Shantanu Mandal has a background in fashion design and fine arts. During his time as a reporter for La Croix in Paris, he played a key role in helping create the UN Youth Manifesto, and since then has been a key member of the Youth Forum at the UN Convention on Combating Desertification in 2019, a mentor in the Climate Ambassadors Program, and involved in area of “Major Growth for Children and Youth.”  He is based at Mount Abu in India, the spiritual headquarters of the Brahma Kumaris, and has practiced Raja Yoga for 20 years. Shantanu is a facilitator, mediator, and bridge between different communities, helping collaboration and providing a space where they can co-create.

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Shantanu Mandal

<h4
 id="h-shantanu-mandal-has-a-background-in-fashion-design-and-fine-arts-during-his-time-as-a-reporter-for-la-croix-in-paris-he-played-a-key-role-in-helping-create-the-un-youth-manifesto-and-since-then-has-been-a-key-member-of-the-youth-forum-at-the-un-convention-on-combating-desertification-in-2019-a-mentor-in-the-climate-ambassadors-program-and-involved-in-area-of-major-growth-for-children-and-youth-he-is-based-at-mount-abu-in-india-the-spiritual-headquarters-of-the-brahma-kumaris-and-has-practiced-raja-yoga-for-20-years-shantanu-is-a-facilitator-mediator-and-bridge-between-different-communities-helping-collaboration-and-providing-a-space-where-they-can-co-create">
 SHANTANU MANDAL
 has a background in fashion design and fine arts. During his time as a
 reporter for La Croix in Paris, he played a key role in helping create the
 UN Youth Manifesto, and since then has been a key member of the Youth Forum
 at the UN Convention on Combating Desertification in 2019, a mentor in the
 Climate Ambassadors Program, and involved in area of “Major Growth for
 Children and Youth.” &nbsp;He is based at Mount Abu in India, the spiritual
 headquarters of the Brahma Kumaris, and has practiced Raja Yoga for 20
 years. Shantanu is a facilitator, mediator, and bridge between different
 communities, helping collaboration and providing a space where they can
 co-create.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 Any action that we want to happen at a bigger level starts from a single and a
 very humble individual origin. Something cannot be done “outside” if it is not
 embraced inside. For example, if Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t free inside, he could
 not have helped free his country. If Nelson Mandela wasn’t free inside while
 sitting in prison, he could not have visualised a free country. So, when I
 wanted to do something for the environment, I started believing in the things
 I was doing.



 The first thing that motivated me was changing my lifestyle. I became
 minimalistic, not purchasing anything unless and until it was necessary. I
 changed my diet to become vegan. These little things built good energy inside
 me, so I started volunteering. That is how I have approached personal
 responsibility.



 For big businesses, every stakeholder has their share of responsibility as an
 individual, then they take on responsibilities as part of the organization
 that extend to the dynamics of the group – are they aligned to the well-being
 of Mother Nature? Every stakeholder, whether an individual, a group, or a big
 company, has a role to play in climate action.



 Some companies have a massive potential in shaping future society. They could
 start now, with the simple idea of promoting “flourishing.” Flourishing is
 different from progress. The word progress conveys a linear aspect of earning
 and earning, whereas the concept of flourishing, regeneration, is when
 everybody inside the team is progressing and flourishing, and nature and the
 environment are also flourishing. The problem right now is that even when the
 individual, the group, and the organization progress, Mother Nature is not
 progressing. Instead, it is being depleted.



 A flourishing way of dealing or trading is when we also focus on the health of
 nature and the surroundings, because that’s our resource center. My computer,
 my jacket, and everything else has come from Mother Nature, and if I
 understand that beautiful connection, I will think holistically; I will
 consider every aspect of that connection. Every small or big stakeholder can
 do that.



 It is something that comes naturally within faith-based communities. They look
 at development projects in a very holistic way – no aspect is left out. Even
 if the process is slow, it is substantial and powerful. Everybody flourishes,
 everybody’s good wishes are there, everybody’s good energy is there.



 At an individual level, it can start from a very simply approach – look to
 make a healthy life. Thinking about the planet and other people can be a bit
 overwhelming, but having a very healthy lifestyle only requires four things:


<ol type="1">
 <li>
 A healthy, nourishing diet.
 </li>
 <li>
 Proper rest so the body can function.
 </li>
 <li>
 Good mobility, exercise, and fitness.
 </li>
 <li>
 A positive attitude.
 </li>
</ol>

These four keep us healthy, and you can start with any one of them.


 Is there something in your diet you can do without? Why are you attached to
 it? Do you need it for health? Can you manage without it? The answers to these
 questions will lead you to a more natural, eco-friendly diet. That’s what
 happens if you keep asking the right questions.



 Looking at mobility and exercise, if you can’t spend a lot, walk to the market
 or local shop, instead of using a car or public transport. It will make a
 difference. I have been living in the UK for the past three months and
 whenever I can I walk. My colleagues don’t always understand it, but I walk as
 my exercise. The concept must come from a lifestyle practice.



 Living non-violently and holistically in nature is not an add-on activity.
 Even if you can’t change your food, rest, and exercise, start with positive
 thinking. For instance, when you have gratitude for the things around you, it
 creates a bond with Mother Nature and the environment, and you will cause less
 harm. You will be eco-friendly in your choices. This will come very naturally,
 and you won’t have to work for it.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="text-center">
 
 When you have gratitude for the things around you, it creates a bond with Mother Nature and the environment, and you will cause less harm.
 
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 So, start with any of these four aspects. The easiest one to adopt is a
 positive attitude, an attitude of gratitude for everything. It is free of cost
 and it will light up your heart; everything will start radiating from there.
 You will feel like eating non-violent food, walking in nature, and it will
 become natural for you. I know because it happened to me. It starts with a
 gentle inner commitment, because if it is not gentle it is not sustainable.



 Going forward, my hopes for the future revolve around flourishing, love,
 friendship, and security: love for myself, love for each other, and love for
 the actions of others. I can openly appreciate what others do and show my love
 for what they’re doing. That includes love for Mother Nature, and for the
 Divine.



 My hopes for the longer term also focus on strong friendships, strong
 collaborations, strong networks. Having all these, we will have a life full of
 protection, safety, and security, whether it’s emotional, financial, or
 physical. &nbsp;Strong friendships help us feel safe, and when we are safe and
 secure we can focus on what needs to be done right now. An anxious mind cannot
 act in the right direction, whereas a safe and secure mind will act
 appropriately and look at the needs of the time.



 To do that, we need to become friends of ourselves, and find a very strong
 friend, like the Divine, Mother Nature, or anyone in whom we have great
 confidence. When we communicate within that friendship, we create a safe space
 where working becomes very easy.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="text-center">
 To do that, we need to become friends of ourselves, and
 find a very
 strong friend, 
 like the Divine, Mother Nature, or anyone in whom we have great
 confidence. When we communicate within that friendship, we
 create a safe space where working becomes very easy.
 
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 It requires actions, not just romantic words and thoughts – actions of
 friendship. I cannot just sit here and think, “Maybe it would be nice if that
 person and I were friends.” We must come together, speak, call, or WhatsApp.
 Some action is needed to feel safe, and some action is needed to help
 everything flourish.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

Start with small beginnings

Shanthi Venkat is a Heartfulness Meditation trainer, a certified Tai Chi instructor, and a retired physical therapist based in the United States. She balances her love of the sciences and healthcare with her creative passion for cooking, baking, and gardening.

