Morning Session

This session will help you realize that the world you live in and experience is a construct, not a given reality. You, however, have invested in the particular “reality” that you are experiencing and the more you persist in such investment, the more it will appear that this is, in fact, the way it is. It is a self-reinforcing vicious cycle. A group exercise will help you understand how you are binding yourself and how you can begin to break out of these self imposed restraints.

We explore the thesis that, in some way, shape, fashion or form your whole life is a quest for happiness. Virtually all your activities are directed to achieve this state and it remains elusive the harder you seek it and try to attain it. Common beliefs are that happiness comes from the acquisition of things, that it is dependent on non-material qualities like presence of good friends and loving family members, that it requires challenges and intellectual stimulation, that good health, food and shelter are prerequisites for achieving it and so on. There are many, many models of how happiness comes into your life. You will be presented with a different model of happiness and will be encouraged to both test it and adapt it to fit your unique circumstances.

Afternoon Session

We construct the “reality” we live in and experience with models that we use to make sense of the world. We are all a mess of conditionings and the only ways in which we differ is the particular conditioning that we have been subject to. We will examine the process by which we – heretofore unconsciously, henceforth consciously– construct our models and understand the plethora of dysfunctional methods we use to cope with the “problems” in our lives. Group exercises will bring this point home vividly.

We live in a particular emotional domain and make decisions and take actions from that space. Some of these domains are anxiety, fear, indecision, stress, feelings of inadequacy, depression, ennui, distaste and so on. Others are optimism, sense of possibility, deep appreciation, etc. We are certainly not restricted to any one domain and most of us switch back and forth and occupy several at different times of the day and points in our lives. Nevertheless there are domains that we spend more time in and that are “home” for this reason. We examine how the domain you live in affects every aspect of your life. Individual and group exercises help you understand that you are not a prisoner of your conditionings and you can slip into higher, better domains as your habitual resting place.