Mindfulness and the Arts

We unveiled our week long, four month program with Vana Foundation for their Young Vanavasis Retreat at Dehradun.

The intent of the Young Vanavasis Retreat is built on the platform of the belief that it is important to purposefully cultivate in the young, a sense of self that perceives possibilities, is empowered to learn independently and is filled with wonder and aspirations for self and the community they are a part of. Our program for children and parents is designed in a way that each day unfolds with multiple opportunities for them to partake of pursuits for wellbeing.

Through diverse sensory experiences by means of play and movement,  we encourage the children to explore the surroundings, the natural world around them such that the wonder arouses the curiosity and inquiry steps in to deepen understanding of the interconnectedness. The children experience the six paramitas of generosity, discipline, patience, joyful enthusiasm, mindfulness and wisdom in joyous play, music and rhythm, dance and movement, colours and paint, stories and clay. Every day they are motivated to observe, be aware of and share their experiences of how they understand the Paramitas in their relationship with each other, their families and friends, faces familiar and unfamiliar along with the natural world and in the day to day routine

A creative space is also created for parents, which is in synergy with the experiences that the children  go through. The sessions enable the parents to revisit their inner child with joyful play and through the lens of dance, movement, drumming  and the play of visual art.  They too reconnect with how they perceive the learnings of the Paramitas, the practise of it in their lives by looking at their own patterns, the vulnerabilities and strengths, the said and the unsaid, especially with regards to their children.