Art of Living Volunteer Training Program (VTP) experience

‘Walk like a King, but be a humble servant to Humanity.’

I went through a great many experiences the past few weeks, most cherishable being the ‘Art of Living Volunteer Training Program‘: A 2 weekend intensive 60 hour training program offered to a select few individuals who want to become more involved with the foundation.

The workshop is a beautifully crafted program to help individuals shine. Unlike most Art of Living programs which are designed to help the individual rest, rejuvenate and heal, this workshop teaches you how to give; how to be a host. The beauty of the program is hard to describe in a single post, but essentially it took our personal ingredients: intentions, skills, knowledge and resourcefulness; and fused them together in an inexplicable way, letting us rise out of our shortcomings and bring forth an unblemished polish to the self. And, we shined!

In went 12 individuals with fragmented, isolated, limited vision goals, and out came one. We became a union; a gang with the vision and grandoise intention to be steadfast, motivated, disciplined and proud to represent the foundation and support its functioning for the simple founding goals we dearly believe in: To uplift people from pain and sorrow.

I learnt a lot in the workshop, not just about how to volunteer, how to be a great public speaker, how to take care of people, how to work in a team and how to be a strong and inspiring leader; but mostly through the processes, I saw myself. And, meeting me was a very intriguing and exhaustive endeavor. Questions gripped me that tore me apart. Why am I here? What do I want to do? And, why do I want to volunteer?

So, what did I see in myself? I saw fear, I saw dullness and I saw fragility. Nothing in the world means more to me than the privilege to serve. Asking myself why I volunteer was like asking the Sun why it shines or the river why it flows. It is in my very nature, and I am simply being me. But, witnessing the stark contrast to how I did not attend to self-care struck a chord. If ones wishes to be more, the journey starts from within. I learnt the importance of establishing self-discipline, improving physical/mental stamina, becoming more skillful in balancing personal/work/social/volunteer lives and most importantly to grow sustainably.

Turning from a guest to a host for your society requires a deeper churn in you. It is easy to give a few hours of your spare time for a cause. It is easy to lift a pencil that fell on the floor and feel like you supported. But, to truly support your society, you need to not only love, nourish and respect you, but also ingrain the intention deep inside to skillfully support a cause in a way that can move mountains.

And, through this all, I realized I was just getting warmed up. The program laid out a beautiful journey ahead of me that I am about to start. A new me, a more skilled me and a stronger me has awoken. And, with the beautiful community I have that shares my excitement, I might be able to contribute after-all…

Update 10/9/2019:

Check out my Teacher Training Program (TTP) experience here.

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