Mana Shah - Facilitator

My son and our family had a beautiful gift of growing up with Aarambh Waldorf - a loving community of parents and teachers who made us see and feel the real joy of parenting and connection to self, others and the world around us. One of the rituals at Aarambh was making hand made gifts for each other. Teachers and children would make cards when there was a child's birthday. Teachers would make beautiful cards for parents when they moved on in their journey. Slowly we as parents also learnt how beautiful this act of creating a gift for someone you care about. You think about the gift - what would make a good gift? what would this person use? what would bring a smile to their face? what would they like to keep with them for a long time? Then you sit and gather the things you need - using as little or reusing as much as possible - and then actually making it. Not knowing what exactly will emerge - each stroke, each line open to so many possibilities... and then you have something that...

photo credit - Rita Ahuja (my sister) It was the last stop - enveloped in a living version of the Starry Night with deep music playing, the tears just started streaming - Theo van Gogh finally found his brother Vincent in an asylum and the last scene was filled with joy in the open land with Vincent happily painting. This was my first experience in virtual reality as part of a live exhibition of Vincent van Gogh's work and life story in Melbourne - beyond just still paintings on walls, the whole experience created heightened awareness - it engaged the audience and brought them in through - touch, sound, sight, feeling ... my 13 year old who otherwise would have been bored out of his mind - was mesmerised - curious to explore what was at the next turn, behind the door, outside the window, up in the sky ... engulfed in a live sensory illustration of one of the most beautiful art work of all time. And I reckon this story will stay with him for a long time because he really "exper...

Sunsetting, wind blowing, birds chirping....amidst all this I was on my third round of the jog in a beautiful sports complex near our home. I was happily focused on working my muscles as my son played footie with his friend in the same area. I was happily surprised at how my usually tied up body was open to its third round of a jog and wanting even more. And what enabled this was the fact that I did a mini version of a yoga routine that my sister had been teaching me online. As I was imagining the muscles in my body building and being thankful for the morning stretches, the image of a rolled up chart paper popped up in my head. People who work with chart paper/ flipcharts will relate to this pain point - you open up the chart to write and its sides keep turning in to one side . It is sooo annoying but completely predictable! Happens every time! And then pause and remember to roll the chart the other way, leave it for a bit and voila! The paper straightens out ready to be written/ drawn...

Gathering Genies across spaces met on 27th July at the first Gathering Genie Circle to pause, notice & learn together! We began with a reflection exercise with Genuine Contact™ transfer in cards - relating the card to what we are noticing in gatherings - reflections included sun, sky, joy, collective, authenticity, allowing, wonder, health, humour, vision....aspects that sometimes we miss to experience in work related gatherings.... We then went into a story circle of our recent experiences in hosting gatherings. It was amazing to listen to a variety of gatherings including a quarterly team review, meetings with government, meetings with the community, workshop on education.... stories instead of ppts, starting playfully, vision alignment, sharing life journies, user experience, appreciation all helped to build connection, empathy & deeper learning. We then in smaller groups reflected on our hopes & fears of hosting gatherings... it was again very interesting to see as...

My birthday is around the time of bad air making us run to the hills so I have not celebrated with my friends for the longest I can remember ... last year we were about to leave just a day after, so I thought why not invite all my girlfriends together for a CIRCLE Night - not just about me but about friendship! I have great friends across parts of my life - school, college, my son's school, work, peer facilitators but they do not all know each other.. just the thought of all these amazing women together gave me goose bumps... I anxiously sent the invite message and to my surprise, all of them said they would love to join... just like that... The night came, we all gathered, enjoyed nice home made pani puries and chaat, as in any party people kept strolling in... it was around 9 pm... my dear friend Tulika Mehra asked "aren't you doing the circle?" ... I hesitated ... the evening was going well anyways.... should I.... I took the plunge and said let's do it... I...

Remember a time when we started something new - a new role or a new job….it is a change in our life… with any change there are mixed feelings of excitement and curiosity of new beginnings and also the sadness of what you are leaving behind, the fear, self doubt, anxiety about what is to come. Different people respond differently - some thrive when thrown into the unknown and embrace challenges head on while some may cringe at the thought of shifting from known to the unknown and may thoroughly miss what was left behind - even though mentally they believe they want to make the change. Some unspoken questions one may experience….  Who are these people, really?  What is this organisation really like - are they really as good as they sound or as my friends say? How do things really happen here?  Why am I really here? What sense does this experience make in my life story?  Where am I in this group? How do I fit? How do I belong? How will I relate to all these different pe...