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Shanthi Venkat

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">SHANTHI VENKAT is a physical therapist based in the United States. Here, she details how a deeply personal experience as a caregiver pushed her to reflect on the stigma around aging and her own professional work, and the easy steps we can take to prepare ourselves for growing older.</h4>&nbsp;My husband and I have been in the healthcare industry for over three decades; he provides home visit physical therapy services for the geriatric population and I work with the Veterans’ Affairs clinic, where I treat elderly veterans of war, and young veterans returning from recent tours. Because of the nature of our work and our adaptation to the ever-changing landscape of geriatric healthcare, both of us developed what we believed to be a thick skin to caretaking.That thick skin has been tested and recreated over the last seven years, after my husband decided to move his parents, in their eighties, from India to the US, so we could care for their growing medical concerns. Neither of us had any apprehension about this caretaker role, until his parents actually moved in.The months and years following their arrival have been an eyeopener for us. Much changed quickly: the energy in the house shifted as our lives revolved around their needs, wants, emotions, and illnesses. Prior to their arrival, we were empty nesters planning for our retirement, but the immensity of their health issues postponed those plans indefinitely.We were also inching closer to our 60s. Little aches and pains magnified in intensity, and no matter how preemptive we were in managing them, we were not rebounding quite as quickly. Neither of us will ever regret the choice we made to bring my in-laws here; at the same time, caretaker burnout is very real. Whether we were willing to accept it or not, we were also aging.What is aging? It is a degenerative process that we undergo physically, mentally, and emotionally. The changes do not happen in any certain pattern or proportion. But each change does affect the others. When our physical health is not good, our mental and emotional well-being are compromised, which in turn leads to even poorer physical health. We get trapped into a hamster wheel of sickness, one giant unending cycle.&nbsp;Aging is hard. It can feel like all the control and independence built over several decades is gone in the blink of an eye. Many elderly people must make the emotional adjustment of returning to an almost childlike state, in which they constantly have to ask for help for even the simplest of tasks. It can be lonely, embarrassing, frightening, and often completely unfair.Aging is also a challenge for caretakers. I have wondered what has made the circumstances with my in-laws so challenging, when over the past three decades, my husband and I have helped so many elderly people rehabilitate themselves to live healthy, independent lives.&nbsp;The challenge, I have realized, is the emotional attachment we have with family members. Even when we know it is coming, it is hard to watch a parent grow older. It is hard for the role of parent and child to reverse. And it is hard to care for ourselves when our energy is going toward taking care of someone else, especially loved ones.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">What is aging? It is a degenerative process that we undergo physically, mentally, and emotionally.</h4><hr>Because of my work, I understand that aging is a taboo topic, one that we are hesitant to learn about, because it is frightening to think about getting older. We teach young people how to become adults. We teach them how to be financially independent, to save for retirement, to pay bills, to buy a house, to build a family. But we don’t teach them how to age. We do not successfully educate people on how to care for the inevitable: an aging body.At work I watch young veterans struggle after being discharged from service: Their bodies and minds have physically and psychologically aged significantly because of the impact of war, and they are left feeling hopeless as they try to navigate life under different circumstances.So I encourage you to apply these five simple steps to keep your bodies and minds healthy and strong, and preempt the effects of aging:<h4>1. &nbsp;Exercise regularly&nbsp;</h4>Even something as simple as a walk around your neighborhood can do wonders. I spend an hour each day walking on the treadmill or doing strength-training exercises.<img class="image_resized" style="width:38.88%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully2_ac6efaca60.webp" alt="Aging-Gracefully2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_Aging_Gracefully2_ac6efaca60.jpg 166w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_Aging_Gracefully2_ac6efaca60.webp 250w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully2_ac6efaca60.webp 250w," sizes="100vw"><h4>2. Find a consistent hobby&nbsp;</h4>It keeps your mind sharp and engaged. My husband and I have green thumbs and spend a lot of time in our garden.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:36.93%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully6_35bbf06b80.webp" alt="Aging-Gracefully6.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_Aging_Gracefully6_35bbf06b80.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_Aging_Gracefully6_35bbf06b80.webp 250w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully6_35bbf06b80.webp 250w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h4>3. Spend time with friends&nbsp;</h4>Every demographic is impacted by loneliness. Keep your personal connections strong. I make a point to pick up the phone and call my friends a few times a week, or drop by a friend’s home even just for an hour.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:38.56%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully3_b7c8c19bf5.webp" alt="Aging-Gracefully3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_Aging_Gracefully3_b7c8c19bf5.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_Aging_Gracefully3_b7c8c19bf5.webp 250w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully3_b7c8c19bf5.webp 250w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Even when we know it is coming, it is hard to watch a parent grow older. It is hard for the role of parent and child to reverse.</h4><hr><h4>4. Engage in mind-body activity&nbsp;</h4>Meditation, yoga, and other contemplative activities can create a fit mind and body. In addition to my meditation practice, I became a certified tai chi instructor a few years ago, which has been another successful way of keeping me connected to myself.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:38.41%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully4_608c60cf24.webp" alt="Aging-Gracefully4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_Aging_Gracefully4_608c60cf24.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_Aging_Gracefully4_608c60cf24.webp 250w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully4_608c60cf24.webp 250w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h4>5. Take time for yourself&nbsp;</h4>Alone time is necessary to keep yourself sharp and healthy.&nbsp; &nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:38.87%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully5_a1b916e083.webp" alt="Aging-Gracefully5.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_Aging_Gracefully5_a1b916e083.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_Aging_Gracefully5_a1b916e083.webp 250w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Aging_Gracefully5_a1b916e083.webp 250w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">We must do a better job of taking care of our aging family and friends; especially in the last leg of life, people need support and love.</h4><hr>These steps may seem like common sense, but knowing what we can do to stay strong and healthy can help to make the process of aging more manageable. When that education is coupled with compassion, acceptance, and patience, aging can be graceful. We must do a better job of taking care of our aging family and friends; especially in the last leg of life, people need support and love.The last seven years challenged the way I thought of myself as a caregiver. More than anything, it challenged my own perception of aging, and the ways I was taking care of myself. After all, I want to age gracefully too.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by JASMEE MUDGAL</h4><hr>

Aging gracefully

Sharat is a Software Architect and Heartfulness trainer based in Bangalore. He currently serves as a Director of Heartfulness Institute and of Ripples of Change Foundation, an NGO. Recreationally, he enjoys badminton and DIY home improvement projects.

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Sharat Hegde

<h3 style="text-align:center;">DEVELOPING PEACE INSIDE OUT</h3><h4>DR. RANJANI IYER, SYLVIE BERTI-ROSSI, and SHARAT HEGDE from the Peacefulness Movement explore the need for peace with globalization and increasingly rich diversity across the world.&nbsp;</h4>&nbsp;According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “diversity” is defined as “the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc.” We see diversity as a huge strength in developing creative and critical thinking to promote excellence, efficiency, and overall well-being. This applies to corporates, educational institutions, and other organizations that work collaboratively to utilize diverse perspectives to increase engagement and robust interactions.&nbsp;With diversity comes the need for conflict management due to differences in perspectives, knowledge, and points of view. One of the ways to embrace diversity is to “TAP into Peacefulness” and learn to maintain an attitude of mutual respect, open-mindedness, willingness to listen, and collaborative working in peace.&nbsp;TAP into Peacefulness can build skills to connect within and with each other. By becoming peaceful, by being peace, we radiate peace and become peaceful ambassadors. Here is how to do it:<h4 style="text-align:justify;">1. Take a moment to pause:&nbsp;</h4>Research suggests that the practice of pause helps in creating the space to relate emotions and activates the parasympathetic nervous system to induce the feeling of calmness.&nbsp;<a href="https://hbr.org/2015/02/5-ways-to-become-more-self-aware">Self-awareness</a> lies at the root of strong character, giving us the ability to lead with a sense of purpose, authenticity, openness, and trust.&nbsp;You can use a daily check-in to create self-awareness and develop an inner connection to understand your&nbsp;<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DNjq_k9BPlW6bh9v2Dg6w5RabuHkbJ0S/view?usp=sharing">feelings and emotions</a>, use the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mindful.org/the-power-of-pause/">power of pause practice</a> to schedule a one to two minute break in between your busy schedule, or even take an unscheduled short break to avoid mental fatigue. A calm and reflective mind leads to correct thinking and right understanding, that will help you be more efficient, avoid stress and be at peace.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/TAP_into_Peacefulness2_dfe40483c4.jpg"></figure><h4 style="text-align:justify;">2. Adopt the attitude, be one with yourself:&nbsp;</h4>A positive mindset promotes creativity, empathy, connection, and resilience to overcome difficulties more quickly. Working toward a positive attitude and an attitude to excel, you will connect with self and others by expressing&nbsp;<a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain">gratitude</a>, heartful&nbsp;<a href="https://6fb734da-c7da-4a3e-97f2-70aba86275fd.filesusr.com/ugd/d7a5fa_63ec707c66824868971e763876c18021.pdf">affirmations</a>, setting short-term and long-term goals, working towards them, and creating a community that offers a sense of belonging. Finding time to reflect, relax, and rejuvenate opens up space for reflective thinking as well as prioritizes self-care.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lybrate.com/topic/heartfulness-meditation-how-it-is-beneficial/2d8cb243d75765dce2379d82fddaf777">Heartfulness practices</a> take us on an inner journey, and that journey starts in the heart as we develop the 5 Cs of Contentment, Calm, Compassion, Courage, and Clarity, which are the foundation of our mental, emotional, and social intelligence.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">3. Practice peace, your way:&nbsp;</h4>A variety of resources and intentional ways to practice peace can be utilized to connect with the heart and think peaceful thoughts that can promote peace from the inside out.&nbsp;Peace is our true nature and, when we connect with peace within ourselves, we radiate it to others and to our environment.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.peacefulness.org/">Peaceful Intentions</a> will give you time to center and ground yourself, connect to your heart, and finally choose an intention. Silently repeat the words of the intention, and go slowly enough that you can both imagine and feel its true meaning. Let it spread to everything and everyone around you.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Hand_ebebb9124c.webp"></figure>Everyone can benefit by learning ways to tap into peace, as it promotes interconnectedness and inclusion that help us to handle conflicts and collaborate in a more empathetic and effective way. In this complex world, as new perspectives are developed, they can provide better opportunities for innovation, creativity, and problem-solving.

