Three Treasures - Ancient strategies for modern youth challenges

"Three Treasures," aiming the holistic philosophy of nurturing body, mind, and soul, is an innovative approach tailored for youth workers facing mild burnout, while expanding their European Training System (ETS) and digital competencies. The TC presents a pioneering Hungarian youth and martial art center Three Treasures Valley, celebrated for its volunteer-driven structure, sustainable practices, and commitment to community leadership. Here, participants will immerse themselves in the center's operational practices and theory, exploring its  sustainable models, with a special focus on effective youth engagement and support, particularly for addressing Gen Z's mental health challenges. 

These additions aim to:
Equip youth workers with cutting-edge methodologies tailored for Gen Z, focusing on digital engagement, mental health awareness, and adaptive communication strategies.
This iteration is a continuation of the "Flow with the Elements" project from 2022, reflecting the sustained interest and the community's desire for further engagement. 

The program's objectives are twofold:
To boost personal and professional well-being, enhancing the confidence of youth workers and their target groups
To elevate the recognition and application of resilience within the broader non-formal education and youth work sectors especially for young people of mental health issues.

Participants will benefit from:

• Enhanced personal resilience and career longevity strategies in youth work, focusing on work- life balance
• Knowledge on Gen-Z trends and strategies and tools to work with them
• A self-assessment based learning cycle aligned with ETS competencies.
• Opportunities for sharing and receiving innovative well-being tools and practices.
• Engagement in diverse national and international dissemination events.

Focusing on social inclusion, the project targets youth workers at risk of burnout, often operating in challenging environments and serving marginalized communities. By introducing novel non-formal and blended learning methods, along with Gen Z-specific tools such as digital literacy, mindfulness, and mental health support, the initiative aims to enhance the overall well-being of both youth workers and their young target groups.

The Five Elements System has a several thousand years oriental origin, and it is based on the taoist concept of being in harmony both with yourself and the world. This harmony can be translated as your own personal wellbeing, considering all concepts and methods creating and maintaining the physical, emotional and mental health of the individual. And the other essential aspect of harmony is resilience realized in the sense of how you handle and react to the impacts the world is presenting to you. 

Since the Five Elements can be understood as a philosophy (and practical aspect) that permeates everything existing in this universe, it can offer you an overview of all walks of life helping you in increasing and deepening your awareness of what the current situation is, then depending on your intentions and desired destinations it offers you a very pragmatic approach and tool how to get there. 

Five Elements can offer you benefits in several levels, and depending on your personal goals, you can choose either or all of them to your advantage. These can be categorized into 2 main areas: individual and interpersonal level.

First there is an individual level, where you can explore your particular perspective, understand how you work, what are your basic motivators and greatest inspirations, moreover where are your shortcomings and what are the skills and talents you can capitalize on. This can also be understood as establishing harmony with yourself.

The second step is - on one hand - how you apply everything you’ve learned and realized to the world by investigating your connection to the world, especially your relationships. On the other hand this level is also about how you manage your everyday life given the external circumstances you cannot control.

The effectiveness of the system primarily builds on the cyclical nature of things and in this case Elements, considering the understanding of the characteristics of each Element (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water) and how they interact with each other. By using and applying the cycles to your daily life you can learn how to nurture and support or how to regulate a situation, a person or a communication, or how you can command them by guiding the conflict or process to the right direction.

For achieving harmony on a personal level movement and Qi Gong is an essential support, helping you embody and connect the Elements (which also you are made of) and adapting your physical body and emotions through simple motions, easy to learn breathing techniques and  uncomplicated visualizations.

Awareness and proper management of all emotions including the negative ones is another crucial part of harmony and integrity of both individual and interpersonal level. 

Please visit the webpage of the last year programme for further inspiration: https://www.theorigoworkshop.com/flowwithyourelements

The team composition: 

Qi Gong, martial art teacher and Five Elements Coach: 

Etelka Szeghalmi - https://szeghalmietelka.com/en/homepage_eng/

Five Elements Coach and business consultant: Nóra Varga - https://hu.linkedin.com/in/n%C3%B3ra-varga-77761ab3

Qi Gong,Tai Chi martial art teacher and Five Elements Coach András Havasi

Host - well being and resilience: Zsuzska Juhász https://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toy/juhsz-zsuzsanna.3533/