Mama-Papa

Interview about the group Mama-Papa with Chandrika by Anisha

What techniques will you be using in this workshop?
I have been giving workshops about Early Life issues for 20 years. Over the years I refined this process into a three day structure: The first day we work on mother issues, the second day on father/authority issues, and the third day on let go, forgiveness and healing. I will be using techniques of Emotional Expression and Awareness, Psychodrama structures, Humaniversity AUM meditation, Bodywork, Encounter structures to bring in awareness about relating patterns, Reframing through stories, Relaxation techniques, Flushing, Rebirthing and sharing.

What can a participant expect from the group Mama-Papa?
We will be looking at your relationship with your mother and your father, who are the main figures in your life to shape your conditioning. If you grew up without your original parents or only one of them, we will work on the absence of them during your childhood and the consequences it had for you.
The focus of my work is not so much on your actual parents, but more on the internal parental figures that you carry with you and who are influencing your life today. You will explore the expression of various feelings towards them in a safe setting, and learn to re-establish your connection with them.
The goal is that you can see not only their behavior and faults towards you, but that you come to an understanding about their position and your position – that you can change by feeling sorry for the pain created, by learning to forgive, by opening up to appreciate and love, and finally by saying thank you for all that you received, including your life so far. This will connect you with the innocent child within again.  

In this workshop, is there any particular age you are working with and why?
These issues of parental conditioning are important for any age group, from teenagers to mature adults to see, understand, express the feelings involved and let them go.
Sometimes during the teenage years, parental issues are very dominant, as the young adult tries to find his/her own decisions. Breaking free from conditioning is very important to find their own life.
As a mature adult, when you face a crisis such as in a job or relationship, often you again encounter situations where you ask yourself what you want in your life, where to go and what you want to achieve. That leads you to reflect again on where certain patterns originate, if they are really what you want, and how to change them.
If you grow older, the question turns more towards looking back at many different situations, how you can forgive and let go, and be fulfilled.
So any age group can profit from doing this group. Each person can pursue their specific questions.
If your question is more about why we are working with stories of your early life, it means that some wounds go back all the way to early childhood. To understand the roots of problems can help to heal and let go. Psychology says that the personality gets formed in the first four years; this means that traumatic situations will leave their mark on your quality of life.

How does our childhood affect patterns we have as adults?
Emotional awareness has its foundation in how you learned to feel okay with your feelings and what conditioning you received in childhood. Fear, anger, pain and love are natural emotional states of responding to situations. If you learned that when you reach out for love, you receive rejection, you will feel pain and humiliation. After a while you will expect that reaching out for love equals receiving pain. As a consequence you may say later when you are an adult, “I’d better not open my heart anymore, because I will just get hurt,” and you become lonely and isolated, unable to have fulfilling relationships.
Often we haven’t developed all the four basic emotions. Some people have difficulties to feel anger; they need to smile even though it is not what they feel, and they hold the anger inside. Eventually all this repressed anger makes them depressed, and they have difficulties to relax and sleep well. Others can’t cry; their tears are frozen. It is important to allow yourself to feel again. When you allow yourself to feel your anger, and you soften your heart, letting the tears flow to soothe your pain, you can regain your personal power.  If you feel all your feelings intensely, you will also come back to feeling your love and happiness again.
In this group, awareness will be our guide. You will learn to access your emotions, and learn to express and explore them in a safe setting, without harming yourself or others. You will access the aliveness that you have when expressing them. This will free up blocked tension and stress, and will give you the choice on how to respond emotionally in any given situation later, in your daily life.

What are the reasons for your passion to work with people on childhood issues?
When I see how beautiful people transform once they allow themselves again to feel their emotions, cry and shout, weep and laugh, it opens my heart. I love to encourage people and to give them a guiding hand to dive into these emotions. I love to support them to express them, so that they can become unburdened and live their life with a lighter attitude.
During my groups, I am always impressed by the sincerity of people. I can only respect and support them to undo the pain and sorrow they had to suffer in their lives, and to help them to let that go. Once we can forgive and let the past go, we can look into the present and eventually say thank you for what life has given us, even though sometimes we have to learn the hard way.
 
You also work with teenagers in the Tan-Ju program at the Humaniversity.Can you say something about that?
20 years ago, Veeresh asked me to work with teenagers and to teach them to express their emotions and to meditate. When I see the news on TV and I hear all these horrible stories about teenagers threatening and killing people at school because they are frustrated, I want to do something about it.
I think I can teach teenagers who are courageous enough to want to find new ways of dealing with all these emotions, how to express their repressed anger in a safe and healthy way. Then they can become powerful and strong, and able to make themselves happy. If we learn how to express and release emotions early in life, we have a good chance to create an emotional healthy life in the future. I like helping to give tools to become aware and be able to change in a way that benefits people in daily life.
 
Anything you would like to add?
Even though I recommended working on yourself early in life, it is never too late. Working on yourself and making yourself a happier and more fulfilled human being has advantages for any age group to.
Here in the Humaniversity we developed many innovative techniques that help you to become clearer emotionally and teach you to improve your social relating. I especially like that all the structures we teach are intense, deep, powerful, insightful, humorous, juicy, warm and gentle. We often work with all the polarities of life, the yin and yang.
I am looking forward to doing this group in Sweden and to bringing you the lightness of awareness by working on the emotions. I hope you will come and join.