My reflections after a chance visit to Swadhaa A Waldorf School in Pune.
In my spare time as a hobby, I enjoy visiting offbeat places and interacting with people from all walks of life to broaden my perspectives. To envision the world through the eyes of another is always an insightful experience.
When I visited Auroville in Pondicherry last year amongst the many inspirational insights I came across a bit about how Waldorf Schools started by Rudolf Steiner who was inspired by Sir Aurobindo, stands for holistic education that speaks to the soul and strives for human goodwill and integrity and instilling a sense of creativity and wonder through its unconventional schooling methods.
Besides that, I also had come across words of praise for her schooling and education received from the well-known actress Jennifer Anniston an alumnus of a Waldorf School herself.
“I was always fascinated by acting, but my experience at Rudolf Steiner [school] encouraged me to pursue it as a career.” “Steiner was a free-spirited school that encouraged creativity and individualism.”
As a dance educator myself I have always felt schooling at conventional schools can be rather stifling for it focuses more on procedure and protocol than allowing freedom to explore. The root of our individuality and personal expression is often stubbed in the process of conforming to the norms and practices unless it is balanced out when there is a gateway to open communication and positive support on the homefront.
Recently having shifted my residence in Pune City and in my foray into understanding what my area had on offer as a creative educator myself, I came across. SWADHA Learning Centre. My interest was piqued that it was based on the principles of a Waldorf school.
I decided to experience the place on my own. Luckily for me the day I visited the school it turned out to be their Annual Day and there were elaborate festivities planned out for the entire day by the school for one and all.
There were workshops galore… I attended a few out of curiosity and came away heartened by the immense enthusiasm and support from the parents and children alike for this schools annual activity. I took my time to interact with some of the parents.
What I was immediately drawn to was the amount of openness that was there reflected in so many ways from children who were learning life skills experientially to how parents were so beautifully integrated into the educational activities of the children.
The pictures speak for themselves I must say!
In an era of grades and marks that decides destinies of children as future adults,
the learning concepts observed here come as a breath of fresh air. Like the lack of grading systems and adding only an individual assessment by the educator annually to ensure that each child is addressed and understood for their unique potential. And the breakdown of hierarchy which makes everyone an involved collaborator working towards positive transformations. And I believe they also help and guide a child gradually, who wants to integrate into conventional schooling system if they wish or need to for whatever reasons. The question is would we want to?
Perhaps the varied schools under the Waldorf umbrella are as unique as the people collectively managing them, but the fact remains that there is a happier learning space we can co-create for our future children if we have the willingness to come together and contribute our time and resources.
” A space that’s open yet bounded with a focus can be conducive to learning as when the process of exploration begins it is helped by a structured approach. But while boundaries may be reminding of a journey having a destination, it is the openness that reflects the never-ending source of creative possibilities.”
Savvy
An excerpt from my reflections on Learning spaces…. (read more )
In an age of self obsession bordering on extremes of behaviour from starving to binging, from wearing those uncomfortable hip breaking harmful high heels to choosing crazy outfits that fool you in the name of fashion, to wearing outrageous clothes without it actually suiting your personality, just to fit in and feel accepted I find a lot of people youngsters especially finding themselves at odds with their natural body and having issues with who they truly are. It reflects in the clothes they wear as much as in their attitude to the fast convenience food they choose to eat.
Here in this article I address this very insecurity and deep need to measure up to the so called dictates of trends and fashion in the name of modernity and suggest ways to work with yourself to help yourself shine your best inside out. For, a comfortable and relaxed confident body is the best outfit you can wear.
Savvy Raj
A positive body image brings optimism into your life and makes it easier to manage stress.
It also helps you cope the pressures of social situations with confidence. Below, I’ve listed10 tipsto help you in owning a more positive body image and relationship with yourself.
Be kind to yourself
Liking who you are and feeling good about being yourself begins with being good to yourself and showing yourself loving kindness.
Respect thy Self
Move beyond a need for validation from others. Your life and happiness must never be dictated by assuming what others may be thinking of you. Avoid seeking approval from others.
Think well and exercise the power of positivity
Keep a check on your own thoughts and steer clear of negative self-talk. See the positives in yourself and others and speak positively. See life transform for the better.
The company you keep matters
Surround yourself with kind and positive people. Avoid those who are self-obsessed and definitely stay away from bullies.
Cultivate a good attitude towards life
As you continue to work on your self-esteem remember body confidence is a matter of attitude and the way you carry yourself.
Cultivate good posture and poise
Work on your sense of poise, avoid slouching and fidgeting. This can help you tremendously in boosting your self-esteem in any social situation.
Speak well
Your body is always listening. So, speak well of yourself and others. Make it a habit to start and end the day on a positive note.
