Jai Sri Hari! This is my  first ever post at Os.me, in fact on any platform for that matter! I attended a workshop, which was conducted by Sri Badrika Ashram for teen’s wellbeing. It was called Zenrich: The Rising Stars’. In this post I am trying to give you some glimpses of my spiritual journey throughout the workshop.

It all started at the end of July, last year (2020) when one day my father got to know about an upcoming ‘workshop’ from the Sri Badrika Ashram website (I suppose) or by some other means. He called for me and I hurriedly ran to him. He looked up from his phone and told me that the Ashram was conducting a workshop for teenagers’ wellbeing. He asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. Back then, I wasn’t so keen on doing this ‘workshop’ as I thought that I would have to devote my time to something else other than watching T.V. or all other useless things I used to do! 😀 To sound reasonable, I said that it wasn’t necessary and besides that I don’t think I have any problems (Oh, how wrong I was!). But I guess my father had already made up his mind. He said that I should try it, it would help me, it would help me to control my anger(I didn’t budge on that) and blah blah blah. All I could do was to agree with him and say,“Ok I will do it.” Like the great and supportive father he was, he didn’t even think twice before registering my name for the workshop. 

 It was a one year joint workshop consisting of three workshops, and the first one was going to be held on August 16th(Sunday), before which on Aug.15, a short introduction to the workshop was given by Ambika ji. She explained to us the key points to remember for the workshop and what topics would be covered. We were asked to keep a notebook and a pen with us during each session to make notes of what was taught so that we can keep some of the teachings with us. I wasn’t that good at making notes. And especially when someone is speaking, I just can’t keep up with them.  And I tend to forget a lot (excuses), so I could only nod as a response. Throughout the session as she explained to us so lovingly, her smile never left her face!

Each workshop consisted of 5-6 sessions. A session was typically of 1 hour duration and were held weekly on every Sunday. The very first session were conducted by Sadhvi Vrinda ji. Sushree Nistha ji and Ambika ji took the next two week’s sessions respectively. And this sequence got maintained for all the other sessions.

At the end of each workshop there was also a parenting session for the parents. Icing on the cake was the appearance of Swamiji (🌹) in the parenting session, and my parents, particularly my father, was most excited about! 😍

In our first session, Sadhviji greeted us with her ever smiling self. As soon as I saw her, I was all smiley myself. Her smiles and jolliness were so contagious. She was very friendly and as she would randomly burst out laughing, we all laugh and smile along with her. Her sessions were always fun. 😊

Nisthaji’s sessions were always very enjoyable. I was really drawn by her calm and soothing nature. Her sessions were very engaging and motivated me to be more mindful about being positive and becoming the person that everyone wants to hang out with (still working on that…).  She explained everything in a very fun way by showing videos. What’s more, she even made really cool posters for us to print and install them in our rooms.

Ambikaji’s sessions were as well, very engaging and informative. She told us in our first session that we must follow what we were taught to make ourselves better. And she wanted to see a better and more confident ‘us’ at the end of the whole workshop. Her words really motivated me to become someone different and better. So I took it up as a mission to be able to say to the facilitators at the end of the workshop that I did what you all told us! ☺️ The theme of the first workshop was ‘TEEN to TITAN – Own your Wellbeing!’  It started on August 16th and ended on September 20th. A number of topics were covered in six fun and interactive sessions.

As the theme says, the first workshop covered our physical, mental, emotional  and behavioural wellbeing.  Each facilitator discussed various topics such as stabilising our inner turmoil, spreading positive vibes, having a healthy routine and so on.

Everything was explained in a very fun way with videos and we were also given tasks or assignments to complete in a week and submit. Each Sunday, in the span of just one hour I had the privilege to get a lifetime’s wisdom! At the end we had an essay writing competition where we needed to summarise what we learnt from this series. Even though I didn’t win any prize (😀), it was a fun experience!

I think the best thing about being a part of this whole joint workshop was that I was assigned a facilitator to be my mentor throughout the workshop to help me with any problems, and to counsel me regarding any issues.

My mentor was extremely sweet and patient with me. I can’t thank her enough for how supportive she was whenever I reached out to her regarding my problems and worries. Having one of the facilitators as my mentor, allowed me to open up about the problems I faced to someone else other than my parents. We all know that sometimes we just can’t speak about some things with our parents, even if it’s just as normal as anything. Moreover, we kids have the mindset to think that our parents will never understand us. Our facilitators made us believe that they will always support us and I felt very connected with them. They were very kind and above all helped me to get overcome my anxiety and low confidence to become someone better.

To be continued…..

P.S. – I have to stop here because it would be too lengthy otherwise! I shall post the next part soon. Thank you so much for reading the post!

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Link to Part II

 

Edit –  Thank you so much to all for your lovely comments ! Yes, I have read them but unfortunately I cannot reply to the comments from my account. It brings me great joy by reading all of your sweet comments and feedbacks. 🤗