"It is important finding solution to a problem peacefully. Feels like I am newly born from CORPORitual." - Amudha
Everyone is a leader in their life. We should lead others by keeping our problems aside and become a life leader. - Devi
Any problem needs to be dealt with love and compassion. I am beginning to feel new already. - Sowmya
SPF Sustainable Living Awakens
A New Dawn for HIV+
Raj Bhowmik 188
Soulbath Peace Foundation was invited to participate in the Leadership Training Workshop for women living with HIV jointly organized by NACO, TANSACS, PWN+ and UNDP.
The session began with the early morning sun with women from different states in India and the languages being diverse. With initial hesitation of a diverse multilingual group, we got to know each other in the Circle Time about our Identity. It was wonderful to see barriers breaking as short introductions were funny, insightful and from the heart.
The luggage that a Leader carries can be destructive to a group that is being led. Recognizing some baggage on our journey and acknowledging them from within helps one to become more aware of the Journey in store. This was the theme as everybody entered the room with open fresh minds only to find themselves in a more challenging environment.
Mixed collaborative groups with no language requirement had only brains and hands at work. The Purpose – Build a bridge that can hold a specific weight. It was interesting to see how different people understood the same purpose and brought out different processes. All fulfilling the purpose but few innovative and thinking beyond, few just seeing the picture more intricately and focusing on finer details.
It was as if women moved beyond all barriers to engage in something that was fun and something that they owned and were proud. The process revealed an interesting insight into accountability and ownership for a leader. This specially comes at a time after 12 years of a journey of PWN+ and its rebirth with needs redefined and timely help given by Soulbath Peace Foundation for its emerging new vision.
It was interesting to notice the chemistry between participants as everybody quietly and silently admired their creation, channelized their thinking and also critiqued each other’s works. This was an experiential journey about the leadership process and how one could make it constructive for the self and others in the process.
Putting everything into a practical perspective was to create a sustainable environment in oneself so that leadership can be focused, innovative and effective. Change is the second name of a leader. With rising needs that are dynamic and a leader has to make the most optimum choice of a path that will lead to a focus needs an individual who is not externally committed but needs a life Leader – Somebody fuelled by Life. This is especially more important in the case of HIV positive women as the root fear, guilt and stigma with the infection is so high that one has to constantly battle it in all fronts of life. So PWN+ leaders realized that being Life Leaders would give them the momentum of acceptance with compassion within themselves and help pull up the other women from the masses from this deep stigma Syndrome. This was experienced through the Sustainable Living Program – CORPORitual Values Of Living.
Our founder Sri Raj Bhowmik’s words on leadership are as follows:
“Things of the heart ignite a Flame. Let the Flame be Peace.” - Sri Raj Bhowmik
Leadership is often about one’s passion. But finding for oneself if the Fragrance of the Passion is Anger and Injustice or passion from Compassion. The latter creates a Sustainable Energy that fulfills itself and begins with the Self. The CORPORitual Values Of Living for life Leaders equipped the women with a moment refreshing tonic that allowed their minds, emotions and body to move from a victim reference point to a more neutral “Now” based reference that originates after Acceptance and Accountability of the Self and the Situation. CORPORitual Values Of Living helped the HIV positive women move beyond circumstances and allowed them to connect being in Charge of their Life. It helped many women move beyond Task based Existence to Compassion based Existence.
Practicing compassion through the meditative experience of accepting the self – brought tears to many eyes as one of the participants from Manipur said that this was her first time that out of slumber I began to look at myself. Some others said they were so lost in the Music and freshness that they felt within after the exercise of Meeting Oneself In Silence.
The women understood the paths of nurturing leaders who are compassionate and sustainable. This was the need of the hour as PWN+ after 12 years was entering its second phase to raising the consciousness of women by reaching out and moving them towards sustainable livelihood. The positive women come from different backgrounds – wives, commercial sex workers leading a transformation journey, mothers and widow women who are leading journeys of transformation beyond pain and suffering in their earlier relationships.
Leadership with CORPORitual Values of Living helped HIV Positive women move beyond labels of Commercial Sex Workers, Betrayed Wives, Burdened Mothers to create an awareness that originates from the domains of Peace to create Self Acceptance. The Participants are leaders who are working in the States to create Sustainble Livelihood Options for others. This is possible with the Govts and the UN’s efforts who are giving more opportunities for rights, livelihoods, education and policies that would help the HIV Positive woman. But beyond these, the CORPORitual Values Of Living gave our PWN+ Leaders the basic foundation ‘Right to Being Human’ – A Right that needs to be acknowledged deep within with Compassion towards a Sustainable World and create Happy Free Children in Action.
“Because we live in sharply gender-divided worlds, the impact of women's deaths is different from that of men. Most, if not all, cultures raise girls differently from boys and treat women differently from men. As a result, women bring to daily life different qualities from men. Women tend to be the guardians of compassion rather than ambition, of connectedness rather than control, of healing rather than harming, of closeness rather than conquest, of mercy rather than judgement. They make possible the circle of the dance as an alternative to the ladder.