TAP into Peacefulness  

Shelly Burgess is a longtime Heartfulness practitioner and a Heartfulness trainer. She has taught physics for the past twenty-four years at a suburban Midwestern high school where she serves as chair of the science department. She’s a wife and the mother to two very active teenagers. When free time exists, she likes to read, bike, and hike.

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Shelly Burgess

<h4>SHELLY BURGESS is a high school physics teacher and a meditation trainer. Here, she tells her story about losing sight of her purpose in the midst of the Covid pandemic, and how positive intention renewed her focus and allowed her to accept the last year through a lens of self-compassion, grace, and optimism.&nbsp;</h4><hr>We’ve all had challenges since the pandemic began. Some challenges have certainly been greater than others, but we’ve all had our share of struggles and pain. An effective meditation practice can help us immensely with such life stressors. I know this, of course. I’ve been practicing Heartfulness for thirty years, so of course I was primed to ride out pandemic turbulence with a good measure of serenity and grace … except that I did a terrible job of meditating for over a year.It’s embarrassing, but I am admitting this for a reason. Let’s first rewind, so I can tell you why my terrible job of meditating led me to one of the most important revelations of my life.Allow me to introduce myself. I am a mother of two active teens, a wife, and a daughter. Like many women, I work hard at home to make life nice for my loved ones. I also teach advanced high school physics to teens with serious college aspirations. In a normal school year, I run myself ragged trying to give my children their best start in life and care for my family, while also striving to provide a world-class education to the hundred or so students who count on me at school. My responsibilities are pretty demanding, but my Heartfulness practice keeps me balanced, and I also enjoy sharing meditation with others as a trainer. I’m busy, but it works.Enter 2020, which was a period of upheaval. I make no suggestion that my pain has been anywhere near what others have suffered, but as the pandemic began I struggled. My children switched to online learning while I switched to online teaching. In one room, I led my classes through Zoom, and during breaks I checked on my kids and tried to keep them as motivated and happy as possible. So began the daily cycle. In order to give my own kids my all, while providing a superior education to my students, I was working longer and longer hours. While transitioning a lab course to a digital format, encouraging my suffering students, and holding my family together, I had less and less steam to keep myself running. Slowly my meditation practice began to erode. When I sat in the evenings to meditate, it felt like I had nothing left to set my meditation in motion because I had let myself become so run down.When my alarm went off in the morning so I could meditate before work, I couldn’t get up. I needed sleep. As the school year went on, and my workload and my family’s needs compounded, I slept fewer and fewer hours and had less and less to give. My meditation practice became a skin-and-bones version of its former self, but I had so much to do to serve others, what choice did I have, right?Three weeks before the school year ended, I was concerned that I couldn’t make it. I felt as if a panic attack was lurking around every corner, but I pushed. By this time, I felt that my spiritual condition was really run down, a shadow of its former state. This added to my anxiety. I love meditation. I love what it does for me. Now, not only had I not used it to get through the school year, but I felt like I had slid backward. My heart no longer felt like a glowing sanctuary. It felt like a racing heartbeat. It was distressing. Had I damaged myself physically? Yes, definitely. My body had lots of ways of telling me. Had I damaged myself spiritually? This was a real worry.<hr><hr><h5>I raise my children and serve my family with love&nbsp; in line with my spiritual goal.&nbsp; I serve my students with care in line with my spiritual goal.&nbsp; I serve the hearts of those I encounter,&nbsp; and in doing so, my own heart grows in purity.</h5><hr><hr>Heartfulness offers us <a href="https://www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/a-users-guide-to-living-part-1/">ten universal principles</a> to help navigate life’s challenges in an ennobling way. The third principle suggests that we set a goal of the highest spiritual attainment. In a normal year, I think about this all the time. It helps me frame everything I do within that higher purpose. I raise my children and serve my family with love in line with my spiritual goal. I serve my students with care in line with my spiritual goal. I serve the hearts of those I encounter, and in doing so, my own heart grows in purity. At least, that’s the way it is in a normal year.This year? It took until May to realize that I had been serving the wrong master, so to speak. My goals had become mundane: “I have to write multiple versions of this test to make it fairer, in case kids try to cheat.” “I have to come up with a way for students to run this experiment at home using household tools, and then create an online format for them to post their data.” “I have to hang out with my kids while they do their homework so they feel supported.” “I have to cook dinner and do laundry!”<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/rediscovering_my_purpose2_8a3e3e2799.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-06T12:21:45.659Z" alt="rediscovering-my-purpose2"><hr><hr><h5>When I serve others in tune with my spiritual goal,&nbsp; I do a better job – I am more loving and more balanced.&nbsp; The self-care that comes with my meditation&nbsp; practice allows me to be better in all my roles,&nbsp; and better to myself.</h5><hr><hr>Ah … the pressing immediacy of meeting responsibilities. I had allowed this to become my goal.I didn’t even see it coming.By not attending well enough to my heart, by not balancing my mind regularly enough through d meditation, by letting myself become so mentally exhausted that I got sidetracked from my goal, I “served the wrong master.” For a year. And where it led me was not good at all. I could barely even tap into that glowing goodness that was formerly an ever-present reservoir in my heart.Well, the story would have had a terrible ending if I had stopped there and given up! And who wants a lousy ending to a story? So now comes the good stuff!First, I dived back into my daily practice, along with lots and lots of positive suggestions. The good news: I can tell I’m rebounding. The bad news: I still have a way to go. The bottom line: There’s always hope.Second, I’m proof that Heartfulness works, because when I let my practice and my goal slip, I saw the dark side of losing sight of them.And that leads to my huge revelation: Third, serve the right master, remember my goal. When I do this, everything else falls into balance. Losing sight of it led me down a dark path. Returning my focus has offered me a way back.Does that mean I should not serve my family and my students? Not at all. In fact, when I serve them in tune with my spiritual goal, I do a better job – I am more loving and more balanced. The self-care that comes with my meditation practice allows me to be better in all my roles, and better to myself.One last little gem popped into my memory as I re-established my practice. A doozy of a positive suggestion came to me, and it has made a huge difference. Decades ago, a Heartfulness meditator known as sister Kasturi said something to someone, and eventually it reached my ears many years later. She told this person that we can do spiritual work in the past. In other words, if we make suggestions in the present, we can reset our past selves. Wild, right?So I sat down and tried it. I made the mental suggestion in May that all along, throughout the school year, I had been serving everyone heartfully, in tune with my goal. The amazing thing was that as I made this positive suggestion I could feel pieces of the past year shifting back into balance, like a mixed-up puzzle where the pieces assemble themselves. I was resetting my goal for my past self. I felt it working. So cool. So wonderful. So grateful.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/rediscovering_my_purpose3_74b7a897c4.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-06T12:23:10.956Z" alt=""><hr><hr><h5>The main point is that I realized I don’t want to&nbsp; ever give myself wounds again. I love my practice.&nbsp; It keeps me balanced and takes me to my goal.</h5><hr><hr>What is the moral of this story? Let’s be clear that I do not believe there’s a “get out of jail free” card if I just redouble my efforts and make positive suggestions from the present to my past self. This is not the lesson, although I am grateful that I’ve found what I needed to heal my wounds. The main point is that I realized I don’t want to ever give myself wounds again. I love my practice. It keeps me balanced and takes me to my goal. Like Dorothy says at the end of The Wizard of Oz, “I’m not going to leave here ever, ever again.” I’m lucky to have this nice moral to my story, because it could have been much worse. I have pretty good grounds for feeling optimistic, and I’m grateful to be home.<hr><hr><h4>Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>

