In 1947, a lot of our families migrated from, now Pakistan. Some of these families lost everything in the migration. People who lived in huge houses and kothis, had to run away with their bare essential belongings in suitcases. A lot of families never made it to India and vice versa. Without going into the gory details of partition, people needed to start afresh. It was a matter of survival – of the basic needs.

In 1943, Maslow had written in his paper, “A theory of Human Motivation” about the hierarchy of needs. He stated that the most basic needs represented by physiological needs was one of the most basic needs and only when those are met, people are willing to look at other factors in the hierarchy. It took India almost 50 years after partition to be introduced to the concept of abundance.

How did this translate into actual living?

Whilst the partitioned families scrambled to make ends meet and to gather their resources and start afresh, a lot of morals and value systems were compromised. The idea of establishing a new reality in a new space came with its own set of perils. Wide spread corruption started. Legal systems were compromised and a certain section of the popular got richer whilst the majority suffered in poverty. People became very possessive about their money. What started off as a money saving measure graduated to full blown exploitation, which continues even till today. The whole idea of getting the maximum out of people for the least amount of wage became the mantra. Nehru spoke on the eve of August 15, 1947; not about the holocaust that people had survived in India but about a newer India, a newer idea. The New India was headed towards industrialisation and growth and higher GDP. We needed that. Kind courtesy the British, we were left with not too much.

As the post partition days were scarce of resources, people weren’t able to look at abundance as a principle. Its a bit ironical because if you go into the history of this land, there was always enough to share. Scarcity in the heart results in scarcity outside. And because we were seeing a scarce outer world because of our own scarcity inside, we started becoming selfish. We forgot to acknowledge and appreciate. Our world became EXCLUSIVE rather than INCLUSIVE.

So whats the problem?

There isn’t one. There could be many problem that arise out of a scarce perspective of life. I’ll try to list some.
As I mentioned, inner scarcity more often results in scarcity outside. One of the basic problems of this scarcity and exclusivity is that people stop connecting with each other. For eg: joint families started suffering from what I call HIFS (Happy Indian Family Syndrome). Siblings started fighting over immovable assets. Families moved from joint to nuclear to sometimes not even existing.
One of the biggest issues with exclusion is an inflated sense of ego because by definition exclusion means that you feel that you are different from the other person and that your benefit is the only thing that matters. We can observe this in how we have treated our forests and rivers. We can also see this in the way we treat our domestic help and security guards. We can see this in the way we deal with relationships – personal and professional. The “Ji huzuri” still persists.
Competitors bad mouth each other trying to convince the customer that my product is Better than their competitions. The advertisements on television are based on accentuating deficit, on creating a false need; always pushing for what you don’t have and why you don’t need it. Rather than abundance, fear is used as a tool and a weapon to control peoples minds.
This sense of self righteousness and self centeredness keeps the muscles tight at all times and can be quite exhausting. It’s not a sustainable space.

So then what is to be done?

For years, in my workshops and talks, I have been saying that Freedom = Gratitude + Forgiveness. And I find this formula very easy to understand. It may be difficult to apply but its easy. Try it.
I think one of the first and foremost things that we need to do is to RECONNECT WITH OURSELVES and be THANKFUL and FORGIVE ourselves for all the stuff we beat ourselves for.
Secondly, we need to reconnect with people around us – be it our family and friends or acquaintances. It’s nice to reconnect with those we often forget to thank and forgive or seek forgiveness.
And instead of an exclusive space, we need to start feeling connected with people around us. Instead of beating our own trumpet ( we are masters at it), we need to start ensuring that the person to our left or right looks good. It is lovely to bask in the glory of someone that you have pushed forward. And when they look good, so do you.

What is in it for me?

Relaxed muscles in the body hence lesser fatigue.
A happier space of inclusion
Lesser fear, hence better stomachs.
Better relationships with yourself, your families and friends.
Try it!

Vikram Badhwar, CEO, Syngrity, is a communications coach, an experiential educator, and an artist trying to bridge the gap between the creative and the analytical side of our brain. He consults individuals and teams in the space of learning & development to enable transformations at a personal, professional and organizational level.

