CHANGING LIVES ONLINE
Life Positive rejoices in the success of its first-ever online International Spiritual Festival and shares the proceedings with its readers
Life Positive’s first experience with hosting an online International Spiritual Festival was a massive hit.
The sessions began with the participants logging in from their homes and editor Shivi Verma flagging off the festival virtually by giving an inaugural speech over Zoom. In a first at the ISF, acclaimed facilitators presented their modality in a two-hour capsule, making the presentation crisp and succinct. The guests sent their questions via the chat box or unmuted themselves to interact directly with the facilitator. The online version came with many benefits. The participants did not have to select between two workshops as all of them were lined one after another. Even the elderly and people living in remote areas could join, and people could attend as many workshops as they wanted without exerting themselves physically.
The comment section got filled with positive, happy, and encouraging responses from people who found answers to many of their challenging life situations. Usha Rani Soundaryaraj says, “Thank you Life Positive. The workshops are just wow, and I am enjoying them a lot.”
LP writers Nikita Mukherjee and Annesha Banerjee played wonderful hosts and executed the webinar with deftness, professionalism, and alacrity. Below is a glimpse of the online workshops which changed the life of the participants.
How To Shift The Energy Of A Space
By Partha Gupta
9.00 a.m.–11.00 a.m.
Our relationship with life is dependent on how we communicate with it. And breath is the mode of communication we use to interact with life. Partha Gupta began by calling attention to the power of our breath that not only affects our internal state but also the external space. Indeed, when we feel different emotions, our breathing is affected, and so if we control the pace of our breaths, we will be able to relax ourselves by coming down from extreme emotional dimensions. He demonstrated how words like ‘mother,’ ‘love,’ or ‘expansion,’ through their chemistry, transfer their energies to our breath, helping us shift our chemistry as well. Participants expressed feeling the words inside them and also a shift in the state of mind.
He said,; “When we strip ourselves of our egos, we all become fundamentally the same, and this realisation helps us watch our reactions. You are there where your breath is. The invocation of this intelligence helps us bring awareness in our body and surroundings, empowering us to change our energies as we desire. When we are aware, we become sensitive to the space around us and this brings resonance with life. Stating an example, Partha said, “Every space—our body, home, workplace, relationship—can be changed. As healers, we know that it is a space to provide to the other. This helps change our energy and, thus, the space. All participants agreed with Partha and also felt much calmer after doing various breathing exercises.
The Zen Of Good Writing
By Suma Varughese
11.30 a.m.–1.30 p.m.
Writing is an art: a way to communicate to the readers the writer’s thoughts or message. Suma Varughese shared crisp and helpful principles to help writers write better and perfectly. She began the session with a prayer, followed by a meditation that brought the participants closer to their role-model authors and writers. The first responsibility of a writer, Suma said, is to take the reader with them, so that they get the thoughts of the reader. She emphasised that one must not pressure themself to be perfect in the first attempt and encouraged the participants to let the process flow. She said that being on the spiritual path also works in one’s favour, since the deeper knowledge of the self allows one to experiment and not succumb to fears. The three types of energy that govern our life also govern our writing—tamas, rajas,and sattva.
Through small exercises at intervals, she kept the audiences engaged. Participants, too, enthusiastically responded by sharing their knowledge and experiences. According to Suma, to be a true writer, being vulnerable in one’s writing is important. It bridges the distance between a reader and a writer with a deep connection. Participants extracted value from Suma’s session and left wishing for more.
Evolutionary Enlightenment
By Andrew Cohen
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm
The realm of spirituality is fascinating! Every few years, a teacher comes with a newer and more refined perspective on enlightenment. One such teacher is Andrew Cohen, who thinks enlightenment is evolving. Andrew entered the virtual meeting room wearing a white kurta, carrying a gentle smile, and speaking even more gently.
According to him, God is the sum total of everything that exists and doesn’t exist; in other words, He is the sum total of the realms of manifest and unmanifest reality. He explained that before the universe came into existence, there was nothing: just primordial emptiness and perennial peace. Then, the Big Bang happened, and the universe was created. The emergence of light, energy, and matter created a condition for life forms to exist. Before this, God existed in a formless state, and now that the universe is created, He exists in form too.
