What is
The Virtues Project?
The Virtues Project is an initiative, which began in 1991 to empower individuals
and families to live by their deepest values. It was inspired by the desire to
do something to counteract the rising violence in and around families. Education
is the key to transformation, but it must involve education, which touches the
human spirit. The Virtues Project offers an approach which calls people to
remembrance of the virtues, the qualities of character and the simple elements
of spirituality honored by all cultures and sacred traditions. However, it does
not promote the practices or the beliefs of any particular religion. It’s
grounded in the simple wisdom of many world religions, all of which describe the
human virtues as the highest aspiration for humanity.
Virtues are more basic than values. All cultures honour virtues such as courage,
love, honesty, loyalty, excellence and service, yet they apply them differently
according to their own diverse value systems. The strategies of The Virtues
Project help us all to remember who we really are.
The five
basic strategies:
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Speak the Language of the
Virtues -
Empower
those behaviours you want to see in your children - compassion, respect,
honesty, and assertiveness...
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Recognise Teachable
Moments -
View life as opportunities for learning
rather than crisis or problems to overcome.
>
Set Clear Boundaries -
Change power struggles and violent behaviour
into cooperation and harmony.
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Honour the Spirit -
Help your children (and yourself) to find
meaning and purpose, learn ways to encourage reverence or reflection and to
honour the mystical side of life.
>
Offer the Art
of Spiritual Companioning -
A skill used in families at times of grief or
celebration and used to help children and adults to make moral choices. It’s
about being deeply present, and drawing out a person’s own truth.