Embrace Self-value
Try to understand your weaknesses and accept them as challenges to work on. Treat yourself well. Make sure to eat well, exercise, or take a walk. Be healthy and groomed. Make it a part of daily life.
Take it easy
Over perfection is an obsession and can ruin your self-esteem and self-confidence. Ease up on yourself. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Own yourself
Embrace the uniqueness that you are endowed with. Remember you matter. You are so much more than a title, a rank, or a dress size. Don’t be desperate to fit in. Most importantly, be interested in your life and actively participate in it. Own yourself.
As you practise working on all these aspects and envision the positives, you create a positive shift in your perspectives.
Precious words from Rumi which are empowering, to say the least, awakening in us to respect the innate potential we all possess to reach out to help another …
To help is to empower the mind body and spirit of another.
Empowerment is a powerful factor in building lives. Given the choice of transforming lives with the abilities, you own…if you are ready to help another… What would you choose to be?
Being a Lamp :
A lamp lights up itself to light the way for another It is selfless and expansive . The light of a lamp lets you envision the strengths within the self as much as the others For to enable sight is to allow the envisionment. Being a light enables and empowers, as it throws light without fear or favour.
It is simply the quality of light to shine graciously!
Being a lifeboat:
It is the very purpose of a lifeboat to help save lives to allow another to hold on, to never fail in protecting from drowning in the voyage of life.
The lifeboat is a survival tool and is built to weather the storms without giving way. It floats on relentlessly without giving up to reach to safety.
Being a life boat in an emergency is like a godsend!. To save a life is to value its preciousness of the being.
Being a ladder:
Allowing the self to be utilized for another is the very nature of a ladder. In fact to be a ladder is to allow another to reach and aim higher to develop and evolve further.
A ladder is constructive in its very core essence, to build up another towards a goal.
Being a builder of another’s dreams and helping propel another to a cause greater than the self is the sign and strength of being a ladder. Being unmindful of the treading over of another in their attempt to reach their aspirations is a tall order indeed. The ladder provides the way without any personal gain.
Here are 3 beautiful sayings worth remembering always…
HANDS THAT HELP ARE HOLIER THAN LIPS THAT PRAY!
HELP EVER HURT NEVER.
ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS!
Self-empowerment &healing :
To help transform lives is to empower from the heart and make a difference!
However, it is about healing the self-first enough to let light in that helps others to see!
A friend in need is a friend indeed! ;
Whatever is your way to reach out and help, what is truly significant is the one who helps in time and need. For such a help is a hand of God in divine grace.
So make a choice to reach out to the world in your own unique way for it needs all the help it can get!
Sharing a beautiful story that will make us sense and acknowledge our inner feelings and help channelize its expression in a more evolved way with deeper understanding.
*The Empty Boat -A Story of Anger.*
A monk decides to meditate alone, away from his monastery. He takes his boat out to the middle of the lake, moors it there, closes his eyes and begins his meditation. After a few hours of undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the bump of another boat colliding with his own. With his eyes still closed, he senses his anger rising, and by the time he opens his eyes, he is ready to scream at the boatman who dared disturb his meditation. But when he opens his eyes, he sees it is an empty boat that had probably got untethered and floated to the middle of the lake. At that moment, the monk achieves self-realization, and understands that the anger is within him; it merely needs the bump of an external object to provoke it out of him.
From then on, whenever he came across someone who irritated him or provoked him to anger, he reminded himself: ”The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me……” In reality, we all have the anger within us, all the time, All it needs is someone, like the empty boat, to provoke it.
This story makes us think on many levels especially so on anger management.
Is our anger innate?How deep does it delve?
How much is our responsibility in acknowledging our true selves.
Acknowledgement is a step towards a response than reaction .
Acceptance leads to greater self-awareness.
Savvy
The question is not only why feel provoked with anger but how to manage it. How can it be circumvented? Is there a way to do so?
Every time we recognize where the anger resides we will learn to accept the source is the self than others. And then make an effort to not suppress or repress but channelize it in more productive ways.
In our wheel of human behaviour and emotions, Anger sits in the opposite spectrum of joyousness. It is a negative emotion that propels further negative thoughts. There arises the backlash of discontent and disorientation in various degrees depending on the level of anger that manifests.
Anger truly serves no purpose than destruction
For true peace, it can be a bone of contention
So let go of all anger and false pretensions
And value the calm that you actually are.
Savvy
On a lighter note here are a few reflections towards channelling arising negative emotions in awareness
and some amazing quotes from the great souls to go with it !:))
Think Humorously:’ If red is the colour of anger it is the colour of love too!’
Think Happy: ‘For every minute of anger you are losing 60 seconds of happiness ..’.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Think Creatively:’The Greatest remedy for anger is delay!’
Think Practically: ‘He who angers you conquers you’.