The post INCLUSION – time to go back! appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

Tanja Matheis, our researcher on the Warrior‘s Path team, documents the implementation of Syngrity’s exciting new experiential intervention. Rumor has it that she is intertwined with her laptop, but she actually loves spending time walking and trekking, in good company, with cheese snacks and a camera. In this series, she talks about her research on the Warrior’s Path strategy of adopting e-mentors to fuel the RIGHT consumption for the participants. Stay tuned for more tidbits.

In September 2018, eight people set out to Annapurna Basecamp (ABC), an arduous trek which most of them had never done before: the Warrior’s Path. A 10-day-trek like this one requires physical training, but the preparation inevitably also leads to deep reflections and emotions about one’s own decisions.

How do you prepare for this adventure, and how can mentors be of help?

The Warrior’s Path doesn’t start with the actual trek, but three to five months before, when participants sign up. The purpose is to create a space of inclusion, exchange and learning early on, that is, a space of mentoring. Soon after participants committed to the program, they have the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the team online, over the phone and on WhatsApp.

However, the idea of mentoring goes far beyond team-participant interactions, making the Warrior’s Path a unique approach in the outbound education space.

A mentor is a person who supports you by sharing her or his rich expertise and wisdom. A mentor creates an environment for the learner to think, question and grow, very much like healthy soil nurturing a plant.

Syngrity realised that a person’s consumption, while training for an arduous task, will determine their readiness for it. Different forms of consumption could be classified as Physical, Emotional and Mental. Syngrity envisaged the thought process and skills required for this trek, and chose experts and teachers from their network to create an inclusive, circular way of sharing experience. Each of these experts mainly focused on either physical, mental or emotional consumption. This information, passed on from the experts to the participants, would help them streamline their focus towards their training. Syngrity reached out to different experts in their respective fields, as diverse as sports physiotherapy, stand-up comedy and martial arts.

The beauty of accessing many minds to share experience.

Experts prepared short talks or practice videos, which were shared with the Warrior Path’s participants during the trek preparation between June and September 2018. The group subsequently watched and discussed the experts’ contributions on a private youtube channel. Participants reflected on how the insights could become part of their individual preparation for the trek. Since all of this happened online, bridging geographies and time zones, the experts are referred to as e-mentors.

One of the e-mentors was a teacher of Tai Chi, Pak Wa Chuan and Praying Mantis in Dubai. He talked about “second wind”, the moment in which an exhausted athlete regains breath and strength to reach her full potential with less exertion. Then he shared an exercise from the Praying Mantis which helps activate the second wind.

A sports physiotherapist gave us tips on the muscles and joints that we needed to keep exercising and relaxing before, during and after the trek. The physical aspects were complemented by a senior theatre and dance performer, a head of a learning and development organization and a renowned stand-up comedian and motivational speaker. These mentors emphasized the emotional challenges involved in conquering one’s internal mountain, and the importance of joy and humor throughout the process.

An internationally renowned spiritual teacher shared practical wisdom for happiness and enlightenment in a joyful and transformational way. He showed us how to get past the inner noise and eventually achieve a space of stillness and silence.

These diverse insights have given participants food for thought and leverage points to deepen their knowledge and practice of awareness. Participants found it easier to tackle steep inclines, merciless weather and mental exhaustion on the trek, because they had already heard of different practices from the mentors. The leverage points that the mentors provided through their talks also serve as an inspiration beyond the trek, e.g. for previously unresolved issues at work or in relationships.

While the network of e-mentors cannot replace intimate and face-to-face relationships with friends, family, colleagues, supervisors or teachers, they do represent a resource to keep in mind and to draw on. For the new rounds of the Warrior’s Path in 2019 and beyond, Syngrity is working towards a broader network, with more opportunities to engage for participants. Stay tuned!

Tanja is a research consultant and holds a master’s degree in development economics, focusing on quantitative and qualitative research techniques. She has documented the work of development professionals and small-scale entrepreneurs in West Africa and India. Her field visit insights became part of a publication series by the German Development Cooperation Agency GIZ based in New-Delhi, which she conceptualized and edited.

