Back from "Happy Camp"!

If "Option Institute" were a pancake restaurant, their slogan would be: "Come Angry, Leave Happy".

Last week was my second trip there, as I went to attend the 4.5 day long Son Rise - New Frontiers advanced training program.

I learnt some cool new techniques to build on our interactions with Aditya, but the highlight for me was clearly a much better understanding of the Option process.

In fact, it struck me like a lightening: the "Option" process attitude is not only an important part of Son Rise, it is the most important part of Son Rise.

When we take on the attitude of "choosing" what we do (choose anything including "play or not play today" to "run or not run the Son Rise program") we are likely to have a much more exciting and rewarding experience of anything that we do.

Imagine you are at the top of the Himalayas. You are enjoying the breathtaking views... soaking in all that you can take. This is something you have WANTED to do for years. You are doing it today after years of planning, so you would most likely agree you would not be thinking about "what's for dinner" in this moment.

Do we feel so excited about everything that we do in life, even if we really "choose" to do whatever we do?

Ever imagine the feeling of "wanting" what you do and doing what you want, as opposed to the feeling of "having to do a thing although you didn't want to"?

Following my return from New Frontiers, we convened a "first of its kind" team meeting.

For starters, everyone took on different identities.... those of our favorite animals:-) Anyone who spoke did so only after identifying him or herself with a woof or a neigh or a roar! (The new belief = we can all be silly.)

For another, we devoted the whole meeting to discussing "Stimulus-Belief-Response" aka the Option Process, with examples.

We passed around an empty water bottle for the microphone. Though we found this funny in the beginning, about an hour later, we were passing around the bottle like it was a real microphone. We then stopped and marveled at how we just created a new belief about the bottle!

We also decided that we would take on some new beliefs when we go into the playroom:
1) we are in the playroom because we "want" to play with Aditya. If this is not the case (for whatever reason) we will choose to do what we want-- maybe take the day off!
2) Since we "want" to be in the playroom, we are going to focus on enjoying that one experience (remember the top of the Himalayas?). We are therefore leaving our phone and our thoughts outside the room.
3) We are doing this program for ourselves, not for Aditya. To do this in the most effective way, we will strive to be exceptional team members. Since we want to do our best, we will look forward to feedback, and to Option process dialogues to explore our underlying beliefs which may be coming in the way of our being effective in the playroom.

The team is excited, and we are meeting again in one week!