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"If people can be educated to see their own natures, it may be
hoped that they will also learn to understand and to love their
fellow men better. A little less hypocrisy and a little more
tolerance towards oneself can only have good results in respect for
our neighbor; for we are all too prone to transfer to our fellows the
injustice and violence we inflict upon our own natures. " - Carl
Jung (1875-1961, Swiss Psychiatrist)
I have been amazed many times with my reactions, responses, behaviour
patterns after the event. I am not sure why I act the way I do and
what drives me. In my relationships, there are times when I am
unclear on how I should behave, what should my priorities be, what
are the should and should nots of ideal relationships, what is
expected of the roles I play. Yes, everyday is lived with energy
being spent on various activities, but somewhere these questions nag
my mind and there is confusion - this takes away sense of direction,
saps energy and some days there is fatigue.
My experience of Aastha made me see myself as just another human
being - yes, I may have my frailities, my insecurities; there will be
demands on me, but I can just "BE MYSELF". I need not
"TRY and BE". Yes, I have been brought up to accommodate to
social norms and etiquette, but this does not mean I compromise
myself. This is not about how you react to what is happening around
you or to you, but how you look at yourself and how much you
understand yourself. What this did to me finally was that I feel I am
able to empathise with myself and therefore empathise with others
more; love myself and love others more. The key learning was that
human emotions are real, nothing to be ashamed of or scared about,
and everything is an experience, a journey. What is true today is not
necessarily true tommorrow not because the world around has changed,
but because I have changed. Essentially I learned a way of looking at
myself with acceptance and thereby work with myself so that I am
comfortable in my skin.
What I liked about the learning process was that there were no
lectures or presentations; I lived 5 days in the glory of expressions
of various peoples experiences, journeys, emotions; the faculty's
insights during this process and their gentle proding for each person
to move from one step in the journey to another, facilitates this
learning. The warmth and sheer acceptance of a human being and being
seen without who or what he/she is, is a novel experience which can
be addictive.
This program is not at all easy. In fact, it is quite difficult. If
you are used to a world of appropriate behaviour, it can be very
difficult to accept an environment where people just be and do what
they feel like, especially all the "HUGGING" that happens.
A big challenge was to accept the lack of structure in the process -
I was used to training programs with formats defined, content
defined, etc. But here you are never sure what is going to happen
next and you cannot be "PREPARED". It was quite difficult
to hear and share emotions and experiences with "STRANGERS"
- it seemed odd. I was not totally comfortable even on the last day
(shows I have work to do), but I saw that the effectiveness of the
program is because of its lack of format and participants bring in
the content. To be able to talk to each other not because we relate
to each other on a physical plane, but because we relate on an
emotion plane takes away the strangeness. But it was difficult to
share without fear of judgement, being looked at as silly or fear of
where sharing is going to take you next, what it is going to leave me with.....
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