Both the sessions were interesting and helpful for me. We had a session where we all shared our fears, we came to know about the stages of fear. In sessions, I realized that fear is always either what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow. So our suffering is always about that which does not exist. To keep in mind the following quote, I have started to face my fears of level 1.
“अगर आज हम अपने डर पर काबू नहीं पा लेते हैं , तो कल यही डर हम पर काबू पा लेगा “
:-अरविन्द कटोच
I saw a Gujarati movie last week ‘Chal Man Jeetva Jaiye’, and it was a mesmerizing experience. It showcases a rich family stuck at a crossroad wherein their reputation, luxuries, and comfort are at stake because they had incurred the heavy loss. The young generation of the house helps the elders to critically think over the decision taken. They help them analyze the situation from all the perspective which leads to the realization of the blunder they were about to commit. Later the decision taken by them helps the family to live a respectful and happy life. It shows how we completely depend on system one and don’t analyze the situation cautiously when in stress. The decision-making process is beautifully captured and it is a must watch for those who struggle taking decisions at grave situations.
Both the sessions were interesting and helpful. We learn about 3 stages of fear. Fear is in ourselves we have to over come to it which will help us only to live life with full of happiness. The movie we watched ( My sister’s keeper) was very nice and we were able to connect it to attended sessions. It is helpful for personal and professional life.
We had a session where we all shared our fears with the whole team and our facilitators really helped us be more forthcoming with our feelings.
As part of engagements, I introspected and realised various fears I have.
Of all my fears, I decided to start facing my level 1 fears like fear of darkness, fear of ghosts and spirits.
By realising the fact that these are my fears of mind, I have formed few strategies to face these fears.
WIll share once the first few experiments are successful.
Regards
Himani
I appreciate the group members and our facilitators for helping each other share feelings and be comfortable with each other. We were very close and there was no hesitation in sharing our feelings. Listening to all and suggestions given by all has made me strong.
Thanks to my ‘Integrity’ group for the change (though a bit now) that I can see in myself.
The most effective learning for me was to never judge a person immediately.
Going to the Civil hospital has taught me to understand the problems people face whether a mother, child or relatives.
Vijya Bhatia
It was an amazing experience. Sessions were really helpful to us for personal life as well as in professional life. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
Underneath your fears lie great opportunities. Because when you start doing the things that scare you the most, tearing down the invisible barriers that separate you from the good life, you become the person you’ve always dreamed about in your mind.
That means finding your courage is a life-changing decision. Fear will always be around to tell you what you can’t do—it’s up to you to face your fears, and tell yourself that you can.
Integrity is a universal trait that does influence the principles and values one carries. Just like previous 2 batches, I did receive feedback (or rather I should say negative impression) that Integrity is the most boring workshop but I have a different opinion. I spoke about my failure and shared my concern and now I am determined to address my concern. I don’t have a clue how and what I am going to do and thus I am looking forward to attending more sessions.
I learnt about different kind of fears – levels and I too acknowledged mine. Like the film that was shown to us – Sister’s keeper -I could relate to this movie to a great extent and probably the other participants as well…and there were many takeaways from the movie but the most I liked was the end dialogue – which I interpreted as that sometimes we don’t know why we have to face sadness or failure or why we are hurt but its completely OK if we are not able to find answers to such questions…life goes on…time heals all wounds…we change…transform…become better and stronger!!
Hearing to my co-participants stories/concerns/fears/failures gave me an unspoken strength…we in our most sad moment ask ‘why me’…but when we hear others sharing similar stories you feel that I am not alone…
I hope we keep sharing and inspire each other to fight hard till we overcome our fears and concerns.
Before the beginning of the session, we were wondering about what service is, what actions are actually kind……….
The first day, when we entered for the session, we were asked what service means to us and which experience touched our heart? All of us thought about it and came up with multiple definitions of service…. We were curious to know all the answers and we all held our answers for the most awaited session led by Parag Sir.
The discussion about service was introspected by what it actually meant to us. All of us had different opinions about service- like service is a selfless action, service gives inner peace, service is giving things to needy etc… Finally Parag sir shared his experience by saying, “Service should be unplanned and without expectations, doing without thinking, service comes naturally once you adopt it as a nature.”
He too shared multiple experiences of different people but one thing touched my heart when he gave us an example of his friend Mr Jayesh. He said, “One day, he was travelling with his friend by car and they stopped at the signal. A young beggar came towards them. Mr Jayesh rolled down the window and spoke to him inquiring about his name and education. Also, he turned the louvers of the AC towards the young boy to make him feel better under the hot sun. When the signal was about to turn green, he shook hands with the young boy and gave him money. Parag Sir asked his friend surprisingly, “What kind of act is this?” He explained that he tried to befriend a young boy in order to develop equality between them. We were amazed to listen to the friend’s reply.
At the end of the session, we got a clear understanding that seva is not giving materialistic things but giving your time, listening to others, helping others by extending yourself is the real seva.
Ashwin bhai, the school electrician, explained us how we can save electricity, how to read an electricity bill. We learnt the important lesson of switching off the power after charging the phone. We have now become responsible about electricity conservation.
In one of the sessions, we began our day by helping the kitchen staff. We took up different roles like peeling, chopping, cooking, making tea/lemonade, serving. By the end of the day, we realised how difficult it is to be in the kitchen for such long hours and to cook for 2500 people daily. We have decided to appreciate the hard work done by kitchen staff and not to crib about small things. All the male members of the group decided to appreciate their wives/mother who cook for them.
“WE PAY FOR THEIR TIME, NOT FOR THE SERVICE THEY PROVIDE”
Dimple Topiwala, Jimmi Lineswala, Priyanka Patel, Dharmesh Patel, Hitesh Surti
Ahhh!!! That day of the year when you end with Love class and move to Integrity. The butterflies flying in your stomach with a feeling of inquiry about what will it all be. With the impressions left by others on our minds, a little sense of fear vanishes after knowing of the names of the facilitators.
Then the day arrives to attend the first 2 days of Integrity. By then, some things are understood: the meaning of Integrity, what it takes to practice Integrity.
To me Integrity was truthfulness, evaluating one self and becoming stronger by fighting out your weaknesses/fears to gain spiritual growth.
When the curtains were raised, the sessions of two days were found to be planned on similar lines. The facilitators asked us to introduce ourselves, which was done by each of us using the methods in which we were strong. They made us understood the meaning of Integrity and Fear.
The actual action then began. The facilitators asked us to identify the fear within us and grade it into 1 of the 3 levels explained by them to allow us to understand How to Handle it.
Once as we neared towards the end of second day, I was pretty sure that, I can Handle It, the workshop which looked much like a NARCO test from the reviews shared and the first half of day 1.
Vibrant smiles, twinkling eyes, sweet personalities but little do we realise carry untold stories…
“But we already know each other, we just have to introduce ourselves to you both.” were the words uttered by the participants of Integrity Theta to Sanjana ma’am and Ayman ma’am. To our surprise we could not have been farther from the truth. We learned more about our peers and ourselves in these past two days then we did in the past two years.
Our fears gag us to a degree that we become paralysed.
Well, it’s just the beginning…
“The only way to conquer the demon is, you must do the thing you think you cannot do.”