The post Like soil to a plant – exploring the digital space for mentoring: E-Mentors appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

Always hearing the elders in the family teaching us that every one that is born must die also stayed with me in my head. It still does; today with a slightly better understanding. Every time, I have visited the Lodhi road crematorium in Delhi, there is on the walls, all around, verses from the Bhagwad Gita where Lord Krishna is explaining the principle to Arjun just before he was getting ready to go on a rampage. He explains the principle of life and death and reiterates on the fact that the body is just an outer cover for the soul and one should not mourn when the covering is gone. Very simple yet not very easy to pragmatically put to use. If the soul is all inclusive and eternal then the physical body is the mask that it adorns. So what do we cry about? Are we crying for the soul? If yes, then we are wasting our time because it isn’t going any where. It has been released from the grip of the human flesh and unified with the universe all ready to choose for itself a new body and a new shape. So do we cry for the body? Do we cry every time we open a gift and rip apart the wrapping paper? No. Then when do we shed tears when the body goes. Are we crying for the attachment we have towards the deceased? I guess so. I was sitting with a learned man who shared an insight about people crying because of expectations that they have/had from the dead. They are crying because they are thinking, “Now what?”, and trying to unsuccessfully deal with their own inability to survive minus the presence of the person who went away. My teacher has another opinion. He told me, “whats the point of coming and mourning when someone died when you didn’t have the time for the person when he/she was alive?”. Rather piercing but also has a lot of truth in it.

I told my father a few years back that I don’t want to cry when he passes over. He looked at me strangely but I think he understood the space from where the statement was coming. I don’t want to cry because I don’t want to have any knots where he is concerned. And I ensured I didn’t cry at his pyre. The break down happened a few months later. It was liberating. Not knotting.

Hopefully, my loved ones will go when they want to and when their time is over. They will know for sure when their time is right to pass over to the other world where they can stand in queue to be recycled and reborn depending on all their deeds in this life. I think everyone knows when the moment is there. Even the ones who have an “untimely” death. The reason why I put ‘untimely” in quotes because there is nothing which is untimely. If a person passes over at 3, it is not untimely; if one goes at 73, it isn’t untimely either. We call passing over at 3 untimely because the person wasn’t “old” in flesh and age. We forget the “old soul” part. You could be 3 but still be an old soul. But the point is not to criticize the short comings of human understanding. I think there are enough people who enjoy doing that job. I remember myself saying in one of my lectures a while back that “ there are some people who come into your life for a purpose. When that purpose is fulfilled, they go their own way. And we must allow them to leave. If we resist the departure, it causes pain to both the individuals. This example was given for a living person who was wanting to step out of a relationship. There was temporary death in the moment of the break in relationship. But somewhere it holds good for the dead”.

Why is death looked at when the body gives up? I have found death to be in every moment. Not only death but also birth. In every breath lies a moment of birth and death. More specifically, when the lungs inhale as much air as they can consume, there is moment of pause, of death, and birth happens, as the exhalation starts till all the breath is released to a state of near emptiness. And then death happens and rebirth as the inhalation starts.

The start of a day and its end explains the process of death and birth and death and rebirth. Bathing is the death of the old skin and birth of a deeper cover. Sleep itself is the birth and death. A friend, as I was writing these lines, called and said. “Death is simply a passage into the next body. The sooner one realises it, the less fearful one becomes.” Interesting! In many cultures in India and around the world, death has been celebrated rather than mourned. There was music and dance to celebrate the passing over especially if the deceased had lived a full life. But every life is full! Full to the extent that you allow it to be.

One thing that also fascinates me is to get an insight into the dying persons mind. What is going on in the head of the dying? Denial, acceptance, sadness, happiness or what? I would love to sit next to a person who is on his way up or down, depending on how you want to look at it, and have the person share what the creations of a dying brain and heart have to say. If one has to look at it scientifically, because the body is in a state of release, a lot of hormonal and chemical changes would be taking place in the body and the brain which would make the person see, hear, hallucinate. The same thing to look at metaphysically could be messages from the masters and the angels who are waiting for the bucket to be kicked to guide you to the gates to register your entry. What are these messages? Dr. Brian Weiss in his book, Many lives & Many masters, has documented extremely potent insights into the mind of his subject in this life as well as the many lives the subject lived in the past. A beautiful book, it is. It is a book which has been written without a bias because Dr Weiss was trained to look at everything very logically and scientifically and these insights about death and reincarnation was like washing away all the knowledge he had obtained in his formal training.

