Richard Rogers spent years as a businessman in the UK chasing what everyone told him he was supposed to want. He got it. The businesses turned a corner, the money came in, and he stood there thinking: there has to be something more than this.
He started looking around for someone doing meaningful work that he could help with his business skills. He went to events. He collected leaflets and CDs. And then one day someone handed him a CD called Love Peace Harmony and told him to put it on when business was going sideways and stress was running the show.
He almost did not bother.
“I tried it many, many times and I realized that it truly did work.” — Richard Rogers
Forty minutes to the office, forty minutes back. He arrived calmer, more open, more present. He went back a year later to find out more. He attended an event. He got involved. He is now the Executive Director of the Love Peace Harmony Foundation, which operates in 40 countries and is working toward two billion households worldwide.
Not a bad journey for a CD he nearly left on the shelf.
The Problem Nobody Is Really Solving
Evin brought something into this conversation that is hard to shake. A teacher recently broke down on a call with the Thinkering team. She had just filed a suicide prevention report. For a fourth grader.
That is what educators are walking into every day right now. Three in four teachers are burned out and thinking about leaving. The average superintendent lasts two years and two months. The mental health crisis in schools is not a conference theme anymore. It is a daily reality sitting in classrooms that were never built to hold it.
Richard’s read on why is worth hearing.
“Today we live in one of the most connected times in history. But so many people feel even more disconnected through this amazing connection the internet was supposed to bring us.” — Richard Rogers
Stress, anxiety, loneliness, communities under economic and environmental pressure all at once. He does not think any one person or organization can fix it. He says that plainly and without apology. What Love Peace Harmony is trying to do is change the frequency, starting with the individual and spreading outward from there.
Three Pillars, One Direction
The foundation’s work runs through three pillars.
The first is nurturing yourself. Meditation, chanting, wellness practices that chip away at the stress that builds up every day and replace it with something closer to calm. The thinking is simple: when people feel better about themselves, they care more about others and the world around them.
The second is supporting others. A global volunteer network across all 40 countries, each group working in their own language and their own time zone. Not everyone speaks English. The foundation built for that from the start.
The third is healing the planet. Three million trees by 2030. Water wells in Africa. And the project most relevant to the Thinkering community: Plastic to Purpose.
Plastic to Purpose
This is where Love Peace Harmony meets the classroom, and it is what Richard and Evin are building toward together.
Students watch plastic waste get transformed in real time through a machine called the Love Peace Harmony Press. Discarded plastic goes in. A keyring comes out. Something real and useful that a minute ago was garbage.
The program has already run in Atlanta and Hawaii. London is next in September.
“To teach the younger generations about the impact of waste plastic will, I feel, change the planet. Because when they understand what they need to do to make a change, these are the generations that will be able to make it.” — Richard Rogers
The lesson is not just about plastic. It is about the distance between something thrown away and something with purpose being smaller than most people think. That lands differently when you are holding the proof of it in your hand.
Part two of this conversation gets into the project more deeply and what the collaboration with Thinkering looks like going forward.
Step One, Right Now
Evin asked the practical question. Teachers are not eating lunch. There are five fires to scramble and put out every afternoon. Time is gone before the day starts. How does someone actually bring this into their life?
Richard keeps it simple. Start with the song. Everything on lovepeaceharmony.org is free. Download it. Listen to it on the drive in. See what happens.
“The first step is always about healing yourself. Connect with Love Peace Harmony, come to our events, join us on social media. We created that framework to not only find the people but to hold them.” — Richard Rogers
Richard went from a single CD to running a global foundation. He is not selling a shortcut. He is describing a practice that started in a car on a forty-minute commute and built from there. The song is free. The first step is small. That is the point.
Find Love Peace Harmony at lovepeaceharmony.org. Everything is free to access. Part two of this conversation is coming soon. For Thinkering Collective fellowship information visit thinkeringcollective.org or reach us at hello@thinkeringcollective.org
