My News Article which was recently published in "Chinmaya Mission Outreach" and related "News Publications"
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Spiritual Parenting Retreat by Vivek ji and Vilasini ji, November 9-10, 2019
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, Vivek ji presented the
6 sutras of social media usage. This
piece was developed and documented by Vivek 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 Bala Vihar 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! 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 Bala Vihar 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.
Deepti Sharan is a parent, and sevika at Chinmaya
Triveni, Sacramento. Her family of five,
parents and 3 children were active part of the Spiritual Retreat.
