We recently connected with Avraham Calhoun and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Avraham thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I believe we all have the ability to make peace with ourselves and others, it just takes work. A lot of self work and dedication to working against negative desires that pull us closer to our ego vs. positive desires that keep us closer to our true self and giving nature as a species. I see the workplace as one of the biggest peace spoilers in the lives of average Americans. It is my hope after being successful with PEACEWITH that we have created a movement of peace-building in the workplace. A movement that impacts both the emotional and physical world related to how we approach our work. It is my hope that when people come into contact with me that I leave them more peaceful and in control of the self than they were before. I hope that we foster a movement of healing from stress and burnout. My mission is to bring peace to the workplace.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have a deep connection to my spirituality and mindfulness based practice. Since I was a child this came very naturally to me. I identify as a Gay male and am in a loving relationship with my partner. I have an awesome border collie and we love to do hiking trips and go outdoors. Any experience that allows me to feel the presence of the creator and awe is what I love. I have studied with a private Kabbalah Teacher through the Kabbalah Centre for more than a decade. I hold a masters degree in conflict resolution and mediation from Tel Aviv University. While attending Grad school my thesis research focused on measuring the impact of peace programs in the West Bank/Palestine and Israel . It was my initial experience in Israel/Palestine that showed me what two societies entrenched in conflict can look like and saw several parallels to what was occurring in the U.S. as it related to our two party system and grappling with institutionalized racism and the history of slavery (I want to note while there are parallels, they are two very distinct situations, and trying to view them through the same lens does not work, because they have very different orientations). All that is to say the term peace spoiler is commonly used in the Israeli/Palestinian peace camp, and when I think of what spoils peace for Americans it is primarily the workplace. Seeing that the workplace is the most common place where you met people who are different than you, I felt this was the place that needed the practice of peace-building, secular spiritual wisdom, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence. This is how the idea for PEACEWITH was born.

PEACEWITH offers two main services. We have a conscious leadership coaching program designed for c-suite and executive level professionals. The core focus areas are enhancing leadership style, improving response to burnout and stress, gaining control over conflict and emotional reactivity, and developing purpose and fulfillment. For staff not at the c-suite and executive levels we offer a flagship workshop called Find Your Peace- focused on improving workplace culture and employee wellbeing, positive responses to stress and burnout, and aligning individual purpose with role and operations. PEACEWITH also offers, mediation and facilitation problem solving sessions, and private meditations.

I mainly solve internal relational issues for organizations, aligning operations, job roles, mission, and values, and offer meditation.I think what sets me a part from other conflict resolution professionals is that I not only focus on skill building but I also approach this work from a very personal, emotional, and spiritual level that allows for much more vulnerability and ego identification. Generally programs that teach emotional intelligence and CR give people skills to solve problems with others, but they do not really focus on how the individuals own ego may be causing conflict and/or where they may need to develop personal responsibility. I am not afraid to have these challenging, but necessary conversations for positive transformation.The PEACEWITH Process is also very unique because of its inclusion of practical wisdom from Kabbalah and Buddhism that I have woven into our content.

I am most proud of how I see my clients transform through coaching. I feel my super powers are helping others find out where their ego is holding them back from being their fullest and most potential, and helping people establish a powerful but simple meditation practice that drastically decreases stress and improves their approach to life and work. I also love the free weekly community mediation I do that is increasingly growing in numbers. Everything is energy and if you know how to properly control your energy you can radically transform your life.

If I can summarize my message this is it. “Peace exists. It is here right now in this room. It is with us in every breath we take. But the ego and the external world will do everything in its power to blind you from this peace. Everyday across societies peaceful and warlike there are people making peace, collaborating, and willing to make concessions to make sure that another has. These are the voices we must lift up. These are the practices we must be willing to make in order to experience peace. Peace exists in all times and spaces the question we must ask is have we personally taken responsibility for the continued building up of and supporting of peace.”

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Starting a business is hard. people will tell you no, people will tell you you are not right, you will constantly feel small and like you are not good enough, but you can not let these voices win.

It is very cliche but never give up. If you have a dream and you have a mission do it. and continue you to do it. one step at a time. This is how i am building PEACEWITH. Many times people do not really get what I am trying to do as it relates to the secular spirituality thing. But just because someone else does not understand does not mean that you are wrong and or not good. You have to really listen to your soul and true self, as long as you have a strong desire to share and give back and you take every step you can the creator will have your back.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

In the world of social media there is such a demand to post and make content. For a long time I spent many hours being a “content creator” and I was not getting results. I had to sit down and ask where have I made my sales and gotten new clients from. I realized for me it was personal connections and in person meetings. The reason was that this is when i am my most authentic. So it may be very old school and it also still takes a lot of time, but I have weekly coffee meetings with people in my network and new folks and this has been working really well to get me new clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.peacewith.net
• Instagram: @peace.with
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peacewith/?viewAsMember=true
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PEACEWITH
• Yelp: n/A
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peacewith-podcast/id1605635480

Image Credits

All photos were taken by me or my partner Ron Jones