Training
as a practice of peacemaking
Mimetic influence is unavoidable. We absorb violent ways of relating — inner critics, polarized politics, social scapegoats — before we’re ever aware that we’re learning. That means practical nonviolence has to include re-formation: learning to interrupt our habitual patterns and create new patterns to choose from. Training and preparation help us to redirect our conditioned reflexes away from violence and toward love.
Training prepares us for moments of conflict before they arrive. It forms new patterns of behavior and response so they become available to us under pressure.
Training closes the gap between our ideals and our habits. Most of us imagine we’ll choose peace when conflict comes. But under stress, we usually fall back on whatever patterns have been most deeply rehearsed in us. Training opens up alternatives to our ingrained habits.
It helps make nonviolent responses more available to us. In moments of fear or escalation, we rarely rise to the level of our intentions. We fall to the level of our formation. Practicing when we’re not under stress helps to train responses that interrupt cycles of retaliation instead of intensifying them.
It transforms peacemaking from performance into participation. Without the rigor of regular practice, peacemaking can become an identity we perform only when conditions are favorable. Training equips us to stick with nonviolence when peace becomes costly, inconvenient, or socially risky.
Advance preparation ensures you’ll have nonviolent options available when you inevitably encounter conflicts.
Right to Be is a nonprofit organization focused on ending harassment in public life, workplaces, schools, and online spaces through practical, community-centered training. The organization was formerly known as Hollaback! and is especially known for developing the “5Ds of Bystander Intervention” framework: Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, and Direct. Their approach is intentionally nonviolent and accessible — they emphasize that ordinary people do not need to become heroes or confrontation experts in order to help create safer communities.
A major part of their work is offering free live virtual trainings that teach people how to intervene safely when they witness harassment, hate speech, discrimination, or escalating conflict. These trainings are typically interactive, about an hour long, and include real-life scenarios, discussion, and practice exercises.
Trainings repeatedly stress assessing safety, reducing escalation, supporting the targeted person’s dignity, and building collective responsibility instead of relying solely on authorities or aggressive confrontation. The “5Ds” model gives multiple ways to respond so that people with different temperaments and risk tolerances can still participate in peacemaking action.
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8