Rediscovering my purpose

Shiwani Gurwara

<h4>SHIWANI GURWARA shares her personal experience of learning to speak less and listen more, and how she is learning to improve the quality of her listening.</h4>
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In the last few years there have been many times when I have decided that I will learn to talk less and listen more. Being quite a loner, there are long periods of time when I am totally by myself, so somehow I feel I am trying to make up for lost time when I do interact and meet people. However, I recently started my journey towards becoming a Life Coach and there was something I discovered on the way – something that I would like to share.
<h4>Why so much talk?</h4>
Personally, there seems to be so much to share. I feel that I should put my opinion out there. At a conscious level, the intention for saying stuff is completely altruistic. I feel that what I have to say may help someone else in their life, their thoughts and decisions.
I have come to realize with introspection that this need to talk and share all that I know on a topic comes from a belief that “I know.” It is a belief that tells me that I have the right answers and can positively influence others in some way.
Irrespective of the fact that the talking comes from good intention, it is an arrogant thought to believe that I have any kind of power to change or influence others. I have learnt to respect that every person has their own life, their own individual personality, values, beliefs and circumstances, and they have every right to live it and think about it in their own way. The one thing that helped me achieve this was to look at every human being (and animal) as a soul.
<h4> Types of listening</h4>
At times we are not listening at all. This is what we call inactive listening. While we may be able to hear the words that are being said, we are not really listening. In such a situation, we find ourselves wandering off or asking the other person what they just said. All of us are guilty of such listening at times – at parties, with children, in conferences etc.
Conversational listening is the most common type of listening. This is when we are talking to a friend, colleague or relative, merely keeping up with what is being discussed. The moment something that is more interesting pops up, we listen more intently to them.
Deep listening is not something that most of us do. This is the kind of listening where you don’t listen just to the words that are being said, but those that are not being said, too. It is listening with all your senses including the sixth sense that can give you insight into the other person.
How to listen well? How to listen well? All of us have our own reasons why we are not able to listen well. While some of us may be plain bored in a situation, others may be preoccupied with something else. If you feel that you need to listen better, ask yourself some of these questions, as I did:
Do I feel that I know how this person will end his sentence and therefore finish it for him or her? 
Do I want them to get to the point quickly? 
Do I feel I am wasting my time listening to jabber that I already know? 
Do I not listen because I disagree with the other person’s point of view and block it out? 
Am I just not interested in this person? 
Am I so preoccupied with my own life that I do not want to take time out to listen to another? 
Am I so arrogant that I feel I know what the other person may want to communicate?
Identifying the barriers that do not allow us to listen well is half the battle won. I did this for myself, and the points I ticked above were too many! The trick, I guess, is to be conscious of these in every conversation, and check yourself when you feel you are getting into any of these modes. I have hope! Practice makes perfect and over time we can replace old habits with new ones. So, all the best if you are someone like me, trying to learn to talk less and listen more.
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by SHIWANI GURWARA 
Illustration by JASMEE RATHOD</h4>
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The art of listening

Acharya Shree Varma, also known as Dr. Krishna Varma, comes from a lineage of Ayurvedic doctors who have been practicing for over four centuries. With a vision to share this wisdom with the wider humanity, he founded the Shree Varma Organization in 2001.

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Shree Varma

<h4>ACHARYA SHREE VARMA comes from a lineage of Ayurvedic doctors who have been practicing for over four centuries. With a vision to share this wisdom with the wider humanity, he founded the Shree Varma Organization in 2001. &nbsp;Here, he is interviewed by MARION MARCEAU from the Heartfulness Yoga Academy about the Ayurvedic approach to mental health.</h4>Q: Hello, Dr. Shree Varma, welcome. You are from a long lineage of Ayurvedic practitioners. Could you tell us a little bit about your background?SV: Happy to meet you, Marion. I’m from the Durango tradition and my birth village is on the border of Tamil Nadu and the Kerala Kanyakumari district in South India. The family has treated chronic ailments with Ayurveda, yoga and varma for nine generations. I’m the first graduate in Ayurvedic medicine from the family. My father believed that Ayurveda has been proven over centuries, but he also wanted me to be qualified and sent me to Chennai to Dr. MGR Medical University to do a Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery. From that degree, I have the title Ayurveda&nbsp;acharya.We teach preventive healthcare for a disease-free life, maintaining positive health in a healthy person, and curing diseases with the help of Ayurveda, yoga and&nbsp;varma.Q: What is the relationship between yoga and Ayurveda?SV: Ayurveda is not a medical science alone. We say it is shraddhayu – if someone has the desire to live for 100 years without disease, Ayurveda will teach that philosophy and the associated principles, and it has three different dimensions.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/mental_wellbeing_ayurveda2_c2e3b8b3f3.jpg"></figure>The first is prevention: the guidelines of dinacharya, the daily regimen, and ritucharya, the seasonal regimen. It speaks about the principles of life, how to start the day, how to design your day. It prescribes a healthy life. You get up one and a half hours before sunrise and start your day with breathing practices. And it speaks about meditation, and physical exercise. So the first priority in the morning is yoga to ensure a healthy life of 100 years.&nbsp;What is the definition of health in Ayurveda? A blissful state of body, mind, and soul. We talk about equilibrium of the energy in the physical doshas,&nbsp;vata, pitta, and&nbsp;kapha; and balancing the emotional&nbsp;doshas for the mind,&nbsp;sattva, rajas, and tamas. So, start your day with yoga to lead a healthy life. That is&nbsp;dinacharya, how to design your day.&nbsp;And ritucharya describes how to adjust the daily routine as the seasons change – what to eat, how to drink, how to breathe, how to keep your physical body and mind flexible, and your soul peaceful. They decide your inner health. So Ayurveda and yoga are absolutely interconnected.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">The first is prevention:&nbsp; the guidelines of dinacharya, the daily regimen,&nbsp; and ritucharya, the seasonal regimen.&nbsp; It speaks about the principles of life,&nbsp; how to start the day,&nbsp; how to design your day.&nbsp; It prescribes a healthy life.</h4><hr>The first philosophy of Ayurveda is preventive health – yoga and meditation. The second philosophy is about cures. For someone who doesn’t practice yoga, doesn’t take care of their body and mind, there is the possibility of disease due to improper food, improper lifestyle, accidents, infections, and&nbsp;heredity.There are causative factors that produce toxins in the body, leading to disease. So, Ayurveda cures from the root cause, so how to disconnect from the causative factors is the first line of treatment. First, understand what has produced the disease, then practice&nbsp;pratyahara by disconnecting from the disturbing substances, or withdrawing from your senses, which give you discomfort inside. Once the disconnection is done, then the treatment can start.&nbsp;Treatment is based on curative principles that have to be followed until the healing completes. When someone doesn’t follow them, they don’t heal from the root, so the disease becomes deep-rooted, and it is termed incurable. Even if your disease is termed incurable, Ayurveda says that an excellent physician can teach you how to heal yourself. With the practices of yoga and the medicines that eliminate toxins, the physician can guide the patient to recover permanently. Somebody has to handhold and support the patient –&nbsp;it can be a yoga teacher, a doctor, or a family member. They give confidence and aid in recovery. However, unless the patient makes an effort, recovery is a challenge.So Ayurveda looks at prevention, cure, and rehabilitation,&nbsp;and&nbsp;reduces the suffering of miseries. When Ayurveda and yoga are combined, we can reduce the suffering of the individual. Yoga is a tool for Ayurveda to help the patient not necessarily recover, but at least stabilize their health.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">So Ayurveda looks at prevention, cure, and rehabilitation, and reduces the suffering of miseries.</h4><hr><figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/mental_wellbeing_ayurveda3_0f196a3219.jpg"></figure>Q: How does Ayurveda tackle mental health? Is it something new or is mental health something that has been treated for a long time in Ayurveda?SV: Ayurveda specializes in healing the mind. We look at a human being as a combination of five&nbsp;koshas: Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vignanamaya and&nbsp;Anandamaya, the metaphorical layers that comprise the human body and mind, and house the soul.&nbsp;An excellent physician of Ayurveda learns how to heal through these five&nbsp;koshas. The&nbsp;Annamaya kosha&nbsp;is the very basic structure of you, and the&nbsp;Pranamaya kosha is the energy that connects the human body and mind. The&nbsp;Manomaya kosha is very dominant in a human, as manushya comes from the Sanskrit&nbsp;manas, meaning mind. A human being is absolutely mind dominated in their world.&nbsp;Any sickness that comes starts from the koshta, the stomach, and affects the&nbsp;Annamaya kosha, the physical body; and when it’s not taken care of, it affects the Pranamaya kosha,which then makes an impact on the&nbsp;Manomaya kosha.As human beings, we have emotions.When the emotional challenges or requirements are not properly addressed, we encounter an improper lifestyle, improper association of people, improper understanding of emotions. This leaves samskaras or impressions on the mind. When they are not properly cleaned, this emotional imbalance can impact the&nbsp;Pranamaya kosha, which in turn can bring on the onset of physical diseases.&nbsp;In Ayurveda, although we address all five&nbsp;koshas, the&nbsp;Manomaya kosha is very, very important.&nbsp;In this we differ from allopathic medicine, which says that diseases are either curable or incurable. Ayurveda says that when you define a disease as&nbsp;“incurable,” the mind takes it very strongly, feels nothing can be done, and won’t make an effort to cure it. There is a lot of research and good documentation on the benefits of Ayurveda; even our ancestors committed themselves to write about everything they did. But we don’t rely only on these papers.We look at the person as a living example of this.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;A good physician takes his knowledge as a base, and with every patient he decides how Ayurveda can improve their life. Whether it is an emotional challenge, a mental disorder, or a physical problem, we take a positive approach to healing and convey to their mind, “Yes, it’s possible to cure you.” Of course, they have to make the effort, otherwise it’s a false promise – we help them to cure themselves. The physician, the medicine, the therapies, yoga and meditation, all comprise 75% of the healing; the remaining 25%, the rogi&nbsp;or the sufferer, must believe it’s possible to recover and make an effort to work toward it.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">It gives a lot of confidence,&nbsp; a lot of energy inside, &nbsp;to understand what is happening in your mind.&nbsp; Ayurveda has a very deep&nbsp; understanding of the mind.</h4><hr>If the patient is not able to put in the effort, Ayurveda treats the&nbsp;Annamaya kosha, the physical body. It does the detox and teaches the basic breathing practices. That’s the&nbsp;Pranamaya kosha, which gives energy. When the&nbsp;Annamaya kosha has toxicity, trying to reach the&nbsp;Pranamaya kosha is difficult. After the&nbsp;Annamaya kosha is cleansed through the&nbsp;Panchakarma, you can start very simple breathing practices.It gives a lot of confidence, a lot of energy inside, to understand what is happening&nbsp;in your mind.&nbsp;Ayurveda has a very deep understanding of the mind. So treating emotional challenges are easy with Ayurveda and yoga.I really like the teamwork between the patient and the therapists, the doctor and the yoga teacher, to restore health. I really feel it is important. We start from the physical body by doing a detox. This generates energy and also helps the mind so the patient can take over their own healing.&nbsp;To be continued.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by JASMEE MUDGAL</h4><hr>&nbsp;

