Saturday, July 23, 2011

Well Being Workshop



Well, after a long time, I am posting a blog soon after the event is completed. I realized the internal dialogue that has been preventing for doing.
What my inner dialogue is saying is “How many people see this? You have only 8 followers after nearly two years of blogging. It is not very smart to put in so much effort with such small returns.” What I realize is that my original goal of writing the blog as my self-expression and my won growth has been lost. I am amazed at the ways that the conditioning takes me over. I am happy and delighted that I am reconnected with my real purpose of writing the blog, which is connected to my passion to share personal growth.
This is the 41st Well Being Workshop I conducted. The opportunity for my personal growth in each workshop is to relate to it as a ‘new’ workshop, which it is. This is a basic practice that allows for relating to the NOW and living life in the present. I find it useful in generating each day as a ‘new’ day, which it is. This moment is new.  It is also helping me in relationships and all aspects of my work. Actually, it is a practice of mindfulness and love.
This is the first time I conducted it in the Pavilion of Tibetan culture, thanks to Kalsang. What a space it is! Excellent cross ventilation, beautiful greenery all around, the musical sound of water flowing in the fountain, the presence of Mother, Sri Aurobindo and HH  Dalai Lama, the wooden flooring and immaculate maintenance.... A part of this space is used for meditation – a better perspective is that it is a space for meditation. I was delighted that one of the earlier participants came along his son and daughter-in-law and also brought also a friend from Madurai. The daughter-in-law is expecting to have a baby soon. This was very inspiring for me and when she said that the baby likes the classes, I had an experience that I have no words to describe.
I invite people who have attended earlier workshops to join for the last two sessions and invite them to share their experience. I feel so satisfied and fulfilled when I hear about the better health they are enjoying. I am blessed to be the conduit for them to connect with the ancient practices of Yoga, Pranayama and Wellness.
Here are some pictures of the extraordinary event.


Saturday, July 9, 2011

Workshops for PGP Students of IIMI

Earlier, I was teaching a course called Personal Growth Lab(PGL) to the students of 2 year Post Graduate program. Thanks to the initiative of Prof. Ramana, we are now experimenting with workshops. I facilitated two workshops of 10 sessions each - Good health and Wellbeing; Stress Management


Good Health & Wellbeing
This is based on Wellbeing workshop. I was not sure how many students would be interested in this workshop as it is scheduled at 6:30AM. This is closer to the bed time of many of the students  rather than wake up time.  I am very happy that a large number of students enrolled for this workshop despite the challenge of waking up early in the morning.  I turned to Yoga and other good health practices when my health was bad. It is inspiring to see the commitment to good health in the people who are young and enjoying reasonable health. I am fortunate to have the privilege of sharing what has been so beneficial to me. I enjoyed conducting the sessions and very much appreciate the participation and positive energy in the workshop.

Stress Management
This is based on the many workshops I conducted for corporates. I had a very ambitious plan to cover a lot of aspects that I normally do in workshops of  longer duration.  I was not sure whether the young students would be interested in topics beyond basic stress management. I was pleasantly surprised by not only the interest but the participation, openness and interaction. It was a very joyous experience for me and I am very happy and grateful for the opportunity of working with this group – so much so that I felt sad in the last session.
I think the idea of a class representative is a good one. Panda and Fiaz  helped me in many ways and such connections are very precious for me – making young friends. Tribhuvan was the only one to be in both the workshops. In fact, he did stress management purely out of interest without actually enrolling for the course and became another young friend. It was also very heartening for me that Prof. Omkar attended most of the sessions and Prof. Srinivas attended 4 sessions. It seems to me that we are making progress in the IIM campus!
The workshops were easier from my point of view as we concentrate on one topic at a time. However, by focusing on one aspect, the workshops fragment the holistic perspective that was the cornerstone of  PGL. One challenge I faced was to set question papers for the test – first of its kind.
7th July is a day I won’t forget easily. It was the first time ever that I was late for a class.  When Prof. Srnivas called me at 6:35AM for the 6:30 session, I was sleeping! I was confused and ran for the session and started it at 6:45 I had to use every technique that I have ever learned to be present and conduct the session. I would say that I passed the test in my own evaluation.
Visiting IIMI is something I like very much. A beautiful and vibrant campus that I enjoy to be in, meet old friends, meet new people and make new friends. I look forward to my next visit. The campus and the view are especially beautiful, with fresh green carpets grown by the monsoon. I feel blessed to be here and have had the opportunity to offer the workshops to young, enthusiastic students.

Friday, July 8, 2011

An interesting quarter – April, May & June of 2011


 Health, Harmony and Happiness Workshops
These are based on my insight that the key to good health is on-line management of the energy field. So, I experimented by combining the Well Being Workshop with some parts of the Being Well Workshop and tried it out as a 4daya workshop at Auroville, Savitri Bhavan . It was very well received by the participants and it encouraged me to offer it again in May.




I faciliatetd a variation of this course at IIM, Indore for Defence Service Officers as a workshop of three full days. This was a very special event as it was an opportunity to connect with my extended family roots in Defence Services.









Even more special (for me) was the Health and Harmony Workshop I offered at Hyderabad for my college mates. This happened with the initiative if my dear friend DSR Raju and was organized by him and M. Subbarao, another dear friend of the 60’s in college. It was wonderful to meet friends form the college days and share the principles of health and harmony.  I am grateful to DSR Raju, M. Subbarao and all those who came over to the workshop.  K Venkateswarlu  (like DSR) is a dear friend from 1963 onwards and it was great that he could attend the workshop. I am blessed to share tools and techniques that could be beneficial to my friends who are so dear to me.
I see “Health, Harmony and Happiness” as the direction I would like to develop myself and my work.

Follow Up Sessions
This was also the period in which I have done three follow up sessions – two at IIM and one at LEC. This is an important aspect of the work – a follow up sessions are having a major positive impact in improving the practice of the tools and techniques i.e. in actually producing beneficial results.

Individual Coaching
A major opportunity for my growth during this period was two requests for individual coaching. It was challenging to manage the time and experiment with individual coaching - first attempts for me. I am glad that I took up the challenge and managed my commitments. It was enormously fulfilling and very satisfying in the end and I learned many important differences between workshop mode and individual coaching.  It is a privilege to coach anyone individually as it creates a connection of immense quality.


Stress Management
I conducted a two day stress management workshop at GMR. This workshop has now matured into a very well rounded event that I like very much and is benefitting  the participants.

ICITI
This period was also significant for the progress in the ICITI project. I met a number of important people in Delhi and feel hopeful at the end of it. I am grateful for the opportunity to give  a talk at Indian Institute of Science on ICITI.

The blog
This post is more like a quarterly report rather than a blog intended for self expression and my personal growth. I am recommitting myself to update the blog after very event.