Something I experienced in Dec of ’07.

I had a wonderful experience a week and a half back and somewhere I feel that it adds to the journey of the art of dying. I was in meditation and just before I reached the state of “ding”, I had a thought that translated to emotive pain. The pain was beautiful as it made me aware of my journey as a peaceful warrior – as I see myself. I must thank Dan Millman and Paulo Coelho for this awareness besides a lot of individuals I have met in person who have ignited the spark of higher consciousness in me. This pain also made me aware of being alone yet not lonely. Alone on my journey. Being alone is one of the best ways to be able to cultivate. Being alone gives you the opportunity to be benevolent to yourself and the souls around you. And it gives you the space to be you – in touch with your essence, away from the persona. A thought of a hundred percent embrace came to my mind – something. What a wonderful feeling it would be to be able to embrace a person with a 100% surrender. I even attempted to understand what that meant.

We have 4 layers of muscle. the first two are the ones we can control and move our limbs with. The 3rd layer is what one needs to work at and the last one is something that we have no control over because they control the internals. If that layer gives up, so does our body. Anyway, with that thought in my mind, I very slowly entered ding. As I was aware of my main consciousness being present with me, I was also aware of what I was doing. Yet, after staying in the state for more than 10 minutes, which appeared like a year, something started happening. I had a feeling that my muscles were relaxing. A very good feeling, for sure. The third layer relaxed slowly putting my mind in alpha almost instantly. I remember being aware of this transition and was in a state of blissfulness. Then something else happened. I died. It lasted 2-3 seconds and I must confess, I was scared beyond my guts. The fourth layer of muscle relaxed. And while that happened or was happening, I felt a certain suction effect that took place. My brain immediately switched off and am pretty certain, my heart stopped. I resisted because I wasn’t too sure if I would have come back. But I did. I opened my eyes gently and found my organs coming back to their usual synchronized dance in a short while. I experienced death. And I was conscious of it.

If we need to live well, we need to be aware of what role Death plays in every breath we take. Then its an intimate tango.

Note: These are my thoughts based on my experiences and journeys. The intention is to just share and not be antagonistic to any approach or system.

Vikram Badhwar, CEO, Syngrity, is a communications coach, an experiential educator, and an artist trying to bridge the gap between the creative and the analytical side of our brain. He consults individuals and teams in the space of learning & development to enable transformations at a personal, professional and organizational level.

The post Recycling yourself – birth and death appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

Tanja Matheis, our researcher on the Warrior‘s Path team, documents the implementation of Syngrity’s exciting new experiential intervention. Rumor has it that she is intertwined with her laptop, but she actually loves spending time walking and trekking, in good company, with cheese snacks and a camera. In this series, she talks about her research on the Warrior’s Path concept development and outdoor experiences. Stay tuned for more insights!

One of the many facets of a warrior is the way she or he responds to a sudden change in the environment. As the group of participants set out for the first round of the Warrior’s Path, they were confronted with a fundamental turn in the program. Were they ready for change?

The first Warrior’s Path to Annapurna Base Camp was successfully completed this September, a promising prelude to the upcoming new programs offered by Syngrity Transformation Solutions in 2019. But wait…wasn’t it EBC, the Everest Base Camp? How on earth did the E become an A, i.e. Annapurna?

Since spring 2018, the team, consisting of Syngrity, Natural Adventure Foundation (NAF) and Go Magic Trails (GMT), eagerly promoted the Warrior’s Path to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Choosing the Everest Base Camp as a destination is obvious, given the spirit of the program.

The Warrior’s Path is a metaphor for awareness of the mind, body, heart, and spirit. The program is a culmination of the study of the human body via martial practices and alternative thought processes. Trekking to the base camp of the world’s highest peak requires preparation at the physical, mental and emotional level, and endurance and awareness along the way. The destination has the power to inspire people deeply, as it allows a glimpse at the journeys of pioneering mountaineers, including Edmund Hillary, Junko Tabei, or Reinhold Messner. Hence, the motivation to walk this particular path forms an excellent basis on which personal thoughts, emotions and conditioning can be explored and questioned.