Women are the creators of new life, the caretakers of daily life and the custodians and transmitters of community norms and social values. However, in some parts of the world, one third or one half or more of all women are infected. How will the loss be borne?”
(UNDP - HIV & Development Program, Issues paper No 12, YOUNG WOMEN: SILENCE, SUSCEPTIBILITY AND THE HIV EPIDEMIC, Elizabeth Reid and Michael Bailey) Women leaders have another compassionate aspect to who they are. They are co-creators and help the Circle Of Life to continue and emerge as opposed to the Ladder and the rat race. Nurture and care – She has abundance. CORPORitual helped this beautiful part of her self to rise and awaken and spread to her members of community to bring a change that builds a future that everyone creates, builds, grows with and pass on a Sustainable Life into future hands.
The session began with the early morning sun with women from different states in India and the languages being diverse. With initial hesitation of a diverse multilingual group, we got to know each other in the Circle Time about our Identity. It was wonderful to see barriers breaking as short introductions were funny, insightful and from the heart.
The luggage that a Leader carries can be destructive to a group that is being led. Recognizing some baggage on our journey and acknowledging them from within helps one to become more aware of the Journey in store. This was the theme as everybody entered the room with open fresh minds only to find themselves in a more challenging environment.
Mixed collaborative groups with no language requirement had only brains and hands at work. The Purpose – Build a bridge that can hold a specific weight. It was interesting to see how different people understood the same purpose and brought out different processes. All fulfilling the purpose but few innovative and thinking beyond, few just seeing the picture more intricately and focusing on finer details.
It was as if women moved beyond all barriers to engage in something that was fun and something that they owned and were proud. The process revealed an interesting insight into accountability and ownership for a leader. This specially comes at a time after 12 years of a journey of PWN+ and its rebirth with needs redefined and timely help given by Soulbath Peace Foundation for its emerging new vision.
It was interesting to notice the chemistry between participants as everybody quietly and silently admired their creation, channelized their thinking and also critiqued each other’s works. This was an experiential journey about the leadership process and how one could make it constructive for the self and others in the process.
Putting everything into a practical perspective was to create a sustainable environment in oneself so that leadership can be focused, innovative and effective. Change is the second name of a leader. With rising needs that are dynamic and a leader has to make the most optimum choice of a path that will lead to a focus needs an individual who is not externally committed but needs a life Leader – Somebody fuelled by Life. This is especially more important in the case of HIV positive women as the root fear, guilt and stigma with the infection is so high that one has to constantly battle it in all fronts of life. So PWN+ leaders realized that being Life Leaders would give them the momentum of acceptance with compassion within themselves and help pull up the other women from the masses from this deep stigma Syndrome. This was experienced through the Sustainable Living Program – CORPORitual Values Of Living.
Our founder Sri Raj Bhowmik’s words on leadership are as follows:
“Things of the heart ignite a Flame. Let the Flame be Peace.” - Sri Raj Bhowmik
Leadership is often about one’s passion. But finding for oneself if the Fragrance of the Passion is Anger and Injustice or passion from Compassion. The latter creates a Sustainable Energy that fulfills itself and begins with the Self. The CORPORitual Values Of Living for life Leaders equipped the women with a moment refreshing tonic that allowed their minds, emotions and body to move from a victim reference point to a more neutral “Now” based reference that originates after Acceptance and Accountability of the Self and the Situation. CORPORitual Values Of Living helped the HIV positive women move beyond circumstances and allowed them to connect being in Charge of their Life. It helped many women move beyond Task based Existence to Compassion based Existence.
Practicing compassion through the meditative experience of accepting the self – brought tears to many eyes as one of the participants from Manipur said that this was her first time that out of slumber I began to look at myself. Some others said they were so lost in the Music and freshness that they felt within after the exercise of Meeting Oneself In Silence.
The women understood the paths of nurturing leaders who are compassionate and sustainable. This was the need of the hour as PWN+ after 12 years was entering its second phase to raising the consciousness of women by reaching out and moving them towards sustainable livelihood. The positive women come from different backgrounds – wives, commercial sex workers leading a transformation journey, mothers and widow women who are leading journeys of transformation beyond pain and suffering in their earlier relationships.
Leadership with CORPORitual Values of Living helped HIV Positive women move beyond labels of Commercial Sex Workers, Betrayed Wives, Burdened Mothers to create an awareness that originates from the domains of Peace to create Self Acceptance. The Participants are leaders who are working in the States to create Sustainble Livelihood Options for others. This is possible with the Govts and the UN’s efforts who are giving more opportunities for rights, livelihoods, education and policies that would help the HIV Positive woman. But beyond these, the CORPORitual Values Of Living gave our PWN+ Leaders the basic foundation ‘Right to Being Human’ – A Right that needs to be acknowledged deep within with Compassion towards a Sustainable World and create Happy Free Children in Action.
“Because we live in sharply gender-divided worlds, the impact of women's deaths is different from that of men. Most, if not all, cultures raise girls differently from boys and treat women differently from men. As a result, women bring to daily life different qualities from men. Women tend to be the guardians of compassion rather than ambition, of connectedness rather than control, of healing rather than harming, of closeness rather than conquest, of mercy rather than judgement. They make possible the circle of the dance as an alternative to the ladder.
