Gratitude creates from Thought!

Gratitude is all about creating from thought and living in the now of things. We have learnt it through our experience, working with Gratitude the entire year. Not everyday is a Sunny day, yet the clouds have a story to tell.

Our initiatives and associations have taught us that there is a pandora’s box of “things to be done” to assist ourselves and others to live in Gratitude! That surely does not mean that we give away all that we have, resign to a life under a lamp-post and live on CHARITY! Gratitude allows us the incredible power to connect with all that we have and expand our thoughts to expand our reality. It isn’t about CHARITY… Gratitude is about CLARITY!!

When we meet people we learn new “thoughts” and how they’re becoming “things”… we learn something new about how to assist them to assist ourselves from the “no” we learn to generate new ideas of “how" and from the “yes” we learn that there are new people we have reached! Personally, I have learnt to detach from words and attach to the feeling that I experience in communication.

We all live in a bubble of information that affects and effects change, to choose from the options presented to us, it is imperative that we understand and consume with a deeper awareness of goodness. Even though, I agree, there is more of not so good that surrounds us, there is a personal choice we make that is, at the speed of thought, converting into our realities… and it is scary to see where we’re headed!!

Keep it a simple practice in your life to SMILE at every opportunity, it is the simplest way to stay positive. Yes! Even in times, when your personal world trembles… there is still scope to smile!! A smile, is your way of keeping away the negative KNOWINGS and INFORMATION!! A smile is a powerful tool in balancing thought. Think about it this way, when you smile, you’re sending your brain a signal to attract only a corresponding effect. Your words soften and your emotions begin to settle. You are consciously making a NEW choice to stay positively manifesting a new OUTCOME! This is a brilliant way to stay a THOUGHT AT A TIME Positive and remain in a neutral space of reaction, without totally negating the circumstance presented to you.

Another add on to smiling is the practiced ability to say “thank you”!! Thank you acknowledges the present and presents you with a pause to make a new choice forward. Look back at the moments in your life, when you’ve said “thank you” to someone, for something and with a smile. In that moment you acknowledge the very NOW of that moment with Gratitude. For most people, it is in that moment, that all else has faded and the choices born from Gratitude are presented, for a new choice to be made… and this choice, well, is a confidence booster!! Words split and invite a brand new meaning and this meaning… in my personal experience, Thank You has invited a plethora of new feelings and meanings to different words!!

Take time today to create a new tomorrow… smile… you know you are creating and don’t forget to say “thank you” often enough to feel the magic work within you and through you!!

 

10150 tokens of light… filling the space between GIVING and RECEIVING

When we decided to experiment with Santa Workshop Diwali, we intended to let the LIGHT we were celebrating guide us! We knew, that this wasn’t any ordinary intent, we understood that it wouldn’t be easy… yet we said… “let’s spread light” and YES, we were surprised… joyfully… at how much we got to learn from this one experiment… we set a new trend, a little silently… as people celebrated the festival of lights all around the city and gifts were exchanging hearts and hands at the frequency of light…

At the centre we were wrapping up “tokens of light”, smiling away, singing… knowing it was all going to be very special, this year… there was going to be a new beginning for all of us. We knew, that in the melee of celebrations, there are still some who GIVE with so much joy… we knew that there were some truly special people, who’d love to GIVE, especially during Diwali… So, I picked up the phone on Murphy Raphael John… a dear friend and the President of R.O.P.I.O Foundation… and asked, if his team… would like to play Santa for Diwali and spread “tokens of light” in the city!! What I got… was a BIG “YES” and that is where it all began

Like every new concept, we did find our famous question marks and we did find our blank expressions and we did find so many people who said “why”… in the middle of the melee we found three very special people… Manni & Pooja & Rahul … all of whom said “yes” with enthusiasm. And we were on with Santa Workshop|Tokens of Light!!

The Workshop was an experience… filled with Light & Love! We wrapped 10,000 gifts and then went out distributing… this time, we got very confused looking people… who, once we chatted with… did smile! People were surprised to get little gifts, especially since they don’t associate Diwali with free gifts from strangers, much less a foundation. It is amazing, how excited people get when they receive and the richer experience is really for the children who play Santa… the empowered giving is something we can learn from. They don’t see the WHO of the receivers, they’re just super excited to be giving.

