On Nov 8 and 9 of 2019, families of Greater Sacramento had the fortune of being part of the first-ever weekend retreat at Triveni, Chinmaya Mission, Sacramento. During the weekend retreat, two dedicated Acharyas covered various aspects of parenthood from a spiritual perspective. In one of his sessions, Acharya Vivek ji presented the 6 sutras of social media usage. This piece was developed and documented by Acharya ji himself. These sutras were written as a guiding principle to prevent overuse/misuse of phone/social media; a growing issue across several age groups in our times.
In another session, Vilasini Ji cross-examined in great detail a few examples from the book 'How to Talk So That Children Listen…’ by Adele and Elaine. In a rush to go through the entire book, sometimes parents rush and flip through the pages without immersing in the book. This session was quite the opposite. Vilasini Ji came prepared with her presentation slides listing a few of her carefully picked examples from the book. She held conversations, directing parents to pause and reflect at the multiple ways to handle each scenario; and the possible gamut of feelings running in the minds of both parents and kids while simulating those scenarios. These exercises facilitated parents to broaden their myopic view of parenting, to include kids' perspectives into these real-life situations.
During the day, while parents were participating in guided meditation sessions or contributing to the group discussions, several Baal Vihaar volunteers were working nonstop throughout the day; (a few since five in the morning); to provide a steady supply of nutritious meals and snacks. Most items were cooked fresh at the venue. Care was taken to serve families with dietary needs (such as vegan or other preferences) alternate yet equally super delicious dishes at each meal.
The afternoon soccer sessions were a look forward to as well! It was an eye-opener how parents could throw a hundred percent of themselves into the strenuous game with no prior experience yet with all their enthusiasm, despite those heavy meals! Archarya Vivek ji would constantly favor the losing team using a mixed bag of strategies. When all other strategies failed, he would run at the speed of the wind, leap to kick the ball mid-air and make it fly across the entire field, close enough to strike a goal!
Each day would end with a beautiful garland of melodious bhajans strung by Indu Vashist ji and several Baal Vihaar students.
The parenting retreat at Chinmaya Mission Sacramento was extremely engaging and thought-provoking. That weekend, as the parents immersed themselves in a flawlessly planned and executed memorable retreat; Bharati ji and the Chinmaya Sacramento Team's months of behind the scenes efforts to put this together clearly showed up in every aspect of the program.
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