Urja — Regulating my Energies and Upgrading myself to a Better Me!
Energy for action comes through Emotions. Yes! Ask students, why they study (act) only in the last 2 days before exam? Fear as-a-primary-emotion drives them to Act, lest they fail. Books, curriculum, notes, archive of previous question papers, no amount of Information-on-hand gives them energy to Act. Its only emotions, like Fear or Greed (for e.g. to stand first in class) that drives students into Action. This is universal, we act, because energy from our emotions drive us to do so.
Kavita and I have teamed up, to explore this Urja (Energy) driven by emotions, within us, in the context of Transitions. And what a fabulous set of people registered to work with us! This past week from Sep 20th — 23rd, in the serene setting, at the foothills of the himalayas in Uttarakhand, tucked away in Rishi Sanwal’s Faraway Renz resort, we immersed ourselves in the exploration of Urja, to rekindle the flame within us!
Design and Exploration
I have previously argued here and here, that as both organizations and humans we have focused enough on dealing with Technology Messiness & Market Messiness. What we now need urgently is also our ability to handle the Psychology Messiness. Combining all the 3, I call it Triple Immersion. We have upgraded and installed enough of newer versions of technology & markets. What we need critically is ability to upgrade to newer versions of ourselves, newer versions of our psyches.
Hence idea of Urja, through a workshop, was further distilled to look at Urja (Energy) for Psychological Transitions and Psychological Growth. How do we help, people in Transitions, to better regulate and understand their energies? Whether its for their Career Trajectory or Personal Growth, handling Urja within, is vital. After the 1st evening of basic introductions, the next 2 days were largely designed for experiential learning with person-centered group activities. There were largely 4 modules that we explored, Understanding the Current-Me, Finding the New-Me, Crafting & Testing the New-me, Installing the New-me.
Module 1: Understand the Current Me
Awareness of our established psychological response patterns is critical to understand our Current selves. Bringing people to get in touch with their automatic choice making patterns, and then helping them to realize new perspectives, most often can be cathartic. Which is how the session turned out to be. When the current me, realizes that the most frequently occupied psychological space, be it a warrior space, a care-giver space or an intellectually-wise space is limiting, it definitely perceives how it undermines itself. When we hence understand the Current me, not judge it, or reject it, it gives us the self-grace necessary for us to take action to help ourselves.
Module 2: Find the New Me
Once we know the limitations of the current me, its quite natural to seek a better me. However, how do we know the other possible me-es? Thankfully there have been universal psychological patterns (identity archetypes) that have been recorded in human history. When we map these identity patterns, and experientially understand the strengths and limitations of various identity spaces, it gives us clues to find newer psychological spaces for expansion. The activities around the whole-map of the psychological spaces were moving and overwhelming. I realized that I myself was getting sandwiched between being a participant and a facilitator. Co-holding both these energies in the betweenness of Participant and Facilitator helped me realize the new me of a Particilitator (Participant + Facilitator)
Module 3: Craft and Test the New Me
There are very few spaces that provide you the psychological safety to explore a new version of yourself. However when a committed group of empathetic participants create a safe space for all explorations, without inhibitions and acceptance of all vulnerabilities, magic happens. We realize how its not really the Outer-world that limits us, but our own conditioning to keep falling back to known-patterns that keeps us from upgrading ourselves. To be the new me, I need to get out of my own way. Even after we can see and craft the better-version of ourselves, its not easy to let-go of our previous me, or to easily let-come that new me. What energies are blocking me? What energies I need to regulate? Its this struggle that is fascinating. All participants collaborated, and helped provide each other, with priceless gifts of perspectives they saw. Mind you, this was a non-verbal exercise, and yet the depth and clarity that one receives and gives, dissolves the biggest conundrum between the Self/Other. Personally, to me this was the most fulfilling and enriching module. I was actually a Mentor and Intern simultaneously, in short I was a Mentern (Mentor + Intern).
Module 4: Install the New Me
Change is hard. Change is fleeting. But if you commit to surrender yourself to the process of upgradation, lasting happiness and growth can be realized. Installing the new me, is a process. Installing the new me, is not about wiping clean. Its about accepting the new narrative. E.g. Gautama-the-Prince, needs to accept Buddha-the-Enlightened. Of course, Buddha himself hence surrendered to the process (Dhammam Sharanam Gacchami) and also made it one of the principles of change. If we need a new flower, we have to surrender to the process of dealing with the messiness of the soil, the manure, water, which don’t look anything like the new flower. This cognitive dissonance is what most people fail to deal with. Hence commitment and Sankalpa (Pledge/Oath) towards the new-me is vital. Participants in this session immersed in one-on-one sessions to give, receive, ask, persuade and negotiate. What resonated with me is that, once you commit, you will then find the energy within and the collective -energy around. You will find the set of people around you, who can help you, support you or nurture the newly installed you.
Food, Rest, Ambience and Planting Trees as Celebration
Eating fresh farm food, resting without the distractions of technology, work and personal commitments boosts your personal energy. Add to this the peace and tranquil ambience of the serene Uttarakhand landscape in the foothills of the Himalayas, it was a welcome retreat faraway from the bustling cities like Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. Rest, converse, explore and immerse. In addition, the space provided for us to embed our Sankalpas and also plant trees, to symbolically celebrate the ritual, of installing newer selves within us. What more could I have asked for?
Conclusion — Commitment to Pursue the Phenomenon of Transition and Growth
Regulating Energies and Upgrading ourselves is a continuous process. Its a life-practice. I sincerely thank all people who made this exploration possible. Most importantly the men and women who were co-transitionaries, without whose empathetic confrontations and caring eyes, newer and better versions of ourselves would be delayed, if not impossible. I am extremely grateful for the time/energy/effort that this first Urja cohort has given us, and for the confidence and backing that we have received.
Its our intent to establish a community of ‘transitionaries’, who come together through an experiential program like Urja to move beyond the solitary experience of reflecting upon their own transition, and instead engage with the community through sharing their experiences collectively. If this resonates with you, please write to us, share and spread the word to your fellows and friends. Cheers!