One of our Santa’s Ajay of R.O.P.I.O did find it a little strange, he was worried about people’s reactions and the fear of rejection… natural. Well, says a lot about the truth, that people are scared of receiving just as much as they are of giving. And especially, when it comes without a condition. The smiles, with which we distribute, in my understanding is the fine line that needs to be crossed by the receivers. Then came the idea, to spread the light through the one place, where people go to buy literature that will change their lives and a resounding yes from “Teksons Bookshop” made it possible for us to share the light and love with people who read… in this way creating a parallel example for them to experience Gratitude and Intent, that we all wish to learn and master. The grandest surprise, well, when my dear friend, Veer Suklecha, initiated a mini workshop in Mumbai… it gives me great joy to see the expansion of a small effort… that people were moved to experiment and experience the magic. Mumbai is where I was born, my deep intent, was to have this workshop in Mumbai too!! Manifested through a friend!! As I write this piece I am filled with a sense of AWE… watching an idea, complete itself and teach me to continue to do the work I do… It is a GIFT to follow a less trodden path… and it is priceless to RECEIVE,  everything I needed for completion… and I still feel there is so much to learn… so much to go L.I.V.E with… and the most important of all… WE HAVE SO MUCH WE MUST DO… to assist people to GIVE and RECEIVE!

Giving isn’t about the Have, Have Nots and the Have a lot! Giving isn’t about shades of grey, here we are, clearing the air, teaching some how to give and still others how to receive and we do all of this to create a more gratitude filled knowing, that it is still possible to receive without tags or cash commitments. We are so grateful for the people who contribute to the cause to make it possible for us, so, it is a fact, that there are generous givers, who enable the process and share of their have’s for others to receive. What a brilliant way to create again a sense of SURPRISE and a deeper knowing, that everything isn’t simply taken away from us… we do receive!!! And the question really is… “ARE WE OPEN TO RECEIVE”

As I look back at the learning of this workshop, a workshop you can surely look forward to NEXT year… a larger number of givers and receivers… shall come together to create more Gratitude. We have much to learn about receiving as we do about giving. The one core ingredient that makes it all possible is our Gratitude for what we already have and all that we’ll ever want… we must be ready to RECEIVE as well as GIVE!

There is so much not right with our world, everyday, we have enough news to let us know that. Then again, someday, on some street, there will be someone who hands you a tiny gift and wishes you light and love and in accepting this gift, you accept GOODNESS, for the intent that the funds were raised, the gifts wrapped and the warmth with which they are given… is an indication that God is watching out to GIVE to you and maybe, just maybe, you have forgotten how to RECEIVE!

Give it a THOUGHT… we’re coming back with Santa Workshop|Tokens of Gratitude soon… and we’d love for you to be a part of the absolute joy of the energy and love!!

A video and a few pictures we’d like you to see…

The Wrapping … The Distribution … Santa Workshop 2011

and we hope to meet you in THOUGHT WORD and DEED at Santa Workshop|Tokens of Gratitude as we too transition from “Santa Hugs of Light” to “Santa Hugs of Gratitude”

National Children’s Parliament: August 3rd–5th 2012

 

When Murphy Raphael John came to speak to me about the National Children’s Parliament initiative… I remember it was the night of the opening o f the Olympics 2012!!! I remember our conversation… two animated characters… sharing thoughts, reviewing ideas!! The one most appealing and exciting quality I love about Murph… is his enthusiasm and I can tell you … it is CONTAGIOUS!!!

Our special relationship began with Santa Workshop… and to this day we admire the vision we share… our paths are very different, yet the goal is the same… to create powerful moments of personal growth and empowerment for those people who connect with our vision. I find it so exciting each time we exchange ideas and vision!! It is amazing energy!! So, before the Olympic ceremony began… We were already excited about being a part of the National Children’s Parliament in any way that we could… the pleasure and experience, we knew was all ours!! Getting closer, our group was revealed…. “Behavioral Changes”, guess, we knew WHY!!! At DeePositive, it has been our excitement to assist and inspire a NEW THOUGHT forward and our core ingredient, well, GRATITUDE!!! One behaviour change, we know should go viral is GRATITUDE!! Once Gratitude is invited, the rest of the experience is a growth, physically, mentally and spiritually! There is more than enough awareness of WHAT IS NOT RIGHT.

    

Meeting up with the children, a thrill… seeking minds, thinking minds and open minds, craving a new future… yet, so engrossed in the ADULT VISION that they needed to be prodded to speak their age, be their age and live their age. As a grown woman, I can promise you, that being 16 is beautiful when you’re simply being 16. For a lot of us, the want or need to grow up was so upon us, that we’re living 16 at 35 and loving it!! Knowing that we can balance the madness, because the choices we made then, were informed, we lived 16 and loved being 16 and now, we can still dip into being 16 without forgetting that 35 has its specialness too!