Mental well-being and Ayurveda

Treating emotional challenges

ACHARYA SHREE VARMA comes from a lineage of Ayurvedic doctors who have been practicing for over four centuries. In part 2 of an interview by MARION MARCEAU from the Heartfulness Yoga Academy, he goes into more depth about the Ayurvedic approach to mental health. Q: Are there specific treatments in Ayurveda for mental well-being o you use medicines?&nbsp; SV: We should first understand that the mind is a spectrum, not a structure. For the physical body, the Annamaya kosha, we need medicine. For the Pranamaya kosha, we need the breath, energy. When these two layers are addressed, then it’s very easy for the physician and the patient to understand the mind. The mind is the connective material which connects the Annamaya kosha with the Pranamaya kosha, and together they connect with the Vignanamaya kosha, which connects the body with the soul, the atman.&nbsp;The mind is a spectrum, but how do we see inside the mind? There is a remote wireless connection that our eyes can’t see. The body and the soul are connected by the mind, so how do they connect? In Ayurveda, there exist seven major chakras and 108 minor chakras that we call marmas, which are energy points. How do emotions operate through these energy centers? It depends on what we eat. And not only what we eat; the body needs all the pancha bhutas, the nutritional substances, for its survival. The body consumes food, water, and oxygen, without which metabolism is not possible.&nbsp;So what is food for the mind? It’s very simple. The mind is nourished by what we see, hear, do, and feel; and with these emotions, the mind moves between the past, present, and future. The mind never stays in a particular space, it’s always moving.&nbsp;Solidity is the nature of Earth, fluidity is the nature of water, heat is the nature of fire, and mobility or challenge is the nature of the mind. So, the mind moves from past to present to future. Those Ayurvedic doctors who work with varma (marma) are known as varmanis and practice the secret art of divine healing. They know about emotions.What are these basic energies? How do they move in our seven major chakras, and how do they create changes in the 108 marmas? The varman treatment is given to eliminate the toxins of the body. And the practices of yoga are given to clean the impressions from the mind. This is the way we treat emotional issues.In today’s environment, people are often really stressed and face challenges at work. We can’t get away from mobile phones and screens. Even when we don’t want to, there is always some reason to be in front of a screen. Our senses are challenged, we see and hear things that maybe we shouldn’t; it’s very difficult to protect ourselves from that.&nbsp;Q: So let’s say a patient comes to your clinic with a sleep disorder, burnt out, depressed, or anxious, will you start directly with a Panchakarma detox? How will you help them to come out of the situation?&nbsp;SV: Ayurveda looks at a human being as a whole. We are the combination of a physical body, energy body, emotional body, intellectual body, and spiritual body. So when we do a basic assessment of the illness, we look at where the patient has challenges, in which layer they have the impurities.&nbsp;We do a diagnosis, we listen to the challenges they are facing. Can we treat them simply on the basis of this? No, because they are in a disturbed and difficult state, and they’re complaining, not explaining. Instead, we use our training and experience to understand the causative factors. To reconfirm the causative factors, we read the pulse, the nadi pariksha, to gauge how energy is traveling in them. Is it vata, pitta, or kapha in the Annamaya kosha? Any trained Ayurveda doctor is able to diagnose what is happening by checking the nadi. Then, with the Pranamaya and Manomaya koshas, we feel the flow of energy.&nbsp;When we are touching the nadi, we connect our energy with the patient’s and understand which layer is affected. Treatment will start from the Annamaya kosha. If palliative treatment is needed, we give only herbs; but when the toxins are deep rooted, we recommend Panchakarma, the intensive 14 to 21 days of detox to ensure that the accumulated toxins are eliminated. This is followed by potentiated medicines, and energy to heal the mind. Ayurveda teaches that we are not just a structure or a substance, we are the energy inside the substance.First, we detox the physical body, then we guide the patient on how energy can heal them.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">The mind is nourished by what we see, hear, do, and feel; and with these emotions, the mind moves between the past, present, and future.&nbsp;</h4><hr><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/inner_flowering2_1875e0bd07.webp" alt="inner-flowering2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_inner_flowering2_1875e0bd07.webp 110w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Q: It’s very beautiful how you give the power to the patient to heal themselves. It’s restoring the healing power within the person for a mental disorder, which may have occurred through some imbalance in the body. SV: Yes, it can be something common like sleeplessness or it can be schizophrenia. For both, we look at what impact it is having on the emotional level, on the mind. The brain is the structure, the hardware; but we work with the software, the mind. And the effect isn’t only on the brain. It can be on the whole central nervous system, from the brain to the base of the spine. The nervous system directly connects with our endocrine glands, and it connects with our chakras. The gut has neurons, and our thyroid, thymus, and sex hormones are interconnected with the nervous system. &nbsp; Modern scientific research shows that we have neurons in the brain, nano-neurons in the thyroid, and micro-nano-neurons in the thymus. Centuries ago, Ayurveda and yoga established that the mind operates with our chakras, so when we accumulate toxins in different chakras, they manifest through different signs and symptoms. In modern medicine, the diagnosis says, “These are the symptoms, this is the disease.” We don’t look at symptoms first, we look at energy. We treat the human, and the symptoms are cured.&nbsp;Food is important, sexual activity is important, and sleep is important for a human being to maintain a healthy life. When sleep is disturbed, we ask, “What is the causative factor?” Prolonged screen time is one factor – we spend a lot of time on our mobiles and the internet. Too much of anything is not good for us. A sedentary life, excessive eating, not enough exercise – all of these are contributing factors. We need moderation.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">To reconfirm the causative factors, we read the pulse, the nadi pariksha, to gauge how energy is traveling in them.</h4><hr>When you approach an Ayurvedic doctor, they won’t say “Stop all these things,” but rather “Reduce them, and make every effort to recover from your illness.” And when you start reducing from within, you can get out of anything that is not allowing you to progress. All human beings have a basic desire to be healthy and happy, and happiness is directly proportional to your state of health. Science today talks about the happy hormones, like oxytocin and serotonin. Stay far from everything that elevates stress hormones and fear hormones. Anything that makes you flower inside, add to your life.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/inner_flowering3_31a47383cf.webp" alt="inner-flowering3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_inner_flowering3_31a47383cf.webp 127w," sizes="100vw"></figure> Q: That’s a very nice philosophy – add what makes you happy and remove what makes you stressed to keep a mental balance in this chaotic world.&nbsp;So, when patients are very agitated, are there key points they can follow to remain happy, to remain balanced? SV: Ayurveda talks about prevention, cure, and rehabilitation. We have a very clear understanding that only 10% of people have a physical problem that needs treatment. The other 90% are healthy. But 90% of people have emotional challenges, so they are on the waiting list to contract a disease. These emotional challenges can lead to disease if they are not properly addressed. When the disease is not cured, it turns into a chronic disease, and you think it is incurable.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Anything that makes you flower inside, add to your life.</h4><hr><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/inner_flowering4_522f43f789.webp" alt="inner-flowering4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_inner_flowering4_522f43f789.webp 103w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Try to learn yoga and understand Ayurveda for a healthy life. It’s important what time you get up and it matters how you start your day. It’s like preparing for a marathon: the first step you take matters, how you train every day. It makes you stronger if you have the highest goal in life. Start the day with meditation. Do some physical activity – it can be asanas, cycling, running, walking, or swimming. Whatever it is, your physical body needs training at least six days a week, one hour a day. Then, concentrate on your work. You will deliver 100%. At the end of the day, sit and recollect the day – what unwanted things have you accumulated in your emotions? Do a cleaning practice. When you go to bed, be in a prayerful mood. These three things are mandatory. This is the takeaway.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/inner_flowering5_c49f85caa8.webp" alt="inner-flowering5.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_inner_flowering5_c49f85caa8.webp 113w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_inner_flowering5_c49f85caa8.webp 361w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">It’s important what time you get up and it matters how you start your day. It’s like preparing for a marathon: the first step you take matters, how you train every day.</h4><hr>&nbsp;You can learn a cleaning practice from trained yoga teachers and Ayurveda doctors who are connected with Heartfulness. They know how to guide you in all these practices. Going to sleep with a prayerful attitude makes you healthy and happy. If you have challenges, don’t hesitate to reach us. We are here to help you to have a healthy and happy life. Thank you Marion. Q: Thank you very much.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by JASMEE MUDGAL</h4><hr>&nbsp;

