``AS IMPORTANT AS IT IS TO TAKE CARE OF OTHERS IT IS ACTUALLY TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.`` ``AS IMPORTANT AS IT IS TO TAKE CARE OF OTHERS IT IS ACTUALLY TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.``
Jose Mari Luzarraga is building a generation of changemaking entrepreneurs by re-defining education based on team learning and experimentation. He is the creator of the Leinn degree and co-founded Mondragon Team Academy, (MTA), global teams that adapt the vision of Mondragon by inserting it into the education system. Bachelor and Master’s degree students create people centered enterprises that generate economic and social impact through teampreneurship and learning by doing.
“The Wellbeing Project arrived at a crucial moment in my life. After 15 years fully devoted to serve others as a social entrepreneur, I was nearly at the edge of burnout. My life consists to reach and serve a growing number of yougsters, while dealing with many difficult issues on my own. I feel, accept pain, and suffering in my everyday life as something needed to serve better and it was having a negative impact personally and family wise.
This personal awareness of where and how I was, only came with The Wellbeing Project. Before the program I was focused on more: reach more and accept more challenges.
For me The Wellbeing Project showed me that “I could not serve and take care of others if I do not serve and take care of myself”, that we need to love others as we love ourselves. It is not about saying YES to others and NO to yourself, but the only way on the long run is to learn how to say YES to others and YES to yourself.
Throughout this personal transformation experience with great social entrepreneurs and human beings something became clear to me. On the one hand we need to accept, understand and embrace that being a social entrepreneur requires huge devotion and strength while: dealing with daily and tricky challenges, opening new paths where there are none, breaking and evolving thought models, making what is hidden or unknown to seen and understood… Being social entrepreneurs, we have the crucial, difficult and fascinating mission to “challenge the status-quo for a better world and humanity”.
On the other hand, we need to understand that the only way to do this, is to start with yourself. In the long run I cannot bring light to others if I do not light up myself. And for doing that, we need to load ourselves with the proper tools and activities to trigger the wellbeing and personal cultivation process. Wellbeing is a “life long journey”. It is a daily learning process.
The Wellbeing Project supported me with: “the understanding and awareness shift”, “providing the proper needed tools and activities” to start and nurture wellbeing, while not living this alone but “team learning” together with peers sharing the same learning journey.” JML
``IT'S YOU AND ONLY YOU THAT CAN MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY.`` ``IT'S YOU AND ONLY YOU THAT CAN MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY.``
By Alice Gatignol
Cecilia Flores-Oebanda is the president and executive director of Visayan Forum, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in the Philippines. Visayan Forum focuses on promoting the development, welfare and rights of marginalised people to end human trafficking. Cecilia and Visayan, now called Voice for the Free, have trained more than 1000 collaborators in the work against human trafficking and have helped more than 60,000 victims.
The story of Cecilia is one of the accumulation of trauma, ignored for years, followed by an epiphany, a renaissance. She was about 15 years old when she became a youth leader in a politically unstable Philippines, governed by a president considered a tyrant. However, Cecilia was determined to fight. At the heart of the fight, groups were organised to tell stories about liberation theology, and eventually Cecilia became one of three female commanders of the guerilla movement. In the middle of all this violence, the news landed: Cecilia was pregnant with her first child. “It is difficult to be pregnant when you are a guerilla fighter in the mountains,” she shares. When Cecilia gave birth, she was forced to give up her child. To make the situation harder, this was when she was informed of her mother passing away. Losing all hope, Cecilia hit rock bottom, and lost herself in the process.
Life on the battlefield carried on, and before she knew it, Cecilia was pregnant with her second child. She reminisces solemnly about the day on the battlefield when her loyal assistant tried to protect her 8-month pregnant body in a hole he dug with his bare hands, in the midst of gun fires and screams. “He was still calling my name when he died.” Seconds later, Cecilia and other men were captured and put into prison. There, she started her family, giving birth to her second child. The family spent four years in prison. Upon her liberation, Cecilia decided to definitely close this chapter of fighting and violence.
