At the end of the three and a half days of the Parenting Inside Out retreat, held at Tiruvannamalai, I am left with a sense of wholeness and adhikaram in myself and increasing sraddha in the tradition that I feel I belong to now.
A Starting Point
The retreat was held at Achalam farm, home to Gowtham, Sandhya, and their family. The story of how this retreat came to be is, in itself, magical. In a way, the seed for this was sown at a moment that Sandhya and I shared, at a two day exploration titled — Understanding Indian tradition Through an Exploration of the Feminine, held in September 2014.
Towards the end of the program, each participant connected to their deepest aspiration/dream, and shared this with another. We were to see if there was a complementarity in our vision, and consider how we could support and enhance each other’s dream. With Sandhya and myself, it was like two pieces of a puzzle coming together and fitting in with just one click! That moment was etched in both of our minds, although we never really pursued it seriously or talked about it much.
This year, our initial venue for the retreat was the Co-Op Forest. Just three to four weeks before the retreat, I had a strong urge to ask Sandhya if she could host the program at Achalam, and we called her. A day later, she responded saying that she would be able to take this up, and we both reconnected to that moment at Sashi’s workshop.
The Stage is Set
Now it seemed truly that the mountain, the town, had called all the participants in special ways. Everyone who joined the program had a story to share on how it seemed surreal and magical to have come to this retreat, the town, and the farm. In many ways, it seemed like a triad was completed between the retreat space, the location (Tiru), and Achalam. [the nimittam, upadana-sahakara karanam it seemed like].
It was magical to be sitting with Arunachala in the background or in view, in the middle of a farm with paddy growing, amongst the many trees. Sandhya and her team lovingly held the physical and food infrastructural space for us so that participants could move inwards to their own psychological space.
Exploring the Role of Parent
We looked at parenting through the lens/framework of Yoga and Sankhya, and explored relationships from this framework. We then spent time understanding the ways in which we perceive and make sense of our world, how and from where we respond to it, and the patterns that emerge in these perceptions and responses.
We got into the exploration of the range of emotions and feelings that we experience as individuals and parents. This left us with a better understanding of our emotional selves and opened up the possibility of understanding and listening to others’ and our children’s emotional selves more deeply.
We dove into what possibilities could emerge for parenting if we could listen from a deeper space within. What does it mean to live and parent with a knowing of who I am, where I am, and why I am here? What would it mean to take a step further in my role as a parent with this knowing?
The program ended with everyone sharing a visual story of the sankalpa/committment they had made to energize the deep listening space within, so that they could truly live and parent inside out.
It was a blessed, satisfying retreat. I feel further affirmed and established to walk on this path, all with a lightness within.
Follow Anita on her journeys as a yoga practitioner and parent.
Anoop is a student of Yoga, an entrepreneur, a coach and a father of two young boys. He has led successful leadership stints in both the corporate and non-for-profit sectors. On encountering the country’s water/farmer crises at close quarters, he decided to pause and examine the impact various ‘isms’ – capitalism, colonialism, etc., were having on us as individuals, families, the society and the environment at large. This quest led him to formally engage with traditional Indic knowledge systems while also learning from the latest advances in science – about our physical and mental wellbeing, importance of body and mind work in healing trauma and the urgent need for a conscious rebuilding of family / work / social structures if we have to thrive individually and collectively. Insights, frameworks and processes gleaned from these on-going studies, an anchorage in his own personal practice and his wide-ranging experiences is what Anoop brings to facilitation/coaching spaces in Ritambhara and his various professional engagements.
Priya is a Yoga therapist in the Krishnamacharya tradition. She adapts Reiki & energy work, Vedic chanting, life coaching & Ayurvedic practices in her healing spaces. She is committed to nurturing collectives that have the praxis of Yoga at their heart.
Anisha has been on an exploration to understand herself through yoga for the last 15years which led her to teaching yoga, yoga therapy and inner work through yoga.
Apoorva chanced upon Yoga in her early 20s. A spark was lit within and there was no turning back. Her exploration led her to the Krishnamacharya tradition more than a decade ago. Curious about human behaviour and what drives it, she was thrilled when her search ended (and also began) when she first came upon the Yoga Sutra, which illuminated a path towards answering many questions that had been held for a long time.
Anita is a yoga teacher and therapist in the tradition of Sri.T.Krishnamacarya and Sri T.K.V. Desikachar, a Reiki practitioner and a Life Coach. She is also the founder of Vishoka, a center for learning Indic and energy-based frameworks for living and healing. Her deep concern for human suffering and the problems of unsustainable living kept her on the path of seeking an integrated approach to looking at life, living, learning and healing.
Ankit is a seeker in the wisdom traditions of India. The core of his work includes creating dialogic spaces where people can look within and see the connection between their inner and outer lives. Inspired by the likes of Gandhi, Aurobindo, Vivekananda and Guru Gobind his experiments in service took him back to his roots in Punjab where he is creating a community-led model of higher education which is open, inclusive and accessible for all. Ritambhara for him is a space for engaging in a community which is committed to a DHramic life. He anchors his work of learning and leadership in the Antaranga Yoga Sadhana and the humanistic wisdom of Mahabharata.