Inner flowering

Shruti Negi

<h4>SHRUTI NEGI tells us how she cherishes friendship and the qualities she values most among friends.</h4><hr>I value honesty the most in a friendship. Two people truly honest with each other can create a strong bond, which is required for a long-lasting relationship. If you are honest with a friend, you don’t have to hide anything or lie. You both will understand each other anyway.As a friend, I wish to be a caregiver and a listener. If I can truly understand my friends’ feelings, I can maintain the sacred communication between us. I may not solve problems, but I can listen.Being heard is the best feeling in friendship. It gives us the feeling that we have a stress-buster for every upcoming situation. We can never be alone in our good and bad times as long as we have good friends. It has changed my outlook. I started believing that the world can be a better place. Around friends, we are complete.Freedom of speech is very important, and with a friend we know we have that. Having a friend is like having an extended family.

Friendship

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SIDDHARTH KAK

When a bird sings, do you analyze it? 

Siddhartha is the Director of Education and Civic Engagement and Curator of South Asian Art at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA. He curates exhibitions and focuses on community engagement.

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Siddhartha Shah

<h4>SIDDHARTHA V. SHAH is the Director of Education and Civic Engagement and Curator of South Asian Art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, USA. As a curator, he develops exhibitions that tell the stories of the artists, communities, and traditions of South Asia, as well as important moments in the history of the region, and what they reveal about nation-building and self-discovery. He strives to create alignment and synergy between the museum’s education and curatorial departments while focusing on community engagement and impactful programming. Here, he speaks with VANESSA PATEL from the Heartfulness Institute.</h4><hr>Q: Hello Siddhartha. Thank you for your time. You have been extremely busy with various projects. Can you tell us about one in particular – your role on the Board of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect?SS: About ten years ago, I became close with clients who were involved with the Anne Frank Center. I told them that I had read Anne Frank’s diary three or four times, and it really impacted me. Then, I went to college in Amsterdam for a semester, right across the river from the Anne Frank house, so I have always felt a connection to her. They invited me onto the Board because they saw that I was deeply committed to human and civil rights. Anne Frank’s experience does not apply to the Jewish community alone; it is relevant to different kinds of struggles around the world, such as LGBTQ issues, with which I identify, and race, here in the United States and elsewhere. I got involved with the Anne Frank Center through this alignment of vision. My goal is to make sure that Anne Frank’s story reaches as broad an audience as possible.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_service_community1_700x303_afbb166f97.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T11:23:35.291Z" alt="art-service-community1">Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Bob Packert<hr>Q: You have also developed a program for nurses to strengthen their observation and communication skills, using art to reduce anxiety and stress. Nurses and caregivers seem to be the forgotten people, and the impact on their mental health isn’t often addressed. How have you used the medium of art?SS: We take nurses through the South Asian galleries at Peabody Essex Museum, and we have them look at certain paintings. Then we talk about what they see. We also help them see what they don’t see. If you look deeper into paintings, there are things you may not notice. Then we ask, “How does this relate to your work?” “When you’re taking a diagnosis, what is the information you’re collecting?” We help them assess what they see and apply that to their relationships with their patients. In terms of the mindfulness piece, as you said, nurses and caregivers are forgotten, and we don’t think about the amount of stress they’re under, particularly during the pandemic.We have them look at two paintings by Ghulam Rasool Santosh, which are very simple geometric images with simple colors. They slow down and allow their eyes to wander over and across the paintings, noticing what associations they have. One of the paintings is predominantly black and one is predominantly white. At the black painting, we ask them to think about what associations they have with the color black; then we ask them to think about the same with the white. We tend to think of black as dark and negative, and white as positive, so I ask, “Can black feel expansive?” “Can white be so bright that it constricts your vision?” I ask them to flip their associations, which also have racial connotations. It is an exercise in perception of color and race. They realize that if they take a little more time, art can help them calm down.I curated another exhibition called Zarah Hussain: Breath, where a meditation on breathing is done through the paintings, and there is a digital animation that expands and contracts every five and a half seconds to help the viewers slow their breathing and enter a state of relaxation. We have eight paintings by the artist that are curated as four pairs; in each pair, one is an “inhale” and the other is an “exhale.” Then there is a room with the projected animation; it is generative so the color patterns vary every time. People enter this room, which is dark other than the projection, and they calm down completely and stay there for a long time. It has been wonderful to see.Also, we created a version of the animation online so that people could experience it from home during the pandemic. You can adjust the length of the breathing cycle and the color pattern. Whenever you need a break from meetings, you can turn on the animation.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_service_community2_700x466_b0dc911c0f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T11:24:29.335Z" alt="art_service_community2">Zarah Hussain, Breath Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Kathy Tarantola<hr><hr><h4>A meditation on breathing is done through the paintings,&nbsp; and there is a digital animation that expands&nbsp; and contracts every five and a half seconds&nbsp; to help the viewers slow their breathing&nbsp; and enter a state of relaxation.</h4><hr><hr>Q: Wow! That’s lovely. It’s also calming.SS: It is calming, and it is significant because breathing is deeply connected with Covid-19, which takes away people’s ability to breathe. And it connects to the death of George Floyd here in the United States. He said, “I can’t breathe” as some of his final words. A meditation on the breath just seemed so relevant this past year.Q: A lot of what I am hearing is art in service of community, so I want to know what led you to take your professional practice to these spaces. You are committed to building community and mending wounds through art collaboration and respectful communication. How easy or difficult has it been to do this?SS: I entered PEM as the curator of South Asian art. After about two years, George Floyd died, and our museum responded like a lot of institutions by acknowledging his death. When I saw the message, something about it did not feel comfortable, so I told our director, “I come to you with full respect, but I need to say that I am not comfortable with the messaging. Here is a different way I think we could have messaged this.” That’s when he understood that I have ideas about engaging the community in a respectful way.That’s when we started talking about my other role as Director of Education and Civic Engagement, which is new for the museum. Ours is a very big museum with a large footprint, but, like a lot of museums, our relationship with the community is complicated. We are not reaching a lot of people. My work is to find out how we can reach them. It’s difficult because we don’t decide what the community needs; the community tells us what they need. I go out and ask questions, but they don’t know me or my agenda, and whether they can trust me. I have been asking questions for over a year and we have started a bunch of new initiatives based on these conversations. But we need at least two years to gain people’s trust before we will see any change.The process is slow, and we need to show that we are committed. For example, I have a conversation with the YMCA, find out how they feel about us, what they like and what they don’t like. Then our team discusses the feedback, and we go back and ask, “Have we heard you correctly?” If yes, then we tell them we are going to develop a menu of partnerships. We think of four or five ways we can work together, then show them and get their thoughts. We do this a few times before we commit to one partnership – not too many, because we first need to make sure we are doing it correctly. We implement that and then we reconnect to talk about what went well, what did not go so well, and then decide that in six months we will do another project based on the outcome. It is a very slow process, but it is helps us earn trust.Q: I love that you said it’s not up to you to decide for them what they need, but it’s a space for them to tell you what is important to them. Is this also where your drive to set up intergenerational initiatives comes from?SS: A lot of museums have an older audience, which is predominantly white, well-educated, and often wealthy. School groups also come on field trips, but we don’t have a lot of teenage involvement. It is hard to draw teens, and that is the age when I fell in love with art. So, how do we create connections between those who are already coming to the museum and those who are not?During the pandemic, two populations have been very significantly impacted: Young people, who could not see their friends, and older people, who were the most vulnerable and isolated. We wondered how we could bring these two communities together, so we created a virtual art-making evening once a month called Create Night. People signed up, we mailed the art supplies to them, and they came together online – old people, young people, artists – all doing art together for about an hour. They got to talk to people. That is a way to get intergenerational programs going.We also started a bilingual initiative, because we have a very significant Spanish-speaking population here. We also host English as a Second Language classes for adults, and a teen program for learning English. We thought, “Why don’t we have the Spanish-speaking teens run tours in Spanish and English to teach the older Spanish speakers about the museum?” The teenagers speak to the adults, and they engage with one another.<hr><hr><h4>We don’t decide what the community needs;&nbsp; the community tells us what they need.</h4><hr><hr>Q: That is amazing! You’ve put together two groups of people who are unlikely to interact with each other, creating an opportunity to discover what they can learn from each other. Is this what you meant about your plans to reach more audiences in “original and unexpected ways”? It also seems a great way to improve the footfall in the museum.SS: Exactly. We are looking at unexpected ways of doing that. Another project happened last Thanksgiving: Older people living in public housing needed meals delivered. We participated in a campaign to send cards with the food, wishing them love and care. Our employees and a lot of artists drew beautiful things in these cards, and some also asked their kids to get involved. The people receiving the cards didn’t meet the people who sent them, but there was a connection happening.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_service_community4_cef74e8d1b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T11:25:19.281Z" alt="art_service_community4">Gulam Rasul Santosh Untitled, 1983 Oil on canvas Gift of the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection, 2001 Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum<hr>Q: That’s beautiful! I can just imagine the joy it must have brought people who are lonely and don’t have anyone else to call their own.SS: So lonely. Lonelier these past two years than most people have ever been in their lives.<hr>To be continued.<hr>

