Event Date: 19th March 2024
Detailed Session Plan
One day at lunchtime me, Karan, Sneha and Xavier sir were discussing ‘gratitude’ after looking at the quote below on the calendar. Xavier sir shared that a person who has gratitude, will be peaceful in life because he/she will get very less moments of negative emotions. When you have gratitude in your life it makes you humble. This discussion became the seed for the topic of our next staff session: ‘Gratitude’.
While preparing for the session, we were considering whether or not to include the privilege walk activity for the group. Our major concern was that it could become very sensitive and can trigger someone, yet it was a very powerful activity to bring to light our privileges and instigate a deep feeling of gratitude among the participants. After long discussions and intense contemplation, we decided to conduct the activity. We were very mindful of our own intentions and what we were signing up for.
In our fast and busy life we often forget to be thankful. We need to take a pause and see the world we have built with the help of so many people and various things. This session was that pause for everyone. 
On the day of the session we welcomed the staff with the heart pins made by children from the slums of Ahmedabad and a tika, while there was an instrumental prayer playing in the background, with a warm and welcoming seating arrangement and a beautiful centerpiece. The ambiance was set for a wonderful session ahead! I started the session by sharing gratitude to a person who had helped me start my clinic in her space with very nominal charges. With this opening, I asked everyone to share one thing / person / incident that they were grateful for. Most people shared that they are very grateful for their family members. This little sharing of gratitude made everyone comfortable and they settled down well. Then Karan explained to them the next thing which was very delicate but had the potential to open the heart of everyone – ‘Privilege walk’. Karan had beautifully handled the delicacy of the activity which took them to their past, forced them to see some of their painful moments, reflect on their life, and see the numerous things that they could be grateful for.
At the start of the activity, everyone stood in a straight line facing to one side and closed their eyes. For the activity, there was a set of preplanned questions that we would ask the participants based on their lives and for each question that applied to them, they would either take a step forward or a step back depending on the statement. Each of these questions would either indicate a positive or negative aspect of one’s life influenced by their environment or external factors. I started asking the questions one by one, in a slow, serious tone and people started taking steps forward or backwards. These people in front of us were people we knew well, people whom we had a connection with and who had a connection with each other. As I was asking the questions I could sense that I was beginning to feel affected too, it was touching my heart. Some of them were hurt in the past, some were bullied, and some had addiction issues in their family. On the other side, some of them were proud first generation graduates in their families, some had sat in flights, and more. In that tense environment, Karan and Sneha forgot to click a picture to capture that moment. When the questions were over, we asked everyone to open their eyes and look around. When they opened their eyes, they saw that even though all of them had started from the same point, their colleagues were now at different places, some were ahead, some were behind. Everyone was quiet, introspective and felt heavy. We asked them to move back to their seats while maintaining the silence.
Karan entered into that silence with a gentle voice. He slowly calmed the tense atmosphere and started asking questions to explore the feelings of how they felt when their colleagues who started with them were not with them, and what touched their hearts. But there was a pin drop silence, nobody was ready to speak. Karan has a strong heart as a facilitator and can hold space in a tense situation also, when the group is in deep silence. He gave time to the group to allow the emotions to flow with their own calmness. One of the teachers broke the silence and said, “I felt a little pain when I saw my colleagues standing behind after the questions, who had started with me.” Another teacher then added that when he had to take a step backward for a question related to a family member’s addiction, he felt very bad. The Superintendent shared that this activity had shown their entire life in just 15 minutes and that it was very powerful. One girl’s section staff said that, “there were moments which reminded me of difficult moments of the past, but I am able to see my progress in life at the same time”. A probation officer shared that, “the activity showed our struggle of life which we had forgotten. It is a reminder of how fine human beings we have become.” All the sharings was powerful and impactful and the message of gratitude reached everyone. Everyone deeply and genuinely felt grateful about the things that they have in their lives and also felt empathetic towards each other’s journeys. Along with gratitude, there was a much stronger connection that we all felt with each other.
With such abundance we went ahead in the session. We now wanted them to share their personal stories of gratitude and also ensure that everyone shares. So we decided to have a circle of sharing, but with unique questions distributed by chits. The chits with gratitude questions were prepared beforehand and everyone had to pick one question. The questions were based on different areas of life. We got very beautiful answers, and moreover these were extremely genuine. The tense atmosphere also became lighter yet the depth was maintained. Beautifully and candidly one probation officer shared that his life partner is so precious to him. And his wife who is working in the same premises and was a part of the session, reciprocated the feeling and shared how her husband helped her to grow educationally, financially and emotionally. A teacher from the girl’s section said that, “nature is an important thing in our life and I am very grateful for these elements of nature.” A probation officer shared an old painful incident where their seniors stood with them in support and how he felt very grateful to their seniors for doing that. Another probation officer shared that one home visit made him realize that life can be lived with simplicity and yet happily. One female staff member wasn’t able to share but still her tears told the story. Many more sharings came out in that space. Next, we wanted them to pour the overflowing cup of gratitude into something tangible and express it in whatever way they wanted. So, at the end everyone was given paper to write a letter of gratitude to anyone they wished, including people from the past. This note was just for them and they did not have to share it with the group or hand it to us. We told them that if they wished, they could give it to the person they wrote it for. The objective of the session flourished and one person shared that in this fast paced life, while constantly running, we should pause and say thank you to the person, situation, nature, things and to our own self more often. We ended the session with the song ‘Aa chal ke tujhe mein leke chalu’ and everyone stood up and were waving and dancing and there was a happy mood all around. This was very important for us, since we wanted to end the session with a high and not leave people in a low, negative mood.
Overall, this session was a very powerful one, and one of our most impactful sessions. This laid a strong foundation for us, brought us much closer to the staff members and re-energized us from the core.
Remembering our dear friend and mentor, Nimo’s Song – Grateful.
“All that I am, All that I see,
All that I’ve been, And All that I’ll ever be,
Is a blessing, It’s so amazing,
And I am grateful for it all”
