press release -
Islands of recreation: Studies and Professional Development at the Goetheanum: coping with everyday life and work
Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 23 April 2021
Islands of recreation
Studies and Professional Development at the Goetheanum: coping with everyday life and work
Life and work have become more challenging with the pandemic and the interventions put in place to overcome it. Getting away from simply reacting seems like a good idea: taking some time out and escaping to a recreational island, through meditation for instance.
“It sounds like a contradiction: taking off time for contemplation in a situation that is anyway very stressful,” says Edda Nehmiz, Studies coordinator at the Goetheanum. Fostering inner spaces and having conversations, even if they may seem unnecessary, can help to deal with the workload in busy times – an experience already described by Martin Luther. Moving from experiencing time to taking hold of it relies on the trust that by shaping time autonomously one also strengthens one‘s inner forces.
The experience of stress is aggravated by the fact that meeting face-to-face in video conferences lacks warmth and is not as inspiring as a spontaneous in-person exchange. Edda Nehmiz is convinced that “inspiration does not happen, however, as a result of a particular medium, such as air or digital circuits: it happens through personal interaction. Encounters, whether they are in-person or digital, require that we inwardly turn to the other person.”
In the first year of the Coronavirus pandemic, the faculty of the Goetheanum‘s Studies Department found that ‘nurturing’ contents and social processes that have the quality of encounters can also be conveyed digitally as long as there are clear and regular processes. Because the concentration span is longer with in-person meetings than via the screen, online presentations need to be shorter, with more examples, and if possible more personal.
(1662 characters/SJ, translation by Margot M. Saar)
For anyone interested (English; with additional languages for the study groups)
28 Days of Anthroposophy (online)
31 May until 27 June 2021
Colloquia in English, group work in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French For leaders and executives
Online Leadership Course (English)
11 to 14 May 2021 (Module 1) and 9 to 12 November 2021 (Module 2)
For lecturers in anthroposophy (English)
Goetheanum Adult Education Program (online)
19 to 22 May 2021 (Module 1) and 1 to 4 June 2022 (Module 2)
Contact person Edda Nehmiz, studium@goetheanum.ch
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The Goetheanum is the headquarters for the School of Spiritual Science and the General Anthroposophical Society. The School of Spiritual Science with its eleven sections is active worldwide in research, development, teaching, and the practical implementation of its research findings and is supported by the Anthroposophical Society.