He explained God is both peace and creativity. Energy and light in our universe created an explosive vortex of creativity. And this creativity is ever-evolving and expanding. The energy is throbbing within us in the form of the biological urge to procreate and co-create—art and music, and other innovations that humans strive for. Finally, Andrew says that we are God in our body. We just have to realise this by keeping our egoes aside and experiencing the oneness. To achieve this, he says, “We must have the thirst to experience God, which involves doing meditation, reading spiritual books, and following people who have walked the path. Once you realise who you are, you will know responsibility towards all beings, or your true purpose.”
There were questions as to how to explain the karma theory from this perspective. Andrew was honest about a few things he did not know the answer to, but for the rest, he clearly believes that God is imperfect, so are things in the universe, but we are evolving towards creating order.
Self-Healing
By Sanjiv Ranjan
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Sanjiv came online eager to share his knowledge with his audience. A healer and a writer, Sanjiv Ranjan revealed many fascinating aspects of self-healing, which, if we inculcate in our daily living, we can live to our full potential.
Sanjiv mentioned that our body has an immense power to heal ourselves. Like happiness, good health is within us, but because of our mental and emotional baggage and lack of trust in ourselves, we get stuck.
According to him, the root cause of our suffering is the deep-rooted fear that we have stored in our subconscious mind since childhood, which governs everything in our life. This fear could be of the unknown, success, the future, or losing loved ones. Most of these fears are imaginary and mental in nature and not real existential fears. These fears, over time, become a pattern which we repeat all our lives and keep getting the same results over and over again. The diseases in the body are just a manifestation of blockages we have created for ourselves.
Sanjiv explained ‘fear’as
F— False
E— Evidence
A —Appearing
R —Real
Sanjiv says that we must learn to reconnect with our bodies—not only our physical bodies but our etheric, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies as well. Build trust with the self and stop the negative self-talk that we indulge in all the time. Stop blaming because when we blame, we move away from doing to not doing anything.
To help overcome fear, he gave the tool of writing positive affirmations and did Theta healing which was highly cathartic for the participants. He concluded by saying, “We have come here on this planet to create, share, and love ourselves and other beings around us.”
DAY 2
From Spiritual Blindness To Spiritual Wellness
By Dr Anu Mehta
9:00am to 11:00 am
Shedding light on the spiritual significance of body organs and treating diseases and illnesses in a more organic and spiritual way, Dr Anu Mehta’s two-hour-long workshop was full of knowledge. She commenced the workshop with a PowerPoint presentation, explaining the spiritual significance of our various body organs. She talked about how our skeletal system acts like a ‘shell’ in order to protect our inner organs which are crucial for the functioning of our bodies. She also explained and correlated the significance of the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh with our body structure and organs, elaborating that our upper body consisting of the mind is Brahma, as it performs the function of the Creator (gathering and preaching knowledge, thus creating new knowledge), the middle body consisting of the heart is Vishnu, as it acts as the Preserver (the heart beats to give us life and preserve it), and the lower body consisting of the genitals is Mahesh, as it acts as the Destroyer (genitals secrete the toxic waste from our body).
The workshop proceeded further with a short activity where Dr Mehta asked the participants to make a deep hollow in a dough of atta or maida (flour) to explain the spiritual significance of emptiness inside the body.’ After this short and interactive activity, she co-related and explained the spiritual significance of our body organs with numerology and how it affects our overall holistic well-being.
The workshop concluded with a sound bath meditation where Dr Mehta played Tibetan gongs and bowls, and every participant transcended into a state of absolute bliss and serenity. They thanked Dr Mehta for providing such profound knowledge about the spiritual significance of their bodily existence, which will help them lead a holistic lifestyle.
Alpha Mind Power
By Srimatha Vijayalakshmi Panthaiyan
11:30 am to 1:30pm
Srimatha Vijayalakshmi Panthaiyan’s
workshop was a rejuvenating and profound experience for all the participants. She commenced the session with a PowerPoint presentation, explaining to all the participants the functions of the human mind. She went on to describe how the left side of the brain gathers logical and analytical information while the right side of the brain is intuitive and creative, and deals with emotional abilities. She also elaborated on the four types of brain wave patterns: beta, alpha, theta, and delta, and how the latter three unlock the pathway to the realm of consciousness. She further explained how the right side of the brain, if properly stimulated, can open the door to our subconscious mind through Alpha Power Meditation.
