Maiden visit to USA

1^st time in life travelled 34000 kms in almost 3 weeks and feeling tired… The learning has been immense from the maiden visit to USA… Enjoyed the vastness of space and the openness (except in New York)… Felt happy to meet so many different people who are willing to accept you as you are. They do respect Indians a lot these days and are open to learn about India and its success stories. Many talk about Gandhi, his principles and spirituality, yoga etc while discussing India. Surprisingly Gandhi and his principles are only available in books in India and spirituality is invariably mixed with religion and probably now in India, we eat more of junk food than west !!

Got my “Life Coach Certificate” from USA and “NLP Practitioner Certification” from SNLP, USA (the course conducted in Edinburgh, UK). Amazing experience and the learning. The group was open to share and willing learn at both programs. The program facilitators did not use LCD projector or laptop at all… impactful learning with experience sharing and practice sessions!

The phobia cure session in NLP was amazing as people were cured of their phobias in the session and were literally playing with the python (brought to the session).

USA is an amazing and large country… people are energetic and work till they wish to work (there is no official retirement age). Was really pleased to see people in their 60s and so much lively and energetic. There were many in our class in Orange County. Everything – the roads, area, homes, shops etc are very large; even the "small hot chocolate” glass in Mcdonalds is quite large for me J

Enjoyed the cities of Jersey, DC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Virginia, NYC & LA… Looking back – covered quite a bit!

It was a good experience overall from the 1^st visit to US and then to Scotland. Feeling invigorated and ready to apply my learning to Indian society through Atmachetna!

Two years of Atmachetna!

Atmachetna was born in year 2007. Those of you know me well – know that, it was the year when self awakening happened for me and that’s how I named the organization Atmachetna (meaning self awakening). The past two years have been filled with numerous experiences- experiences mostly pleasant and enjoyable. The transition from a high paying corporate job to that of every month survival planning was mostly smooth. The credit largely goes to my family – Shilpi (my better half), Sanchit (my scientist son), Udita (my loving daughter).

There was a period when we had to struggle for few months in year 2008; there were all kind of advices by people - go back to working in corporate; you did not think before deciding etc etc. Probably many of them may be right too in their own perspective; but on hind-sight it looks a real fun. Most of the friends helped morally to keep us on track; even if we deviated a little. Friends like Piyush & Giten have specially helped me cope up with accounting and website issues. I am really amazed with the kind of sincerity and support of all my friends. (though there were some who could have helped but backed - no issues that too is learning!!)

The journey of Atmachetna till now is smooth and filled with lot of enjoyment. The real fun comes when I am inside a hall conducting workshops. There have been instances wherein I have just slept couple of hours previous night but I really feel energetic and charged during and after the workshops. The feedback from parents, teens and teachers and many corporates has been very encouraging. Though we are not able to scale up the work and increase our earnings through Atmachetna to what we thought, but the real satisfaction is in bringing a positive change in someone’s life. God has been real kind to us in smoothly managing our work without much hassles.

Apart from this, there has been tremendous learning about life as a whole; about true friends; about family; about nature; about hidden creative talent in me; about relationships; about society; about real purpose of education; about challenges of people; about living with peace of mind; about thinking beyond money; about the difference between living & meaningful living and many more.

It looks I have lived a different life in last 2 years. I am more close to my family than ever before; I have better understanding of feelings of my wife and kids and my mom and many others.

The only low at times for us at Atmachetna is that sometime we feel we should have made changes to many more lives. Hopefully this coming year 2009-10, we would be able to extend the reach of Atmachetna across India and may be beyond! Best wishes to all of us at Atmachetna!