Peaceful conflict resolution focus of weekend workshop

MILLERTON— It might seem counterintuitive to practice the martial arts is search of finding peace, but according to Bill Leicht, that’s not so.

Leicht, president and founder of the nonviolence group Urban Visions, says that through aikido, one can learn how to communicate peacefully and master conflict resolution.

“If you don’t learn how to communicate nonviolently, you will probably communicate violently,” he said.

Which is why Leicht is promoting a body-based conflict transformation workshop at The Watershed Center from Friday, March 3,  through Sunday, March 5. The objective is to figure out how to deal with the current national climate in a way that “reaches across political divides and talk face to face.

“It’s an experiential workshop — a physical basis for nonviolence — and the audience, we hope, would be local and focused on grass roots organizers,” explained Leicht.

The instructor for the workshop is Paul Linden, a somatic educator, martial artist and author who founded the Columbus Center for Movement Studies and Aikido of Columbus, in Columbus, Ohio.

Leicht clarified that the workshop is “not martial arts training in any sense.” Instead, he said, it’s training in how to communicate “peacefully and effectively.”

To do so, said Leicht, there must first be an understanding of the principles of self regulation under stress. Then, he said, one must discover a more comfortable way of dealing with stress in daily life. Lastly, a base group of facilitators who understand alternatives to violence and how to communicate them must be developed.

The paradox of using the martial arts to teach peaceful conflict resolution isn’t lost on Leicht.

“Isn’t that interesting?” he asked. “It’s not easy to explain in words, but I can tell you the way it makes a tremendous difference is how you touch somebody, how you physically touch them. It makes a difference in how you touch them with your voice, too.”

Leicht explained that what people say with words is also communicated with posture and movement. 

“It’s very difficult to lie with your body,” he said. “And if you understand how to compose your body, to express peace, you’ll be stronger and more loving.”

Aikido, he stressed, is not a religion. It’s a way of being.

“What you practice and put into yourself is what comes out,” said Leicht. “If you feed the angry wolf, the angry wolf will prevail. If you feed the kind wolf, the kind wolf will prevail.”

He should know. Back when Leicht lived in New York City, he ran a peace dojo in the south Bronx, working with “gangs and street kids.” His work led to a peace declaration from the Ghetto Brothers, one of the oldest and largest gangs in the Bronx. Then, when he moved to the Harlem Valley, he wanted to find a way of continuing that work.

That’s when Leicht decided to study aikido in the Berkshires,  and to find a way to tie together his martial arts training with his search for peaceful interaction among all people. The result, years later, is the workshop he and Linden will spearhead at The Watershed Center this weekend. 

“This is the culmination of 20 years’ work to convert the principles of aikidoism and nonviolent martial arts into very simple exercises that anybody can learn and apply in a short time,” Leicht said. “It’s relevant up here because political combat has developed.

“There are peace villages all over the world trying to apply the principles of aikido to make communities more peaceful,” he added. “There are areas of conflict everywhere, including in the U.S. The hope is that this work, that Paul and I are going to do, will make it easier for people.”

The workshop begins at 4 p.m. each day, March 3 through the March 5, at The Watershed Center, located at 44 Kaye Road, Millerton. For more information, go to www.thewatershedcenter.org.