Art in service of community

<h4
 id="h-siddhartha-v-shah-is-the-director-of-education-and-civic-engagement-and-curator-of-south-asian-art-at-the-peabody-essex-museum-in-salem-massachusetts-usa-as-a-curator-he-develops-exhibitions-that-tell-the-stories-of-the-artists-communities-and-traditions-of-south-asia-as-well-as-important-moments-in-the-history-of-the-region-and-what-they-reveal-about-nation-building-and-self-discovery-in-his-role-as-director-of-education-and-civic-engagement-he-strives-to-create-alignment-and-synergy-between-the-museum-s-education-and-curatorial-departments-while-focusing-on-community-engagement-and-impactful-programming-in-part-2-of-this-interview-he-speaks-with-vanessa-patel-from-the-heartfulness-institute-about-yoga-meditation-art-and-growing-up"
>
 SIDDHARTHA V. SHAH
 is the Director of Education and Civic Engagement and Curator of South Asian
 Art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, USA. As a curator,
 he develops exhibitions that tell the stories of the artists, communities,
 and traditions of South Asia, as well as important moments in the history of
 the region, and what they reveal about nation-building and self-discovery.
 In his role as Director of Education and Civic Engagement, he strives to
 create alignment and synergy between the museum’s education and curatorial
 departments while focusing on community engagement and impactful
 programming. In part 2 of this interview, he speaks with
 VANESSA PATEL
 from the Heartfulness Institute about Yoga, meditation, art, and growing
 up.
</h4>

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<figure class="has-img-center" style="width : 700px !important">
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 decoding="async"
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 alt="art_as_social_responsibility2"
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 />
 <figcaption>
 Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Kathy Tarantola
 </figcaption>
</figure>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 Q: So, Siddhartha, you’re also a Yoga practitioner and meditator, and you
 have spoken about psychospiritual wellness. Can you share a little bit about
 how you have incorporated this into your work?



 SS: I have been a
 pretty rigorous Yoga practitioner for twenty years, but I have basically
 stopped in the past year. Part of it was because of physical restrictions – I
 didn’t have a teacher here because of the pandemic, and I kept doing something
 wrong that was hurting my hip. No one was there to correct it, so even if I
 tried to do something simple, the next day I had pain.



 I also felt that I was too addicted to it. I understand that doing Yoga means
 I have a better day, but it got to the point where I could not have a good day
 if I did not do Yoga. That’s when I realized, “My relationship to this is not
 healthy.” But that’s also part of the practice – knowing when to tell myself
 that I need a break, because this is not doing what I need.



 Regarding meditation, it so happened that the week after lockdown started in
 March 2020, I started a meditation challenge for our staff. I said, “Okay
 everybody, the universe is telling us to go inside, so that’s what we are
 going to do.” For ten days I sent videos to them – just ten minutes of
 meditation each day for ten days. More than 70 people signed up, and some
 people said they wanted to keep going. So I said, “We’ll do a 21-day
 challenge,” and 40 people signed up for that. Since then, we do meditation
 every Monday morning before the work week starts, and every Friday afternoon
 at the end of the work week. It is open to anybody who wants to drop in, so I
 always have my Google Meet open. Sometimes nobody is there and I still attend,
 leaving my camera on, and I sit for twenty minutes. Other times, people come
 and join. It is just a service I now offer to staff.



 Q: I appreciate the sense that there are no expectations, no demands. If
 you feel the connection, the room is open. To me, that feels like true
 service, because there are no expectations in the intention behind your
 gesture.



 You’ve given me a 360-degree glimpse into your work world, although I’m
 sure there is a lot more that you are involved in. I know you started as a
 gallerist so I would love to know more about your journey, and the struggles
 you faced. Do you feel you are now in your dream job?



 SS: When I was
 younger, my dream job was to be an art dealer. I did that and thought, “Okay,
 now I have my dream, but I am not done. Now what do I do?” That dream career
 ended years ago. I would say the struggle was mostly internal, but there were
 some external challenges. It was a different path than a lot of South Asians
 in the United States. My father and brother are both physicians. Most of the
 Indians we knew were either physicians or engineers, and that just wasn’t the
 path for me. I always felt supported by my parents, but there were a lot of
 questions like, “What do you do?”, “What do you study?”, and “What are you
 going to do with that?”


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<div class="block-image">
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 decoding="async"
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 />
 <figcaption>
 Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Bob Packert
 </figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 There was one pivotal moment around the age of 25, when I was a manager of a
 gallery in California. I was really unhappy in my job. I called my dad,
 crying on the phone, and said to him, “I don’t know what to do.” He said
 to me, “I don’t know your field of study. If you were a physician I could
 guide you, but you made this choice for yourself and I can’t help you here.
 You need to decide what you are going to do.” And that was so empowering
 for me. I realized he was right – “I chose this path, and I am going to figure
 this out.” That was a moment of real empowerment.



 I have had many different careers, and my path has unfolded because I said yes
 to the right opportunities. I have never had a vision of where I am ultimately
 going to be. I never decided that museums were where I wanted to be. It just
 felt right, and I said yes to the opportunity. That happened with the Ph.D. as
 well. I had never formally studied Indian art, and I only wanted to study with
 one professor, Dr. Vidya Dehejia. So I applied to the program, and thought,
 “If she takes me, I’ll go, and if she doesn’t, I’ll continue here.” She took
 me on, and my whole life changed. Suddenly I was a student again at 35.
 Everyone else was in their early twenties!



 Q: And how has your experience been in the curatorial world of art
 galleries and museums, amongst that community of people?



 SS: It’s been
 different every time I have curated something, because it depends so much on
 what you’re working with. Here at PEM, curating has been such a joy because I
 get to work with an outrageously rich collection. It’s great fun. It’s the
 largest collection of modern Indian art outside India, and certainly one of
 the most important collections of modern Indian art in the world.


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<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 I have had many different careers, and my path has unfolded because I
 said yes to the right opportunities.
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<div class="block-image">
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 decoding="async"
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 alt="art_as_social_responsibility4"
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 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_as_social_responsibility4_924812ecc5.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T05:42:45.809Z"
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 <figcaption>
 Gulam Rasul Santosh 1929 – 1997, India Untitled, 1973 Oil
 on canvas Gift of the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection, 2001 E301212 Courtesy
 of the Peabody Essex Museum
 </figcaption>
 </figure>
</div>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 If I were curating it in India, I would do it in a different way, but I have
 to curate for an American audience that is not in a major city. So, how to
 talk about Indian masterpieces by a collection of artists that most people
 have never heard of here? The challenge is to frame it in a narrative that the
 public is going to understand. I speak in very general terms, so that the
 story of India replicates the story of America. For example, there is a
 version of the Ramayana that, depending on how you enunciate it, is both the
 Ramayana and the Mahabharata. It’s a Pallava-era poem by the author Dandin.
 The work has been lost, but apparently it composed a version of two different
 epics with the exact same text. This is how I speak about India’s diversity,
 and unity in diversity. Part of what makes India so unique are the different
 types of people there, but, like America, the biggest challenge to harmony has
 been the country’s diversity. I speak about it in these ways, and it is great
 fun, as you can apply the concept to India and America.



