The democracy muscles

DOWNLOAD A POSTER of the nine democracymuscles IN A UK-VERSION or IN A DK-VERSION

Become fit for democracy! Try the training programs for the democracy muscles! Each training session only takes 30 minutes and when we are done, you will always remember that you and others have this muscle! Remember, it is allowed to have fun in exercising your democracy muscles, but it must also be a bit difficult. If it hurts a bit, it is a good sign you are executing the exercises correctly!

The Empathy Muscle

In a democracy, people are diverse. You need to be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

Think of someone you have antipathy for, can you picture this person now? Good! Then take your phone ang google this person’s name and find the picture of this person. Find something that you feel empathy for or even appreciate about this person, we know it can be hard!

The Active Listening Muscle

In a democracy, we are looking for solutions together. Listen, wonder and ask questions!

Active listening is more than a valuable social habit; it is a transformative communication tool and extremely important in democracy. If we are good at active listening, we understand more perspectives and are able to see more shades. For that reason, active listening is an important muscle for making maximum mutual understanding.

The Compromising Muscle

In a democracy, we never fully agree. Choose your battles.

We will train “good compromising”. That, which finds solutions, many people support and take ownership to - also if it means compromising your own starting standpoint. A good compromise is nurturing solidarity and group feeling. Many winners!

The Verbal Self-Confidence Muscle

In a democracy, opinions should meet challenges. You must dare to participate in a debate!

Our voice is very personal, every human has their own voice. It has different tones and sound different. Some voices are high, some deep, some dark. But now let us all try to turn up the volume. Let’s get out of our comfort zone.. and say our opinion our loud, we have to have the confidence that what we have to say is important – and that someone is going to listen to what we have to say

The Disagreement Muscle

In a democracy, we often disagree. Engage in disagreement without feeling angry or hurt.

What is happening when we disagree with others, is that you all of a sudden get new inputs, which you had not yourself thought about. This is so beautiful about democracy: that we disagree and therefore through exchange we can get smarter and more knowledgeable! Now you should listen to one another and explain why you do not agree on a same issue. It can be tough, but that is why we train!

The Opinion Muscle

In a democracy, you can follow many paths. You must know what you stand for and why.

Now you are going to talk together and you are going to share why you have these opinion and weather you base these opinions on feelings or facts…
It is often hard work having an opinion and with this training session we are going to get a sense of where our opinion muscle is placed, and how to train it.

The Mobilization Muscle

In a democracy, you need to engage others in cause that are really important to you. You must be able to speak from you heart to other people’s heart.

The mobilization muscle is the one you use, when you get people onboard your idea or initiative – and if your muscle gets strong, there are no tasks, that are too heavy to lift. It is just as important to be a mobilizer as to be that someone that knows how to join others and the “right” others. Are you ready to mobilize 10, 100, 1 million people?

The Activist Muscle

In a democracy, if you want to achieve something, get on with it!

When we have trained the activist muscle, you will have a better understanding of what makes you active, an active citizen, an active democrat; what makes others active and how this knowledge can be translated into action and participation.