In fact, the destination “EBC” became an allegory of commitment for the team members as well as for the participants, who signed up with a thrill of anticipation. Over the course of several months, the participants trained, delved into tales of Everest ascents, and pondered their potential responses to cold temperatures, high altitude and group dynamics.

But then everything changed. When the warriors cheerfully reached the Kathmandu Domestic Airport in the morning of September 13 to take a flight to Lukla, they learnt that for the past 4 days, there had been no flights due to fog and strong winds. Lukla does have a dangerous airport, with an extremely short runway nestled in the mountains. That same morning, the weather did not look too good either. Still optimistic, the participants made themselves comfortable in the airport waiting area, sipping chai and cracking jokes about each other’s “heavy-duty” luggage. Everyone hoped that the weather would clear up eventually, and that they could get on a different flight in the late morning.

The guides kept checking with the airline. “Still no confirmed flight,” was the recurring message that would dash the group’s expectations. As the weather did not improve, the group started considering a previously unthinkable and more expensive solution: hiring a chopper to reach a landing spot below Lukla, which is not accessible by road. That would add 2 additional hours of trekking to the initial plan, but the participants agreed that this would be valid option. Hence, many calls were made and old contacts were reactivated to engage the service of a chopper.

Since even the choppers were stuck and couldn’t take off, neither from Kathmandu nor from near Lukla, it dawned on the team and participants that EBC might not happen at all. Some participants were discontented and yet stayed upbeat on the surface, whereas others remained silent. The whole group was disappointed.

What happens when the main driver of a project suddenly disintegrates? How do people respond to this sudden change? Well, there are different possible responses.

One is resistance. Sometimes, the desire to achieve a certain goal can become all-consuming, and any alternative seems unworthy to pursue. Behind the reluctance to accept change often stands a strong preference for stability and a fear of change and its consequences. Resistance may be a dead end, with little or no space for solutions.

Another response could be passive acceptance. Not resisting a change can be a convenient way to fit in with a team without having to take responsibility for decision-making. Passive acceptance can also be a reflection of being in the moment, and simply absorbing what emerges.

You can also actively embrace change, and become a shaper of the new workings. This includes the ability to accept change in the first place, as well as the mindset to develop something from the new point of departure. Therefore, embracing change can be a great learning space. An indication of this is when quick decisions are taken.

And this is exactly what happened. Deepak, the head of the tour operating agency, sat everyone down and calmly presented the facts. “You could go back to the hotel, spend another night there and then come back in the morning to see whether flights take off tomorrow,” he explained. Given the prolonged bad weather forecast, another proposition suddenly seemed more tempting. Due to the participants’ flights back to Delhi in 13 days, the group could not afford to waste time, but the hopes to trek to EBC were still profound.

“How about we change the “E” in “EBC” to an “A”, and go to the Annapurna Base Camp instead?”

Choosing this option would mean that the group can leave the same day and start from a trailhead that is accessible by car, in the worst case scenario. The trek to Annapurna Base Camp offers tropical and alpine terrain, and can be completed within 10 days. The base camp offers an almost 360 degree mountain panorama view. It just isn’t Everest Base Camp.

Participants’ responses were instant and surprising given their strong commitment to EBC. “But I told everyone at home I have bragging rights for at least 6 months after I have completed the EBC trek” soon turned into “well, sure, let’s start with the alphabet’s first letter”. One person said, “actually I haven’t been to the Annapurna Base Camp yet either, so let’s do it!” Within half an hour of discussing in a circle outside the airport building, everyone was on the same page, realizing that changing plans quickly would give the group the best room to maneuver.

Hence, Annapurna Base Camp it was! The mountains, and their unpredictable weather, taught everyone a lesson of humility, right at the beginning. There are things you cannot change, but you can adjust certain parameters if you consider your options thoroughly, timely and intuitively. EBC or ABC, the journey is the destination.

Tanja is a research consultant and holds a master’s degree in development economics, focusing on quantitative and qualitative research techniques. She has documented the work of development professionals and small-scale entrepreneurs in West Africa and India. Her field visit insights became part of a publication series by the German Development Cooperation Agency GIZ based in New-Delhi, which she conceptualized and edited.

The post Are you ready for change? Insights from the Warrior’s Path 2018 appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.