Stayin’ Alive, the Bee Gees song of the 1970s has been popular on the retro party scene. At well-known film historian and columnist Dinesh Raheja’s recent wellness workshop, the idea of ‘staying alive and living well’ was elevated to a different level. At the workshop conducted on a warm yet wintry Mumbai afternoon at Andheri and spanned five hours, joy was a mantra and the belief that one is the creator of one’s own destiny – another feeling that permeated hearts and minds.
The Bee Gees song has a lyric in it – Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, Somebody help me, yeah – an oft-repeated lyric within the song. Taking a hint from the spirit of the playful angst of the song, the Staying Alive workshop sought to give participants insightful pearls of wisdom on the art of staying alive. What does being alive mean to us? Dealing with the lemons that life might throw at us well? Recognising limiting thoughts that only stand in the way of our advancement?
Understanding how to love ourselves and celebrating the awesomeness within? What does it truly mean? Raheja’s workshop endeavoured to engineer a positive turnaround within participants, showing them a mirror and a starkly different perspective on how to deal with life. Raheja began the workshop by listing common thoughts that people tend to engage within their minds, speaking about the self-defeating pattern of mindsets that tend to pervade people’s minds. He spoke about reprogramming ideas that one tends to get involved with – with ideas that will yield more desirable results. Some examples of thoughts that one can recognise and distance oneself from because of their classic unsavouriness are – What if I try, and fail? There goes another opportunity; I’m cursed; I’m such a loser. Following are a list of productive thoughts and conceptions that one can naturally incorporate – I’m blessed; Something better is in store; I like myself as I am.
During the talk Raheja revealed his own struggles where he was diagnosed with a heart ailment and given two years to live by doctors. Raheja did an Art of Living course — to learn techniques to be able to wriggle out of the death sentence the medical community had given him. Raheja also maintains a book of thoughts, written down, with a list of self-empowering dreams — that have helped in the healing process. Raheja’s approach to life is to imagine his day as one that will be fruitful, where there is the right mix of effort to achieve desired results and a general positive blissfulness with a grounded attitude. Hence resulting in the creation of immense joy, passion and excitement for all that life offers.
At the event, other speakers included yoga instructor Munmun Ghosh, who spoke about the tenets of yoga and how different asanas can help with steadying the mind and are aimed at the ‘control, purification and coordination of the nervous system rather than at muscular display and strength’. Ghosh spoke about how doing each yogic kriya re-energises the body, filling it with oxygen and flushing out carbon dioxide and toxins. Says actress and singer Zara Khan who attended the workshop, “It was eye-opening to know about the kinds of challenges that other people face. In a role for a film that I did, my look was understated and de-glamorised. At that time I had insecurities and workshops like these fill you with the confidence necessary to deal with doubts relating to image concerns.”
Cancer survivor Seema Pande spoke about her journey from being diagnosed with carcinoma (thyroid cancer) to her surgery. “When I found out I had cancer, I decided I would not let it rule me. I was not going to spend the rest of my days crying. What happened filled me with a zest to live life even more fully. I started to respect my life and have gratitude for the things I had. The surgery and recovery went very well and I was discharged much earlier than expected. The diagnosis helped turn things on their head and showed me that life is easy, not difficult. It helped me set an example for my children for the future.”
Another aspect of living life and seizing the moment was explored at the workshop through a talk by businessman Amit Raheja. He went on to speak about the role of intention and elevated emotion and how when they meet, the possibilities to achieve something great are immense.
The workshop was interspersed with exercises such candle-blowing where participants were asked to exhale their strains and worries in one breath as well as yogasanas and laughter therapy. Five hours very well-spent indeed…
