Love life class

Learning about forgiveness in Love classes has brought a vast change in me. Forgiving and forgetting needs lots of courage. I’ve experienced this and understood it’s importance after attending the love classes. Just saying ‘I forgive you, forget it’ is easy but when we say this with inner feelings and really forget, it has a meaning. One feels relieved and overcomes the pain and sorrow he/she is going through after forgiving.

The experience of forgiving and forgetting has improved my relationship and now I don’t avoid meeting those people.  I’m relaxed and patient. I’ve started accepting others views and started thinking on it before reacting. There is no ego clash.

Forgive and Forget was a great learning for me in Love class. Thanks to my facilitators Falguni ma’am and Haseena ma’am for bringing this positive change in me.

 

 

 

Yeh kaun chitrakaar hain … ya scientist hain.. ya doctor hain…?

Disclaimer: Written in the last 10 minutes 🙂

I dont know about my belief in God but what I do believe in is that (at the cost of sounding very “right winged”) is that we come from a rich, cultural heritage. Here’s my hypothesis: I believe that our ancestors held a lot of wisdom and this wisdom was shared with the common people. Somewhere, there was a need to wrap this wisdom in a more palatable form or make some “good practices” common practices.. and BINGO.. there came religion and a set of associated beliefs and superstitions. We all must have heard the story of the Buddhist monastery which meditated while tying a cat to a lamppost. The story of religion and superstitions would follow a similar trajectory of evolution.

Let me give you a few examples to further help you understand where I am coming from:
1. The Indian cow: “gau rakshaks” have earned a notorious name in recent times but do we understand what value the Indian cow holds? If you google it, you will understand what I am saying. Can we use our newly acquired critical thinking skills to separate the noise and the message?

2. I shared an article about it recently . Deep breathing is good for you. Stanford medical school now confirms it. but hello! I mean Baba Ramdev made an entire nation do the “kapalbhaati” and from time immemorial, yogic breathing is a part of our tradition

There are many other examples that I have!

My request to my fellow critical thinkers is that “THINK, Look for confirming and disconfirming evidence” but dont dismiss the native wisdom that we possess.

Now, where does god and religion come here? These same “learned, wise men and women” devised religion / God/ scriptures to guide us on the right way of life (for example: i am doing a gita class and one learning that has really stuck is that “i need to be free from becoming a smaller person. I understand this as always being or attempting to be large hearted, generous, forgiving, gratitude. Works for me! If this is what religion will teach me, I am willing to buy it. I am equipped with a rational and thinking mind and what i call as a “bullshit filter” which will help me cut the noise from the message.) I acknowledge that education (and specifically a “western” education has equipped me to do so)

But if I am at a well placed position that allows me to enjoy the benefits of a Western Education and our native wisdom, I intend to make full use of it and selectively adopt certain “religious” practices or tenets which will do me only good

Love Class 2016-2017 Reflection

“Love class” the name tell us many things about the journey that we are about to finish but there is much more learning than these two words tells us. I learn many things from this life learning sessions. The thing that I really absorbed in my life was ‘Life is difficult’, I accepted this truth and its same for all. It might be a different situation for others but yes life is difficult.

For me life is difficult is because I always struggle with confronting and it requires a lot of courage for me to confront and also blaming myself for any act or problem that arise in my life.

Furthermore, I understood that there are different stages of marriage life and what I am experiencing is one of the stages of marriage life. We need to understand each other more and I have to give more time to my spouse.

Parenting one of my area of interest and I am very keen and attached to my kid. My learning from this class about parenting is I have to give quality time to my kid, I have to understand his requirements and teach him the importance of delayed gratification.

Integrety Class

I believe that life class is needed for all. It changes the way of thinking. It is not only philosophy, but real life, way of living.

In three years, I have seen a lot of change in myself. Seven habits helped me to improve my management skills; love class helped me to understand people and the meaning of real love. But Integrity class made me a good listener. Listening to other people’s problems helped me to understand them in a better way.

When we went to the hospital, I saw the misery of life, and I realised that God loves me and my family. I am blessed.

All these experiences have made me a new man, a compassionate person.

The True Meaning of LOVE..Unfolded!!

“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth… Love is as love does. Love is an act of will — namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”

I understood the true meaning of Love, Parenting and most of all Forgiveness through this workshop. Marriage is definitely not an easy ride, its a journey with lots of ups and downs.  A journey in which each phase you learn something new and get stronger with each passing day. I have definitely grown stronger and more ‘practical’ attending these workshops. It has taught me to accept the truth that “life is difficult” and by accepting this, it also gave me the courage to face it and stay “positive”. It also taught me that ‘life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived’.