The workshop proceeded further with a relaxing alpha meditation, where the participants were transported to their subconscious minds—a state of relaxation, absolute bliss, tranquillity, and freedom. “I felt an out-of-body experience. It was as if I was flying like a bird, freely!” said one participant. “Tears started rolling down my eyes once the meditation ended. I never felt so blissful and relaxed in my life before. The subconscious mind is really a beautiful place to be in,” remarked another one.
Srimatha Vijayalakshami further enlightened the participants on how our subconscious mind can manifest our dreams, wishes, and goals into reality if done through proper, guided alpha meditation. She further added that alpha meditation also has healing powers which can heal a person inside out.
The online workshop concluded with an interactive question-answer session where Srimatha Vijayalakshmi gave satisfactory answers to intriguing questions related to the subconscious mind and the power of alpha meditation. With radiant faces and broad smiles, each and every participant thanked Srimatha Vijayalakshmi profusely for such a powerful presentation.
Animal Connect: Talking To Animals
By Aarti Desai
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm
We all have grown up on comics, fables, and scriptural stories where humans communicated easily with animals. However, we have also grown up believing that these were nothing but imaginary tales meant to appeal to our childhood hearts and brains.
Interestingly, as the human race tunes in to higher frequencies of existence, it finds many secrets being revealed to it, one of them being the ability to talk to animals.
Facilitator Aarti Desai shared the method through which we can communicate with animals and know what they think and feel about any situation or condition. She said that human to animal communication happens telepathically. She first led the participants through a grounding meditation in which they were asked to connect with a tree of their choice and become one with it.
She then asked participants to imagine the following: “Pick up my pet cat called Polka. Connect with her energy, ask what she likes to eat, or which toy she likes to play with. Once you know that, expand your heart space, send love to Polka, after which, tell her how lovely it was to meet her and take your time to say goodbye. Say that you will pass the message she has sent to the one it is meant for, and if there is something you will get back. After this, you can write the download which the animal has shared.”
A lady said that she realised that Polka was brown in colour and that she loved being in Aarti’s house. Aarti confirmed that Polka had brown fur, proving to everyone that the communication had indeed happened.
Aarti answered many questions that the participants posed after this. She said that, often, when owners of lost pets contacted her, it was found that the pet had not got lost but had run away because it was unhappy in the house. They communicated that they won’t return unless the owner had changed a particular habit. Aarti said that she found animals to be purer and more sensitive than humans and were also more evolved than us.
If one really starts connecting with animals in the way Aarti taught us, soon, one will realise that in nature, there is no inferior or superior. Rather, all are equal.
Food Can Change The Blueprint Of Your Life
By Naini Setalvad
5:00pm to 7:00pm
When famous dietician, nutritionist, food writer, health coach, and Life Positive’s regular columnist decided to hold her first workshop at the first online International Spiritual Festival, people rushed to listen to her.
Naini stressed that good food changes a person’s destiny. She said that fried foods, colas, chips, sugar, bhajias (fried savouries),and alcohol were poison for the body. Describing sugar as similar to tobacco, she said that sugar causes anxiety and stress, and robs you of every nutrient in the body. Sugar cravings were a result of magnesium deficiency which can be healed by eating alsi (flax) seeds. Terming Indian food the best food in the world, Naini said that our plate must be composed of 50 per cent carbohydrates, 30 per cent fats, and 20 percent protein. To clarify, she said that our vegetables are full ofcarbohydrates and they must occupy the largest portion of our plate.
Highlighting the importance of Indian herbs and vegetables, she said that coriander fights cancer, lime fights acidity, onions retard ageing, and turmeric purifies the blood, unclogs arteries, and is anticancer. Ginger and garlic are powerful antioxidants, and pearl garlic prevents joint pain. She also emphasised the importance of good quality fats and said that they must not be eliminated from our food. Terming mustard oil as our local olive oil, she said that Indian food is so nutritionally rich that we do not need to eat anything imported. Ghee, nuts, and coconut oils are healthy fats which keep our brains healthy. She advised using rock salt or, sendha namak, which has 89 percent minerals in it. The session ended with the participants urging Naini to write a book as her knowledge was too vast to fit into one session.