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COURSE
How To Overcome Political Differences & Feel More At Ease
With Dr. Femke E. Bakker
Political tolerance is the willingness to put up with opinions and behaviors of others who you dislike. It is the oxygen of democracy, since tolerating each other is the pre-requisite for a peaceful co-existence. Tolerance is, however, one of the harder values to cultivate. It's a quality and we must consciously decide to foster and cultivate it. Over 10 sessions, you'll learn about the value of tolerance for any political community, and you'll explore what tolerance means to you personally. This course can challenge the beliefs you hold about yourself and others, it actively asks you to answer difficult questions about yourself and your ability to tolerate other opinions, beliefs, and behavior. Through the use of meditation, you'll find out who it actually is that you find hard to tolerate, and what your intolerance tells you about yourself. You are guided to explore these feelings, and to consciously connect, through the use of meditation, with the true unconditional love that we all have unlimited access to. This course is for: anyone who wants to be politically engaged from a more positive perspective, explore and cultivate their level of tolerance, feels challenged by the political ideas of others, gets stuck in patterns of blaming others for what goes wrong in politics. The tools you will learn during this course will support you to, over time, really start meaning it when you say that you "agree to disagree".
Meet your Teacher
read more
10 Days
4.8k students
4.7 stars
16 min / day
Acceptance
English
4.7 (154)
Recent Reviews
Laurie
August 13, 2025
Thank you for your guidance towards a more peaceful inner feeling about » being the change I want to see in the world » regarding politics, Femke. This is my second time through the course at your suggestion in the Self Gentleness Academy. How I love the work you are doing with our community of students in that Academy, on the way to a more gentle view of ourselves, our communities and the greater world. I loved the intro to day 9 about not having to agree with those who are so different than me in their thinking about the political structure for our country. I don’t have to even engage or come into contact with them. I can just work on my inner perception of what them as fellow human beings, by practicing more and more the loving kindness meditation. What came to mind was something my husband’s grandmother used to say : great minds discuss ideas, medium minds discuss event and lesser minds discuss people. So true in the political sense. If one with opposing views is willing to discuss the specific issues and their views of them and is interested about my views on the topic, then we can engage in a healthy discussion. If they are interested in drawing the lines, making it about us vs them, villifying those who belong to another party or even just haranguing against a particular politician, I will draw the line and politely ask to stop the discourse. Change topic before I sense the venom pouring out of them. The same with watching certain news outlets or reading what comes on my computer… turn off what degrades, villifies and separates human beings. I won’t enter into reading that or discussion. The whole topic is so complex now as we see the influx of many from countries where there little democracy in action, where there is totalitarianism, where there is not a pursuit of civic society for the common good, but instead, corruption, classes of citizens, many of whom are oppressed, discriminated against and not given a chance at the food, healthcare, education and housing that is decent. The bullied, the oppressed often become the bullies, the oppressors if given the freedom to do so. The task is large to engage in building a more democratic and peaceful world, but we have to try, even on a very small and personal level.
Veronica
November 5, 2024
Een buitengewone kursus, juist vóór de verkiezing in de V.S, waar ik woon. Dank u, ik had die echt nodig! Translation: An extraordinary class, just before the elections in the USA, where I live. Thank you, I really needed this’
Annie
February 7, 2024
An important work. To build self-compassion and love, in order to extend that compassion and love (with grace and forgiveness) to others with whom we have different perspectives on politics and how to live ‘a good life’. Thanks Femke for your efforts in preparing this course and for your interactions in the classroom. May we all learn to be more tolerant. 🙏♥️
Patricia
September 8, 2022
Good course. Much needed !! It’s like forgiving- we do it to make our self more peaceful And to have a better life for ourselves. We can’t control other peoples judgements , only own own And I really want to feel inner peace living in this society Thank you
Donna
August 10, 2022
This has been a wonderful course that I will come back to in my journey toward tolerance. At this time August 2022 I’m hearing about groups in our country that are anxious to take up arms and fight for what they feel our country should be. This is alarming and I hope that there are still rational people who will be able to control those people. Thank you Femke 🙏🏼
Iiris
May 11, 2022
Good course on an important theme. I wish the course had somehow gone deeper, or more specifically, explored more varied themes and used more different exercises. The core message and the core practice of loving kindness meditation was repeated quite a lot. Still, this course got me really thinking and gave food for thought!
Laura
December 23, 2021
I really appreciate you providing this experience. Our time at this point feels so divided and helping each of us learn to become better stewards of acceptance of our differences will help breed more of the same. Thank you for that reminder. With love and acceptance-Laura
Judith
November 4, 2021
Excellent and important course that is really needed in this world. It helped me enormously in taking a new perspective.
Leslie
October 24, 2021
This was a very helpful course, with Metta practices to help encourage lovingkindness for ourselves and others. I'm certain I'll be returning to it again next political election cycle!
Kimber
January 9, 2021
Very much appreciate this course being put together. I repeated several of the lessons multiple times & suspect I will many more. While I still seem to have a visceral reaction when trying to display loving kindness to the person I’m least tolerant of, it does seem to be lessening so I’m hopeful with much practice, I might actually mean it when I direct it to him in the future
Wyverne
November 26, 2020
Thank you. Very helpful.
Riccardo
November 25, 2020
Great course, it open up to tolerance and to understand our emotional triggers when it comes to political confrontation with others. Indeed was useful for me. Thank you Femke 🙏
Michael
October 11, 2020
A lesson in daily living towards others and oneself to learn tolerance and understanding. 🙏🏻
Sarah
October 9, 2020
I thank Femke, for this most relevant and excellently facilitated course. It gave me useful tools for how to respond when triggered by others' opinions and behaviour. I highly recommend this course to everyone wanting to cultivate tolerance and loving kindness in all areas of life.
Marcia
September 16, 2020
Great course. And very timely. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Meet
August 21, 2020
Perfect - thank you
Alicia
July 31, 2020
This course is so relevant right now, and I am so grateful that I stumbled across it. While it did help me to begin the process of showing more love and understanding toward others who do not share my political views, it also equipped me with the tools needed to have better relationships with everyone around me. Any time I am feeling frustrated with anyone for ANY reason, I find myself remembering that they are just trying to live a good and happy life, and it helps me to show so much more compassion toward them. I have started to heal a broken relationship with my mother through the use of this mindset. It's an incredible change after just ten days. I will continue to do loving kindness meditations as suggested, and will retake the course just to make sure I properly absorb as much of it as I can. Thank you so much, Femke. Your course is life changing.
Emily
July 30, 2020
Very very helpful to have a tool to deal with so many feelings during this difficult political time. Thank you
Brian
July 20, 2020
Wonderful! An excellent course presented by a professional and kind presenter. More please 🙏🕺🥰
guest6482976850049600844
July 18, 2020
Super. Thank you so much 😊
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