Entrepreneurship is a calling to many and entrepreneurs put their heart and soul into it. A handmade life and a venture which is an outer expression of one’s creativity is immensely satisfying and also ends up inspiring many others in the process. But, a truly creative life burns a person in more ways than one. To regain vitality and to renew focus towards one’s venture, Self and family, “Rest” is essential. This is where the second retreat of Jagah comes in — a space for the entrepreneurs to take rest from the mundane, observe their thoughts and patterns, to open up and form bonds over 2 days. A group of 20 founders have signed up for the retreat at Auroville, Pondicherry.
The first day began with introductions and catch-up over tea and snacks followed by a meditative hands-on activity at a clay studio in Auroville. Many found the activity as a great starting point to get away from being constantly in their heads and instead use their hands. Venkatesh, Founder of Tyke remarked saying that the activity helped him calm down and get away from his digital distractions and served as a doorway to get into the retreat zone.
The founders then huddled at Harmony Hall to learn about self-observation from Sameer Guglani and Nandini Hirianniah of Supermorpheus. The founders chose to self-observe through the different activities in the day. Siva Narayanan, Founder of Fyle captured his experience metaphorically that it was like giving his car to full service. Others said that they now know how to truly take a break. Auroville as a destination added another dimension to this retreat and it mesmerized everyone with its architecture and the soulful thought that has been put behind everything.
The founders showed keen interest in having silent lunch and savoring every bite, some of them found that they were able to concentrate more in the sound meditation and were awed by the science behind the making of the instruments used in the sound meditation.
Experimenting with the instruments used in Sound Meditation
As more time passed, people started opening up more and started sharing vulnerably. Prasanna Padmanabhan, Founder of PiChain mentioned that he noticed how everyone was speaking authentically and that enabled one to be more honest with their sharing. Paramdeep Singh, Founder of FieldAssist shared how he is consciously shaping the culture in his organization and it got others thinking as to how to actively work towards the growth of consciousness in their startups.
Abhijeet Chakravarthy, Founder of Iona.ai pledged to continue the practice of self-observation for the next 30 days and asked his co-founder to be his accountability buddy. At the end of the retreat, the founders walked away with the intention to make more Jagah for the healing routines in their Man(aka mind) and Din(aka Day’s calendar).
If you want to participate, engage deeper or contribute in any way, please write back to us space@Jagah.org
Written by Mounica Reddy
