Experience 2019-mens retreat

A phrase that summarizes what I felt after the retreat – Fired Up!

We enjoyed the lively facilitation of a clear master leader, Hope Chigudu. Each day was spiced with examples and experience from her journey as a leadership and organizational development icon. Each session revealed new discoveries within myself and precipitated more questions that I will need to answer and fix. The 7 Chakras provided a timely point of reflection to each part of my life, as an individual, a husband, a father and a leader.

One of my favorite authors Will Durant once said; philosophy begins when one starts to doubt, especially to doubt one’s strongly held views and preconceived ideas. Being at the men’s retreat brought me face to face with the fact that many things I treated as obviously true may not be so obvious or even true after all.

Pausing to reflect on what grounds me, my understanding of sex, how I use my emotions in all their different shades and intuition was very powerful. The grief that I had buried and how all these come together to influence the different shades of my leadership and the boldness to re-imagine a different future. May we always have the courage to be and do more. May the fire in all of us light the way forward.

Lakeside Escape was a mind blasting experience. Fortuitously serendipitous. I was planning to take time off for deep chakra meditation; imagine my surprise at that being the meeting agenda. Much was said and a lot of it opened a million doors in one's mind, but the big take away for "me" was the idea to see organizations as an organism with chakras. It was mind-opening; using the concept of chakras to assess my organization's health has become part my daily practice. I am starting to see ways of putting systems to things that had only existed in goals.

CivSource Africa organized a men’s only retreat in January 2019. It was a time to reflect on the past year, launch into the new one and plan to be and do better.

While there, I met, interacted and learned from other men but it allowed me time alone for introspection. One participant remarked, ‘it was a very timely retreat bringing men together in their diversities to share and learn from each other but also unlearn certain things especially while on a journey to self-discovery.’ That was precisely it. To some people it was a time to shake and challenge different narratives and strive to go beyond the ordinary.

Finding Me!

It is not always common to have opportunities such as the one I recently had at the young male leaders’ retreat where the essential reason for the meeting was for me to meet me. This is powerful, having a conversation with myself concerning, about and around me! Discussing Chakras with clear non-fictitious illustrations and self-reflection was a very big win for me in 2019. I had an idea on who I was before, the things I was able to do, the energies and capacities but until I went to this retreat, I hadn’t realized that there was much more I did not know about myself. I felt more grounded to continue with my passions and interests in all spheres of my life, to continue loving and caring not only about the world but also me!

The leadership retreat brought interesting perspectives within the framework of chakras to light; some were "easy" to engage with and others not so much. No definitive conclusions were made which leaves room for more exploration and engagement.

I believe that creating more of such safe spaces, for this level of engagement is always necessary. Upon deep reflection, and this has been my default state since the retreat, I have taken the lessons learnt into our work space and there has been a positive shift within our structure and approach to the work that we do.

Not only do the lessons go far and beyond in how I mindfully serve my leadership towards different parties and colleagues, they have also seeped into my daily interactions and wellness routines. Gaining a deeper understanding of myself in relation to others and systems has opened me up to new realms of existence.

I am better for it, and grateful.