Creating A Peaceful World

Nature’s Pathways – South Central Wisconsin Ed., Dec. 2011

By Jackie Peters

With all the negative things occurring around the world today, sometimes it’s hard to envision peace.

“It can seem like it’s an incredibly lofty goal,” acknowledges Michaela Torcaso. “But our commitment is to helping individuals on that journey. As individuals gain the knowledge of how to stop running from suffering — while still in the midst of suffering — they become that much closer to that peace that we all strive for.”

Helping people to live a peaceful life, and by extension create a peaceful world, is something Torcaso and her associates do each day through the nonprofit Creating A Peaceful World (CAPW), an affiliate of TIBIA (Transformation ~ Intuition ~ Bodywork ~ In Action) Inc., 6225 University Ave., Madison.

CAPW cultivates the experience of peace from the inside out by nurturing the ability to remain centered in times of stress. As participants learn to accept and love all aspects of themselves, they grow in their capacity to respond to challenges creatively and compassionately. Through the quality of their response, their experience of peace ripples outward.

To develop this ability where it’s most needed, CAPW offers some of TIBIA’s sessions, workshops and training as a public service to individuals, communities, groups or associations that may be experiencing conflict, discord, disaster or trauma.

The sessions offered include massage/bodywork, energy healing and intuitive spoken sessions in which people experience being listened to beyond words and supported in a way that respects their own freedom and inner wisdom. Training, workshops and other offerings instill universal spiritual practices of centering and self-awareness. Participants shed old barriers to sharing their gifts and begin to experience new levels of freedom and joy while making a difference in the lives of those around them.

Rae Duncan found his way to CAPW in June 2010 from Scotland, where he had worked as a caregiver and spiritual guide. For some time he had been traveling on his own spiritual journey, to find peace and understand himself better. Duncan yearned for something that would provide the structure to achieve his goals. The IntuAction program at TIBIA, which prepares graduates to bring healing and peace to individuals and groups through professional sessions, was a good fit.

As an intern through CAPW, Duncan is now completing the IntuAction program and learning how to manage a business by serving as TIBIA’s office manager.

“My life gets better and better every moment of every day,” he says. “I know that to me it’s my choice to be this person, to show up, but without the IntuAction program and the education I received at TIBIA, I wouldn’t be where I am today, which is a place of better understanding who I am,” Duncan adds. “And understanding, it’s always a choice. You can be full of fear, or happy and peaceful. It’s up to you.”

Those who have known Duncan since 2010 see a new confidence in his bearing, a lightness and, at the same time, a profound sense of peace and wonder. When he began the program, he struggled with anxiety and constant questioning.

And now? With a twinkle, he says, “I now know, that I don’t know.”
“Allowing myself to not need to understand” has been key, he continues.

This reflects a central aspect of the IntuAction program, which fosters the discovery that one serves most effectively and easefully when opening the mind to guidance that might not consciously make sense. It is when participants let go of the need to understand or control a session that magic can happen.

All the volunteers who bring CAPW’s offerings to the world have had some form of this training, whether through the IntuAction Institute, TIBIA Massage School, or one of Torcaso’s earlier training programs. Torcaso has trained hundreds of people since 1997 on whom she can call to volunteer at events and provide services.

Examples of these services abound. On the 11th of every month, CAPW honors a different group with free therapeutic massage all day. Groups chosen to be honored so far include veterans and all armed forces, school teachers, emergency responders, nurses, clergy and more. Every year, CAPW provides sessions to the cyclists and crew of the Wisconsin AIDS ride.

The organization also maintained a presence at the Capitol throughout the major protests this year, supporting peaceful energy for all individuals and interactions during a time of special intensity. It has frequently provided support for individuals facing life-threatening illness or the loss of loved ones.

“We can support a situation defusing by holding the space of peace, and consciously maximizing the space of peace so it extends to others,” Torcaso says. “I know from experience that it’s possible and powerful. It’s a muscle we can develop and utilize in the world.”

And in the process, we get more peace inside ourselves. CAPW truly creates peace from the inside out.

See more at: Nature’s Pathways.