Description of the Workshop Curriculum - Assignment Example

THE WORKSHOP CURRICULUM What I believe to be the most powerful aspect of this thesis is the actual workshop curriculum (Appendix A.Workshop Curriculum). This curriculum is relatively similar to what I presented at Kripalu. The only difference is in the refinement of the Integrated Yogic Leadership Model. Most of the terms were modified in that they have been made more specific and were greatly expounded on. I also added, altered and changed the experiential exercises that were used. I did this to suit the target group, the environment, space and time that we had at our disposal. The element of time contributed to the great success of the workshop. Teaching the workshop in a five-day intensive allowed me to present the information in a more thorough and I believe cohesive way. I feel that the set up of the workshop, being intensive, created an outlet which allowed the participants to leave behind their “normal life” and delve into this process of yoga and leadership. The participants came ready and expecting this type of process to happen. They showed enthusiasm and eagerness to learn as much as they can during this five-day immersion in yoga and the Integrated Yogic Leadership Model. Because they had the same purpose, an instant connection was formed amongst the participants that greatly contributed to the development of a peaceful and harmonious relationship within the group. I feel that this five-day intensive workshop gave enough time for students to walk away from the mundane cares of the world, to listen and learn of new tools to support them on their journey to becoming a leader. At the end of the workshop they returned to their own worlds confident and renewed, armed with a new perspective on leadership. Narrative of the Curriculum To better understand the curriculum I will describe each day’s intention and briefly explain the experiences. Again, referring to the section of Emerging Adults where I explained the importance of highly experiential exercises for this age group. This five-day intensive workshop was held on June 6-10, 2010 at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, the largest holistic retreat center in North America. This group of 19 emerging adults gathered to delve into this curriculum. Throughout the entire workshop the participants would go through an experiential exercise then move into a dyad or triad share and then come back to the larger group and have a group share. The sessions were: morning session 8:30-11:30am; afternoon session 1:30-4:00. Yoga sessions were scheduled in the afternoons at 4:15-5:45 and in the evenings at 7:00-9:00. A brief description of the day to day events and my observations were as follows: Sunday, the beginning The opening night was an opportunity to create a safe and sacred space for the participants. We began the evening by introducing ourselves to one another and telling each other the reason which propelled each one to participate in the activity. Each person went around the room and introduced themselves by completing this statement “Being “X” age is…”. This gave each person the opportunity to share to the body what is “real” for them at this stage in their lives- their fears, concerns and joys. Each one was given the opportunity to bring this into the space. It was during this time that I introduced myself, my path, and why I do this work. It was a time to briefly go over the week and our agreements as a group. The next step was to acknowledge the space and recognize each one as being called together to learn from one another. I then introduced into the space the concept of “council” wherein when we are altogether, we speak and listen from the heart. Hence, we must be spontaneous and be of lean expression. Finally, we concluded the opening session by having a blessing cord ceremony. The cord or thread was passed around the circle. Each unwound the cord as they received it, thus one retains a hold on the cord as the big mass of it was passed onto the next person. As a person received the cord, he or she was given the opportunity to speak of his or her intention in coming. When everyone has had their turn and the mass of cord has returned to me I told them the symbolical meaning of the cord. The cord represents the circle that connects each of us. Each of us is connected to one another and therefore we must always remember that we are not alone. This is the first lesson of leadership. I then instructed them to assist each other to cut the thread and tie it around their wrist. I told them that the thread is a physical reminder of their intention for the week. I concluded with enjoining them to take action. I told them that, “for true transformation to occur we must take action—otherwise it will simply be a philosophy or theory.” Monday morning Every morning we began each session with some kind of ritual or morning practice. The reason behind this is to teach the students the importance of consciously beginning the day. The acceptance of a new day always begins with gratitude. Next we move into a brief dyad exercise of exploring the idea of one’s personal beliefs on being infinite, eternal and whole—a belief that is part of the yogic tradition. We also moved through different exercises exploring intimacy and interdependence. These exercises were designed with the end hope of setting the tone that “we needed one another.” The remainder of the morning was spent on a discussion wherein they freely shared their ideas on what leadership meant to them. The discussion paved the way for the introduction of the Integrated Yogic Leadership Model. Since the model is deeply influenced by the Bhagavad Gita and the Patanjali’s, I had to