 Q: That is a great way to make it relatable. Ultimately, art is something
 that needs to be relatable because, as you said, so many people feel it is
 beyond them. You have made it really accessible and activated it in so many
 ways for your community. Thank you so much, Siddhartha.



 SS: Thank you,
 and I hope to see you here at the museum.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

Art as social responsibility

Siddhartha is Director of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, overseeing collections, acquisitions, exhibitions, and programs, and deepening engagement with the community. Shah is on the board of the American Council for Southern Asian Art and the Advisory Council of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect.

SIDDHARTH SHAH headshot.jpg

Siddhartha V. Shah

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">SIDDHARTHA V. SHAH has been promoting art as a means of community engagement and social responsibility throughout his professional career. Recently he has taken up the role of Director of the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Massachusetts, and talks with VANESSA PATEL about how he is expanding his vision in this new college environment.</h4>Q: Hello Siddhartha, thanks for your time. Since last we met, you’ve moved to the Mead at Amherst. It's a different profile of people, right?SVS: Totally different. At Amherst College, the students are incredibly smart and talented. They can really think critically about art in a different way, and you can take more risks because college is about engaging with difficult conversations.&nbsp;Q: So how are you taking forward the community engagement that was so central to your last position at the Peabody Essex Museum?SVS: That will be a major part of what I do. The challenge is how to make the arts more available to people and democratize art museums. But the museum is in the middle of a college campus, so, if the community has a hard time accessing it, if they can’t park, if they don’t feel like what’s on campus is really for them, we’re limited. I’m hoping to advocate for the museum to move closer to town, to show that we are balancing the commitment to the educational mission and the civic responsibility of the college. This is a long-term plan as we want more people from the community to feel welcome. We want the general public to feel quite comfortable wandering in.Q: Are there specific projects that you are working on here?SVS: We are working on a public engagement project, an exhibition around American Studies and the idea of democracy, as well as the college being a place to develop the civic leaders of the future.&nbsp;I started thinking about Puerto Rico, which is essentially an American colony. The situation of Puerto Rico really brings into question whether the United States is a democracy, and whether our identity really is about freedom.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">To be in a space of beauty&nbsp; can shift the way we feel,&nbsp; how we open up, the way we connect with people.</h4><hr>This exhibition, from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Puerto Rico, is called “Tropical is Political – Caribbean Art Under the Visitor Economy Regime.” It addresses some of the issues around American identity. There are towns near here in Massachusetts that have the highest percentage of Puerto Ricans in the United States, like Holyoke and the city of Springfield. These are communities that have not felt welcomed at an elite college campus. So, my hope is that by doing this exhibition, talking about the situation of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, that these folks will come to the museum and see their story. The labels will be in English and Spanish. This is one form of community engagement, through an exhibition that’s about the people who live near us.Q: I hope it expands for you the way you want it to.&nbsp;SVS: The first thing I did when I arrived was to check with the staff if they wanted to do a training on sensory accessibility, and they agreed. The museum is now certified as a sensory-inclusive museum, which means that we attend to the needs of people with invisible disabilities (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, a stroke, or on the autism spectrum). We have signs to inform them when there might be noise or flashing lights; we have noise cancelling headphones if they’re sensitive to sound. The next step is color accessibility, where we purchase special glasses. Folks who are colorblind don’t experience visual art in the same way. These glasses allow them to experience art fully.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_healing_slowingdown3_dd3fe7802a.jpg"></figure>Q: I’m sure it requires quite a bit of investment. Do you see this leading towards more partnerships with the larger community?SVS: Yes, although it’s going to take time. You can’t rush into community partnerships. You have to assess the risks, for example, where you could break someone’s trust. It takes time to earn the trust of people, performatively testing partnerships, seeing that everybody is happy.&nbsp;We’ve been doing an art project around mental health for students with learning disabilities and social challenges, displaying their work in the lobby. We have special hours because some of them are not comfortable being there with the public. It is a resource we share with them and we want them to take advantage of it. But we have to be really sensitive about how we partner with them. All these things take time.&nbsp;Q: With so much social upheaval around us, what are your thoughts on the role of art in navigating through our current issues, for instance, the fears around climate change? Is there something that art can offer as a means of support?SVS: There are a lot of different ways to approach this. Regarding fear around climate change, art can present solutions. Can art address this in ways that are communal? I’ve heard of some artists who make coral reefs out of knitting, so other folks can come and participate. It is a co-created practice about something at risk because of climate change. There are creative ways you can present issues.&nbsp;There are ways to present race and social justice with art in ways that words can’t. There’s a lot of sensitivity about using the wrong language and not wanting to hurt people. Art can communicate some of these complexities visually, touching a much deeper place.&nbsp;The flip side is that you can trigger people’s sensitivities. You may need to have content warnings, for example, “The next object engages issues of racism and sexual violence. The reason it is here is because there are aspects of these topics that need to be presented and engaged. If you wish not to engage with this material, then you might want to go to a different area of the museum.” You need to give them the option to engage or not.Ultimately, it’s all about visitor experience. You have to balance the objects and care for the objects, the correct presentation and history, and the visitor experience. Museums have historically prioritized objects. Now they’re shifting, and I’m someone who is all about the visitor experience; objects support that. For the visitor to have a good experience, they should have the option to engage as they wish, rather than being confronted with something they aren’t prepared for. What do you want to learn about? Here are your options, now choose your own adventure.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_healing_slowingdown4_88e16d4db8.jpg"></figure>Q: You have talked about including spiritual aspects like empathy, connection, and wellness. You used to do meditation at the Peabody. Is that something you’ve brought here too?SVS: Not yet, since I’m the director and because of the power dynamic. But nothing has changed around my commitment to wellness and the role of the arts. There are a lot more college students seeking counseling services than when I was in college. Since the pandemic, a lot of students are seeking mental health support. I see an opportunity for the art museum to be a space of healing, rejuvenation, restoration, rest, and slowing down. All these are aspects of the same thing.&nbsp;I noticed in myself a connection between internet scrolling (doom scrolling) and anxiety. There’s so much news and the images are changing. I become like a zombie, mindlessly scrolling until I’m completely agitated. And if I’m experiencing that, there must be a lot of people experiencing it, potentially worse than me, because they might not even be aware.&nbsp;The museum can be a space of slowing down; not just swiping past an image, but looking deeper, more closely. If people are having an experience of looking at images and slowing down, it is the complete opposite of looking at images frantically, whether it’s a dating app or Instagram. A space to slow down can really support mental health.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">The museum can be a space of slowing down;&nbsp; not just swiping past an image,&nbsp; but looking deeper, more closely.&nbsp; If people are having an experience of&nbsp; looking at images and slowing down,&nbsp; it is the complete opposite of looking at images frantically,&nbsp; whether it’s a dating app or Instagram.&nbsp; A space to slow down can really support mental health.</h4><hr>We do have a Counseling Centre on campus, and my understanding is that people can go for one-on-one sessions and group therapy sessions, like survivors of sexual violence, Alcoholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous. I’m wondering if we can offer the museum as a space for some of these groups to meet, because we have an old wood-paneled room that can be completely closed and private; it is a beautiful, cozy room, a great safe space to engage in a facilitated conversation around a challenge. I’m exploring that too.Think about the stress of exams. I remember what it was like, paired with trying to find a job when you graduate, maybe coming from not much money, and feeling like you are now going to be responsible. Those pressures as well as body image issues, questioning sexual identity, are really intense for students.Q: I think the old support systems have practically crumbled and disappeared. They seem to have become redundant. There is a need for support systems with anonymity and lack of judgment, completely open and supportive. I really hope your idea takes shape, because that room sounds like a lovely place, a haven.SVS: Yes. I don’t know if it’s the same for everybody, but I find beauty really healing. When you’re sick, hospital doesn’t feel or look like a space of healing. It’s sanitized and cold and smells bad, and there are machines beeping. Even a therapist’s office can feel unwelcome and stark. To be in a space of beauty can shift the way we feel, how we open up, the way we connect with people. So, I’m hoping that this beautiful room can be used in that way.Q: Thank you again, Siddhartha.

Art, healing, and slowing down

Simmi is a Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Delhi University. Her Ph.D. was in feminism and ethical philosophy, and her M.Phil. in Gandhian philosophy. She is the author of Gandhi’s Law of Conscience (2001) and The Married Monk: From Experience to Beyond, which is soon to be released.

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