Think Logically: ‘You will not be punished for your anger but by your anger…’ Buddha
Think Peacefully: ‘Anger is the ultimate destroyer of your own peace of mind’. Dalai Lama
Think Kindly: ‘Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you…’ Bible
Think of changing the wavelengths:’ Anger makes you smaller while forgiveness forces you to grow
beyond what you are!’
Paying attention to your breath: Breath in the now…to release resentment
In the inhale and exhale.: Pause to respond and delay a reaction
Express Positivism: Let your past make you better, not bitter
Express Humility: ‘Angry people are not always wise…’ Jane Austen
Express Gratitude: ‘ Anger won’t make your problems easier but gratitude will make you stronger.’
This above digital artwork Titled ‘Circles of thoughts,14 is a creative interpretation of encircling thoughts, The verses that follow is the 14thpart of my series of micropoems on interconnecting thoughts.
Years ago when I was in the university doing my masters, I have a distinct memory of our Head of the Department carrying a book which read. ‘Don’t bite more than you can chew ‘ written in bold on the cover. A diminutive bespectacled gentleman every day he would carry it along with him to his lectures. And habitually as he reached his table he would carefully place it towards him and then start to speak.
The words on the book always intrigued me for its significance in our life and living.
Today as we discuss the art of management I see how this applies so beautifully. Commitment is an art of management. To manage your ability, capacity and resources at hand optimally and sustain it successfully learning to avoid overcommitment is a necessary skill.
A few Tips On the Art of Responsible Commitment.
Avoid over-commitment. To fulfil any commitment, before committing, simply make sure to clarify and define your own abilities and capacities to yourself. And communicate that in your actions as it will steer you clear from falling short of expectation from others.
Be wary ofover-compensating Remember every time you are over-committing somewhere you are weakening the very relationships you are trying to strengthen either your family or with your self by trying to overcompensate.
Respect your need for well-being as over-commitment is stressful and creates opportunities for health issues gradually.
Strive tobring a sense of balance. You know your abilities best. If you wish to expand your horizons and venture beyond your comfort zone, trust your intuitive intellect it certainly will not let you down.
Inculcate integrity in your approach to commitment at home and work for a balanced life and living.
To bring back a sense of compatibility between the factions is to resolve to find mutual ground. Tip 4: Resolve to Reconcile
The idea of any kind of truce to see eye to eye is not easy, but then war is never the answer. In management, Conflict Resolution is an important skill in the arena towards issue settlements by finding the middle ground.
From the suggestion of mutual benefits to warring parties in a dispute by a shared positive interest of a goal and clarification of needs in the situation at hand and if need be coercing an influence goes a long way in securing a reconciliation and resolution of conflicts.
Creativity stems from the acceptance of your authentic self. It is a never-ending journey of endless possibilities that is much beyond the pursuit of a hobby or craft and can be a habit of a lifetime. So besides being a Dance Educator as a Wellness coach, I offer a variety of Personal Effectiveness Programs for Self-development.
Being a Writer and a Designer creating art gives me immense satisfaction with the infinite ways of expressing myself as I believe in enjoying the journey as much as the destination.
Leadership is a quality that is the backbone of People Management skills. An ability to lead well is an asset to any organisation. To be able to take the lead and lead well there must a deeper understanding of people and their needs besides being a quick thinker and a whole lot of self-confidence. A positive inclination, an assertive approach, determination with a focused attitude to life can be a tool for a successful stint at sustained leadership.
Nurturing is a life affirming process ….rooted in bettering care and creating hope for a better life. There are many experiments conducted to support how even an exposure to nature like being amidst trees and tranquil places, hearing birdsongs and watching the sky , the sea and the sand can be extremely nurturing for ones health and wellbeing. The healing element associated with nature, is in the nurture it provides to replenish the soul.
The very nature of nurturing is both very inclusive and expansive in the same breath.The scope of positive outcomes of good nurturing is deeply significant to humanity at large . For that is what is truly important to sustain our planet . Every being’s effort in nurturing the world in and around him to thrive.
At the root of Creativity is a nurtured thought process. To nurture is to nourish the being with appropriate care.
Speaking of care giving, it is often a part of nurturing which can be rather challenging to say the least. In case of elders there can be a lot of unexplained resentment the care giver has to deal with for many seniors may take a while to come to terms with the many aspects of growing old.
Patience can have its limits too and with growing intolerance in a world which is more about the sense of self importance, the need to achieve much can stifle any thoughts of pursuing time consuming and almost never ending aspects of nurturing .
It is true the world is getting a little too self centered . However the realization of the impacts of an uncaring and indifferent citizens of the world is also hitting home and that too right from the modern changes of family systems in place.
The concern for global warming and carbon imprints is touching an all time high for the world now is slowly realizing how much it needs to nurture its own living spaces to ensure it has a world left to live at all. And thus thankfully hope is here to stay!
Savvy Raj 
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