take the time to explain these ancient Yogic Texts and their relevance to the model. Before we got into a deeper discussion of the model we moved through an exercise that explored the concept that “to be a leader one must truly value their worth and life.” I lead them through a group exercise where they had to examine their own life and whether their life was worth living. After that we explored what it meant to choose life. This paved the way to the discussion of the heart of the model—dharma or one’s personal calling. Monday afternoon We came back and began the afternoon by introducing breathing exercises, called the pranayama. The necessity to teach the students the pranayama arises from the need to clear one’s mind in order to find a better understanding on the task at hand. Clearing the mind of other concerns helps one to focus on the task at hand with an encompassing perspective. This is an important tool in leadership. A leader must be able to focus not only on a single aspect but on all facets and sides of a problem. This can only be done by clearing the mind through the pranayama. Next we then moved into the component of the model Authenticity (Atman). We began with a discussion that we are constantly evolving into “ourselves,” and that it is the universe that wants us to be ourselves. To exemplify, “A tree never tries to be anything but a tree, never compares itself to others.” We, humans, are the only creatures that go against our authentic nature. After explaining this to them I encouraged them to experience our authenticity through dance. I asked them to look into a mirror and made them answer the questions: “Who are you? What do you see?” I then let the music flow. I chose three different songs that invoked a very different feel. We then moved into a group circle where they were led to “see” one another simply by looking into each other’s eyes. This exercise led the way to a group share activity of Authenticity. I first explained my own definition of authenticity- Authenticity means that what we say, think, feel and do are all in alignment. The goal is to reach the state of being in full expression. To do this, we must accept the precept that we are who we are from what we came from. We are able to build a spiritual path by remembering and allowing all our experiences to lead us back to the true self. What impels us to take the journey is the universe. It is knocking and making us aware of its desire to return us to our authentic self. It will continue to do so and will do whatever it takes to get our attention. I ended with explaining to them what Koshas are. To allow them to experience it, we did a brief experience of the koshas with the goal of getting all the koshas “speaking to each other,” and at the same time expressing our desire to see them all in alignment. As a final activity, we moved into a meditation of tapping into their authenticity and getting acquainted with the gremlin self- “the one that tries to preserve the status quo.” Monday Evening: I introduced the labyrinth as a meditation tool. I asked them to reflect on their dharma and calling. After the introduction and experience, we had a group share. It was during this time that the cohesiveness of the group really came through. There was an intimacy and sweetness that was present. What I saw and heard assured me that they were deeply interested in learning. Tuesday morning: This session explored the topic on ones “impact” and what it means to be accountable for your impact. We began the session by having them write down the impact they want to have on people versus the impact they think they currently have on people. Then we talked about energetic impacts. We had each student reflect on the impact that they had on each other. At first the students were nervous and apprehensive to find out the impact that they were having on each other, however after the session was over they were all deeply grateful for the experience. This seemed to open the gateway for transparency and intimacy, thus bringing the group closer together. It also impressed upon them that Leaders are accountable—for the sake of their calling (dharma)— and, for the sake of the world. Tuesday afternoon: Before they went on a break for the afternoon they were given the assignment to think of five people that “trigger” them or have the effect of creating negative feelings in them. When they returned for the afternoon session we moved into an exercise where they explored how these triggers affect them towards becoming more authentic; thus, paving the way to self healing. The exercise, ultimately, led to our liberation. The students realized that their liberation is caught up in one another and that everyone was there to help each other. They then moved into small groups and explored their triggers concerning certain people and how these specific triggers were teaching them something. We then moved into an exercise about perspective—again exploring the concept that we have the power to look at a situation or person from different perspectives. We are at liberty to choose a perspective from the angle that we want to see the situation from. We went through several exercises geared towards the understanding of perspective. They were made to realize that they each had the power to choose. They had the power to choose rather than be a victim to a situation or to another person. Accordingly they can choose the perspective that they want to see it from. As usual, they were made to share in dyads/small group before coming together for the larger group share. In the first exercise, they were made to stand in front of an object and were given the opportunity to look at it from three different ways or focus. Each was