I have got better insights to “Parenting” as well. This poem has really motivated me and i would like to share it here:

On Children by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you they belong not to you.

 

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bow from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrow may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

 

To sum up, this entire journey of Love class has been wonderful, with lots of learning and sharing from my group. Thanks a ton to Nayna Ma’am and Anita ma’am for the patience and concern that you’ll have shown us throughout.

Maria Dahodwala.

Love Class

Often in my work it is easier to keep on doing what I have always been doing to take the safe road and do what is familiar. I have found this year that in looking at this new model of love workshop – I had to travel down a road that was not familiar to me, a road which I knew would have difficulties, but also a road that would bring with it a new sense of excitement and engagement with everyone associated with me in my life.

Love is a verb. Without action, it is merely a word!!!

These are some of my favourite things: the colour pink, strawberries, and love. But what exactly is LOVE ?

Most of us are pretty sure we know love when we feel it. Yet the emotion, the state of mind, is more complex and varied than any one of us, even a specialist, can describe fully. What you experience depends on which part of the elephant you touch.

Love is too large, too deep ever to be truly understood or measured or limited within the framework of words. One result of the mysterious nature of love is that no one has ever, to my knowledge, arrived at a truly satisfactory definition of love. I define love thus “The will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” And this is what the “Love Class” has taught us!!

Loving someone can be hard. You have to learn to accept everything that they have to offer, the good and the bad. But, most importantly you have to learn how to love them back in the right way, even when you do not understand why they have not accepted the love you have given so far. If you are giving love in the solely the ways you enjoy receiving it, your relationships could be hindered. Once you learn the two ways in which you and your partner most like to receive love you can begin to foster an even stronger and more in sync relationship.

It’s a tragic reality that far too many people walk away from solid, healthy relationships with partners that they truly love because their experience doesn’t match the cultural expectation. Don’t you think it’s time to change the expectation, to bring it down from the realm of stars and fantasy and present young, formative minds with an accurate and realistic depiction of love, romance, and marriage? It’s time we change “you complete me” to “you inspire me to become the best version of myself” or “with you, I will grow and evolve in my capacity to love.” It’s time to dismantle the fantasy so that people on the threshold of marriage can create the healthiest possible foundation on which to begin their lives together.

 

 

Parenting and Love

I never imagined I would be having a PD on Parenting during LOVE class !! The best part of it was, I got an opportunity to validate my parenting (some part of it) through various discussions and others’ points of view on the same. I also learned many new things.

Kids always imitate you. They often want to grow up fast and be like you. After this session, I can now connect how much I think alike or behave alike my parents. This has really helped me to cope up with several issues pertaining to my marriage and family. I am at least able to console or pacify myself when I get furious on someone. A thought pops in my mind – LET IT GO. Maybe, s/he has a bad day or its his/her upbringing. Through this, I learned to give space and show acceptance and empathy towards everyone.

I am happy that I got a chance to attend this session to improve in this journey called LIFE!!

Thank you God!!

Is there a God? I have heard and infact questioned myself several times. After digging deep, I start questioning God himself…are you there. Then ultimately realise….there is God, may be not physically present but yes, I believe, there is a supreme power, some energy that brings positivity in me and strives me to stay and keep my calm, helps me come out during my hardships.

Religion on the other hand, gives me a track to move on(but not gets us close to God in any case)and help me keep myself more organised. However, rituals does not do any good to me. I do it because my family wants me to do and I am sure that a crow can never do anything for me. In my good/difficult times, God has been a source to keep myself balanced. For me, it is more about faith in that supreme power. 
 
I go to temple to seek my answers, not with God but myself. 
More than religion, I believe in the theory of Karma – “you get served what you deserve” and that supreme energy helps me in resorting the right path !!

The journey of Love

Life is easy when you accept that Life is difficult“. This is by far the best take away from this year’s Love classes. This statement stays with me during the tough times. This has helped me stay calm all through. Not just me, it has also helped my closed ones by giving them the understanding of the essence of this statement.

Forgiveness is not an emotion but a decision that we make for our own peace which helps us grow spiritually. Myths of parenting were an eye-opener for me. Vision of parenting showed me a lot of ways how I can be a better son and also work on learning to be a good parent. One thing that I would take away from my childhood is respecting child’s individuality and involving them in decision-making in early stages which will help them grow.

I would genuinely like to appreciate my facilitators, Nayna Ma’am and Anita Ma’am, who strived hard to make us understand the concepts when they went overhead, when we didn’t agree to the definition of Love and contradicted them.

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