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LESSONS FROM ROCK CLIMBING: PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

   Close your eyes and imagine yourself standing in front of a towering wall with small, colourful pegs scattered along the structure. Around your waist is a snug harness, and you begin to scale the wall, one step at a time, climbing higher and higher. Every move you make is methodical, forcing you to think with your body as much as your brain. There are mental health benefits of rock climbing that exceed the physical ones, and we don’t necessarily have to be a master of the sport to reap them. Leadership can be learned anywhere. Reflecting back on rock-climbing sessions, we realized how much this experience can be a metaphor for leadership experiences. Rock climbing offers many opportunities for personal and professional development.   1. Collaboration and Differing Perspectives: . . . -> Climbing is solitary, yet highly collaborative in nature. To climb safely, you must have someone to belay and/or spot you, meaning you are always part of a team. Acti...

BEYOND WORK-LIFE BALANCE: THE REAL COST OF SEPARATING WORK AND LIFE

  Discover the real cost of rigidly separating work and life through the Four Burners Theory—explore how outsourcing key burners like work or family creates hidden tensions, and join us in redefining success beyond traditional balance for greater fulfilment and potential. Work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritizes the demands of one’s career and the demands of one’s personal life. Why is it so hard to maintain a balance? A survey of thousands of working adults found these to be the most common answers: Work-life balance is less about dividing the hours in our day evenly between work and personal life and, instead, is more about having the flexibility to get things done in our professional life while still having time and energy to enjoy our personal life.  There may be some days where we work longer hours so that we have time later in the week to enjoy other activities. So far, it always seemed that finding a good balance between our daily...

FAMILY SYSTEMS EXPLORED: BOWEN'S THEORY MEETS VARNASHRAMA DHARMA - (CHAPTER 02)

  ***Continued from Chapter 01 (Covered previously: Diwali & Family Ties, Bowen Family Systems, Three out of the eight concepts of the Bowen Theory Views) Link to Chapter 01 04: Family Projection Process Children inherit many types of problems (as well as strengths) through the relationships with their parents, but the problems they inherit that most affect their lives are relationship sensitivities such as heightened needs for attention and approval, difficulty in dealing with expectations, the tendency to blame oneself or others, feeling responsible for the happiness of others or that others are responsible for one’s own happiness, and acting impulsively to relieve the anxiety of the moment rather than tolerating anxiety and acting thoughtfully. The projection process follows three steps: These steps of scanning, diagnosing, and treating begin early in the child’s life and continue. The child grows to embody the fears and perceptions of the parent.   Example...

FAMILY SYSTEMS EXPLORED: BOWEN'S THEORY MEETS VARNASHRAMA DHARMA - (CHAPTER 01)

Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, symbolizes the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance".   Celebrations are wonderful ways in which our deep physical, social and psychological needs are met. The family is an important institution that plays a crucial role in the lives of most Indians. In this era of nuclear families, where we experience clashes and misunderstanding on multiple occasions, the survival and dignified growth of family relationships becomes a concern.   Diwali & The Four Life Stages – Varnashrama Dharma Diwali is not only a festival of lights but also the festival of family relations and celebration. In Ancient India, for the optimum fulfilment, satisfaction and peace in one’s life, the stages of life were discussed as the ‘ashramas’ or ‘Varnashrama Dharma’. The Varnashrama Dharma system consists of four age-based life stages discussed in Indian texts of the ancient and medieval eras. The...