Women are the creators of new life, the caretakers of daily life and the custodians and transmitters of community norms and social values. However, in some parts of the world, one third or one half or more of all women are infected. How will the loss be borne?”
(UNDP - HIV & Development Program, Issues paper No 12, YOUNG WOMEN: SILENCE, SUSCEPTIBILITY AND THE HIV EPIDEMIC, Elizabeth Reid and Michael Bailey) Women leaders have another compassionate aspect to who they are. They are co-creators and help the Circle Of Life to continue and emerge as opposed to the Ladder and the rat race. Nurture and care – She has abundance. CORPORitual helped this beautiful part of her self to rise and awaken and spread to her members of community to bring a change that builds a future that everyone creates, builds, grows with and pass on a Sustainable Life into future hands.
Testimonials of participants: (These testimonials have been translated from regional languages Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada)
SPF helped me understand “Who am I?” The awareness was to build inside oneself a strength that helps one be peaceful so that even if difficulties come, they just pass by. - Sunanda.
Respecting others thoughts by acceptance without anger. - Padmavathy
We should focus and plan on the path to our goal. - Aadilakshmi
It is important finding solution to a problem peacefully. Feels like I am newly born from CORPORitual. - - Amudha
Each one has talent in something they are good at. It is to find it. - Lakshmi
We need to be bold to face difficulties courageously. CORPORitual gave the strength - Bindu
Any problem needs to be dealt with love and compassion. I am beginning to feel new already. - Sowmya
I realized that there is a need to understand myself and become aware of the thoughts of the others. Once that is done, everything happens through co-ordination.
To understand the self so that listening to another woman’s need, we can all walk together. This is done by focusing on one’s goal so much that every difficulty falls off to create opportunities for fulfilling that Purpose. In fear this system is lost.
The leadership workshop helped me understand that the goal has to be simple and focused and this is possible when I begin understanding myself.
I realized how important it is to walk and work with harmony to help everybody walk ahead and together.
Promodini - If we cooperate together, we are successful.
Leon Chung - Learnt the movement of a leader.
I have learnt that being a leader she should have the quality to adjust with people’s understanding and responsibly.
We have to understand ourself first. We need to accept others with love and compassion and understand their feelings. - Tulsi
I understood that there are no special qualities to be a leader. We are all leaders in the way we lead our life. We should look into ourselves before we point out others mistakes - Padma
Everyone is a leader in their life. We should lead others by keeping our problems aside and become a life leader. - Devi
Whatever work has to be done, a common decision together has to be reached. - Nagarathna
Constant planning, discussion is essential to achieve the goal. Concentration, peace, exploring and respect towards the goal help us reach it. - Shobha
We need to respect every thought, as it is a new perception and be completely involved into it. - Neelamma
We have understood that we have to understand ourselves. Leaders have to understand others through compassion. We have understood that we need to think ourselves to work towards our goal and love ourselves first. We need to keep our personal problems aside and be one with the team. - Leela
Respecting others thoughts by acceptance without anger. - Padmavathy
We should focus and plan on the path to our goal. - Aadilakshmi
It is important finding solution to a problem peacefully. Feels like I am newly born from CORPORitual. - - Amudha
Each one has talent in something they are good at. It is to find it. - Lakshmi
We need to be bold to face difficulties courageously. CORPORitual gave the strength - Bindu
Any problem needs to be dealt with love and compassion. I am beginning to feel new already. - Sowmya
I realized that there is a need to understand myself and become aware of the thoughts of the others. Once that is done, everything happens through co-ordination.
To understand the self so that listening to another woman’s need, we can all walk together. This is done by focusing on one’s goal so much that every difficulty falls off to create opportunities for fulfilling that Purpose. In fear this system is lost.
The leadership workshop helped me understand that the goal has to be simple and focused and this is possible when I begin understanding myself.
I realized how important it is to walk and work with harmony to help everybody walk ahead and together.
Promodini - If we cooperate together, we are successful.
Leon Chung - Learnt the movement of a leader.
I have learnt that being a leader she should have the quality to adjust with people’s understanding and responsibly.
We have to understand ourself first. We need to accept others with love and compassion and understand their feelings. - Tulsi
I understood that there are no special qualities to be a leader. We are all leaders in the way we lead our life. We should look into ourselves before we point out others mistakes - Padma
Everyone is a leader in their life. We should lead others by keeping our problems aside and become a life leader. - Devi
Whatever work has to be done, a common decision together has to be reached. - Nagarathna
Constant planning, discussion is essential to achieve the goal. Concentration, peace, exploring and respect towards the goal help us reach it. - Shobha
We need to respect every thought, as it is a new perception and be completely involved into it. - Neelamma
We have understood that we have to understand ourselves. Leaders have to understand others through compassion. We have understood that we need to think ourselves to work towards our goal and love ourselves first. We need to keep our personal problems aside and be one with the team. - Leela