given a partner to share what they saw. I told them to pay close attention to the differences in what they saw. Then, I generalized that- “Notice how you can be looking at the SAME thing and see something differently.” In application to their lives, they were made to contemplate on a “sticky” subject in their life and see the perspective that he or she is in. The second exercise dealt with coming back into the circle. Hence, I call it the “Come back to the circle: Fill in the blank Exercise.” We formed a circle and each was made to continue the phrases: Being twenty X is…; Having children is…; Getting old is…; Being single is… The final exercise was the Fork Game. Here they were made to pass around the fork. Each person has to think and express a different use for it. This emphasized that each of us can be looking at the SAME thing and yet can see several different uses for it, thus giving a variety of perspectives. After all the exercises, the lesson on differences in perspective was clearly understood. In addition to this lesson, I emphasized that- We aren’t given ANYTHING that we can’t learn from, and heal from. But it is a choice at how we choose to look at things that makes the process work. We need to increase our awareness and realize that we are in a perspective, and that we hold a certain view point. Tuesday Yoga: This session was designed to explore the “vinyasa,” or the flow of yoga. This is the initial step to the learning of what it means to practice hatha (physical) yoga as a way to learn, to flow through life. The idea of how they “do” yoga is probably similar to how they “do” life. The pivotal question is, “Can they flow with whatever life brings them?” Tuesday Evening: This session was an opportunity to again look more deeply into the concepts of perspective and accountability. I took them through an exercise where we looked at language, the choice of words they use and the impact that these have. Examples of these words or phrases are: “this is impossible” or “I can’t do this.” They were made to realize that they need to be accountable for their use of language. This was also an experience of increasing awareness and becoming more conscious of language. Wednesday morning: We started the day with the pranayama story from Yoga of Breath. I introduced the pranayama of Nadi shodhana. We then went back to review the model. I discussed with them the importance of facing one’s fears. I told them that “We can either face our fears consciously or be dragged down. I reminded them that the universe is on our side and it wants us to face our fears. Sometimes we need to sit in the fire to know this.” I had to bring this concept as being real to them so I asked them to rub their hands together. I explained to them that this is heat. I then introduced that heat is tapas. We then explored the part of the model that focuses on Tapas. Tapas is facing our dragons, our demons, our gremlins. We then had a discussion on how each of us reacts when we are confronted with something hard or difficult. How does one leave? Does one just literally leave? Or get defensive. It is important to know how one leaves in order to learn how to stay – “You need to know how you go, so you can learn to stay—for the sake of your calling—for the sake of the world.” An analysis of what it means to come to the edge followed. For transformation to occur we need to come to our edge, through awareness. Again, to make the discussion real to them we then moved into an exercise to learn about the ways in which they “go”. They kept their arms up for 20 minutes and were told to observe their reaction. We then moved into a Triad (group of 3 to share) then later to came back to the larger group for a group share. Finally we moved into an experience of resistance: Often the emotions that we resist are the ones that rule our life. As Leaders, we need to be willing to recognize this and other emotions such as anger, intimacy and love. The discussion was followed by the usual group sharing. Wednesday Afternoon: This session was an exploration into the aspect of the model of “awareness”. The exercise tested if they were aware when it was their turn to speak—if they were not alert or they lost focus the exercise had to start over. This game went on until everyone had their turn and there no mistake was committed. This made them totally aware. This exercise took almost 2 hours for them to complete, but it certainly taught them the importance of resiliency (of beginning again) and the importance of being aware. As a follow up, they went into an exercise of meditation as a way to increase awareness. They were lead through a 30-minute meditation where they noticed thoughts, feelings, emotions and sensations. After both exercises we had a group share. Wednesday Yoga: I introduced the Osho: Letting Go. This entailed releasing stored emotions in the body, and giving it over to the experience. Wednesday Evening: This session was designed to teach the students the importance of self-care. A leader to be successful must take care of his mind and body. He must have enough rest, engage in stress reduction and be gentle with his body. So the rest of the evening was declared as “massage night.” They were divided into small groups and took turns massaging each other. To cap the night, a discussion followed about the ways in which they could take better care of themselves and the impact of this on their lives. Thursday morning: This morning’s ritual began with taking time to write individual notes to each other, appreciating each other and having gratitude for one another. Again, the lesson here was to take time to honor others. Leaders must take the time to acknowledge others. We then moved into the next part