Children speaking harshly about politics and using language that they’ve inherited from adult communication is an alarming signal and should be taken pretty seriously… if their unbiased minds is filled with the hate that we so comfortably express as adults, we’re raising a TIME BOMB future for our country. It is essential for CHILDREN to speak their age, love it and learn to be it!!! It is our job as adults to prepare them to take charge of the future of INDIA!! The workshop was an eye-opener… most children reflected a MEDIA point of view… somewhere, in the harsh reality of their LIFE EXPERIENCES is a bitterness, that reflects in their speech. Sarcasm and Judgmental in their approach to peers and seniors reflects more on their exposure to CORRECT than be CORRECTED.

     

The conversation as part of the group… I was more keen to let the children conclude and in the conclusion, achieve a new thought forward, that was simple… a simple and doable act… that can begin the process of inviting a larger audience to a behavioral change… we took the problems and tried to calculate WHO THE SOLUTION IS… and the children, to our happy surprise concluded that any behavioral change in society begins with a personal decision to CHANGE!!! So, as a group we decided to SMILE and say THANK YOU more often and share this simple BEHAVIORAL CHANGE at different levels of relationships in our lives. Something, only a child can advocate and a child can create something even more beautiful as a part of the future of this country.

On Day II it was ACTIVITIES and we took up two… Ashok and I took the workshop for ad making and Evelyn took the Choreography workshop!!! Fun, yes, we actually had a chance to assist the children convert their conversations of Day I and create memories on Day II!! Surprising, the children who were making ads had absorbed some vital key points that they chose to ADVOCATE on day II… In my memory, there were these two boys who were from the group CHILD ABUSE and their main recall from the previous day was the number 1098 which is the helpline for children!! There were some that HEARD but didn’t listen, absorbed by their need for recognition and so, their first WORD forward was to CHALLENGE and CONTRADICT themselves, something they must’ve picked up watching the parliamentary sessions on TV… where everyone wants to speak and NO ONE CAN ACTUALLY BE HEARD!! What came across as a learning from the children is that their need to be RIGHT was more important than them understanding HOW TO BE RIGHT!

     

More importantly, we learned, that we would like to be a part of a multitude of children’s lives, we want to assist them in being children and loving everyday of their growing years. We’ve all had our share of challenges while growing up, some helped us grow faster and still others kept the child alive and celebrating. I guess, our exposure to MEDIA HATE CAMPAIGNS were much less or for the more KNOWING ones like ME… I chose, very early to experience life as it unfolded, looking rarely towards the television or internet (more so because we were not exposed to it) to form an opinion about PEOPLE without understanding their experiences first.

What is heartening and creates so much excitement, is the fact that, children absorb pretty intensely that which we give them in terms of information, it is important for us to be extremely aware of our communication, to ensure that we are in fact, passing on THAT WHICH assists them in CREATING a BETTER world not a BITTER world view!

Day III was a day to celebrate the voices of children and as exciting as it gets, my heart rejoiced to see how 4 kids who worked with us on Day I and Day II, made it to the Parliament and shared the dias with a real time MLA… For us it is God’s way of letting us know that our work with Children, which began with R.O.P.I.O Foundation at Santa Workshop a DeePositive Foundation initiative is leading us to a brand new area of work in which we are but meant to INITIATE A NEW THOUGHT!!! The most exciting part of day III is when Hemani from our group spoke about behavioural changes and her speech as a citizen was acknowledged by MLA Rajesh… most importantly, it wasn’t a speech we assisted her in writing, she spoke with confidence, using her learnings of the last two days as part of her speech!!! It is amazing, how much you can learn from  children… if you ALLOW them the FREEDOM to speak their age and live it.

We are of the opinion that we need more initiatives like the National Children’s Parliament, which gives us the opportunity to work with children and in a very insane way, visit ourselves as children again… remember… how we once wanted to make a difference in the way the world thinks… an opportunity… that comes from a chance to connect as children with children and lead a generation to a whole new THOUGHT FORWARD!!!

Special Thanks to some truly special people… Murphy, Rakesh for standing tall and creating the NCP! Rahul, Suruchika, Yamini, Surabhi, Kajal, Akash, Karan, Suraj, Rahul John, Francis, Ashraf, Chetan, Hemani, Gulshan, Ashok, Evelyn, Shruti, Sonam….. for helping us make a difference in our lives by allowing us the pleasure of being a part of yours!!!