of the model “urge” or “spanda”. For the students to understand this part of the model I brought in instruments. Everyone was told to get an instrument and sit in silence. I gave no instructions and just waited to see what would happen. Eventually, someone just started playing his instrument and the others just followed making music. Once they started playing I began to guide them into tapping. This made them feel and hear what was “needed” from them to make the music better. This made them connect with one another. This went on for over an hour. Eventually, it began to move into an almost ritual like ceremony, where they started chanting and dancing. The connection amongst the group was unbelievable and the spontaneity was inspiring. When we completed the exercise I led them into a group discussion and I asked them the question, “What does leadership have to do yoga?” They responded by saying that yoga in leadership meant: Urge; Creative force to do something; Listening to the field; Acting; Music happens between the notes; when you needed to pause; Just starting (don’t always need to wait for someone to tell you to start); Ritual; Celebration; Co-creation. It was then that I knew that they were truly imbibing the lessons well. After we completed that discussion I finished by going through the model in a discussion format. Once they understood that, I continued with the next topic. I introduced the idea of seeing life clearly. And then finally about skillful action—that as leaders we must act. I told them that we should see life as breaking the habits of being ourselves. We must say yes to who we truly are. When we free ourselves from our own bondage and say yes to life only then can we act. When we act, we act in a way that increases life force. Thus making us feel more alive. And then we begin again, we evolve. In this is evolution, become more aware and more authentic. We tend to make wiser choices. Anger, jealousy and other emotions seem to lose their power and bondage over us. The more we realize that we are infinite, eternal and whole, the more we realize that these emotions come out of the fear that we are not (infinite). And ultimately ALL OF THIS IS KARMA YOGA We go in, so we can heal, and inspire others to do the same, thus we can be of service to the world. This is leadership. Leadership: Is a courageous act. Thursday Afternoon: Thursday afternoon was an opportunity to understand the importance of working with others and in order to do so one must be able to have compassion. We moved into an exercise where each person revealed specific truths about themselves (and if others had a similar experience they were enjoined to speak). This was an opportunity to exercise sympathy and increase compassion. Some of the topics that were addressed were regarding: siblings; depression; sex; stealing; un-safe sex; drugs; been cheated upon; victimized; been the abuser; loneliness; frustrated with someone in this group; and having lied about any of one’s answers. A debriefing followed. They walked away with: the power of compassion and of being human. Of understanding others situations and evaluating such as - What do you do with your assumptions and judgments vs. what do you want to do with them? I ended with emphasizing the importance of honoring the gifts in one another. I told them that “if there is anything you learn this week it is to take to time to celebrate each other, recognize each other.” The activity entailed a circle time wherein one person goes in the middle and the rest were made to assess him by— what one sees in him, one has learned from him and admired in him. Yoga In this yoga class I brought them through different Flow states of joy, excitement and play. It is important that as leaders they completely understand these aspects, for how can they understand and lead others if they are unable to know such feelings. Group Dinner That evening we had a group dinner, where again it was about celebrating being alive, celebrating one another. Thursday Evening: This session was a ceremony about connecting with nature. Nature shows us how to go through life. It shows us that life is a cycle, and change must happen. This night was also about the importance of coming together as a community and celebrating one another. Friday Morning: We began the morning at 6AM. We went to the lake. We walked in silence, appreciating nature. We practiced metta as a way to appreciate nature and again set the intention for the day. When we reached the place, I told each one to write a letter to oneself. They could write down what they wanted to remember from this week, and what they had learned. I collected the letters. I will send them their letters after a year, so they can be reminded of this experience. We then moved into saying our goodbyes in silence. This made them express themselves without words making them understand that sometimes words are not necessary. We ended by having our closing circle where each person was given the opportunity to say their closing words. Reflection of the workshop I have to admit that this workshop was one of the most profound experiences that I have ever been through or facilitated. These young adults walked away inspired, excited and ready to claim the role as a leader, an agent of change. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to share this work with them. I am eager and excited to get this workshop into as many universities and retreat centers that I can. Their continued communications with me, telling me of the impact of the Integrated Yogic Leadership Model in their lives has given me this dedication to see this through. I am proud of what I have accomplished and brought to these young emerging adults. Read More