By then, her family was in Manila, and every Saturday, Cecilia attended meetings at the University to discuss current ongoings in provinces, and what needed to be done. There was a recurring theme that alarmed them all: the missing children from various regions, who were said to have come to work in Manila. However, nobody knew where they were. Many of them were victims of prostitution, many girls were sold, raped and used. Cecilia’s focus turned to child protection, and her battle became a peaceful one; one for equality, justice and safety.
The Wellbeing Project enabled Cecilia to reflect upon herself: her life, her purpose, her sacrifices, and those of others. As a participant of the Inner Development Program, Cecilia raised and released the trauma that had locked up inside herself throughout the years, to mourn the pain, to listen to her sufferings. “I finally got to process what was going on in my life, for all these years; I had been like a headless chicken who continued to run and run and run…”
“The Wellbeing Project provided me a safe space where I could pause and reflect — a space where I was able to heal the wounds I have incurred throughout my life as a freedom fighter, an activist, a friend, a daughter and as a mother. Choosing to become a freedom fighter and advocating against slavery and human trafficking was a choice which gave me heavy weight to carry and endure. Wellbeing helped me reach closure and move past the previous chapters of my life. It gave me a deeper sense of humanity and liberated me from guilt and unnecessary stress that I have been dealing with. I was able to process my brokenness, trauma, pain, and loss. My time with Wellbeing has been a gift of a lifetime and I’m extremely grateful.”
``LEARNING TO LOVE AND TREASURE BREATHING HAS CHANGED MY LIFE.” ``LEARNING TO LOVE AND TREASURE BREATHING HAS CHANGED MY LIFE.”
By Kildine de Saint Hilaire and Andrea Coleman
“I am English. Very English. We were taught, as we grew up, that showing your feelings drew disapproval. You must be strong, put on a brave face, show no weakness. The environment was tough for earlier generations. Not enough food, horrible cold, world wars, families separated and people working unreasonably hard during the industrial revolution. It was the way, those earlier generations thought: to make the young tough, resilient and they will survive. Provision of health care then was poor and mental health was treated by the expression ‘pull yourself together’.”
Andrea Coleman is a woman who inspires both admiration and motivation. Her achievements reveal her strengths, and her personality encourages kindness. Her journey has led her to develop Riders for Health, the organization she co-founded with her husband Barry Coleman in 1996. Andrea grew up believing that motorcycles were synonymous with the possibility of escaping. She embraced the motorcycle world to leave the place that she was in. “It was my route to freedom”, she explains when reflecting on her upbringing. Her first husband was a motorcyclist who had an accident while competing. After the accident, Andrea explains she was lost and did not know how to grieve, “I thought how to deal with grief was to be very busy and create something else.”
Andrea put all her effort and means into the creation of Riders for Health, an organisation that uses vehicles to deliver healthcare within multiple African countries. It defies a persisting status quo: the neglect of the use of vehicles in the field of development. With Riders for Health, vehicles are the pillar element. They bridge the distance between rural communities and health care. To say that building an organisation is a challenge is an understatement. It becomes a life mission that takes a lot out of those involved. “The last thing that I was doing was listening to myself,” explains Andrea, who suffered from anxiety and exhaustion. The more out of tune she was with her inner-self, the more Andrea was pushing her mind and body to exhaustion. Burnout has become the great epidemic of our generation, one that can have extreme consequences on individuals and their surroundings. Always pushing more and further can only last for a certain time and to a certain extent.”
“During The Wellbeing Project I realised I have been holding my breath for my whole life. Learning to love and treasure breathing has changed my life.”
As a participant in The Wellbeing Project’s Inner Development Program, Andrea decided to learn how to confront and deal with her internal angst. First, Andrea approached the language of wellbeing. Second, she delved into a research and understanding of the meaning behind the dialect of wellbeing. By giving herself the time to reflect on these concepts and how to adapt them to her life, she gained confidence and a significant change of attitude towards others. Andrea took part in a journey of self-exploration starting from within that came to have an extensive reach towards her outside world.
“I had no idea if I would be accepted onto the program and I had no idea what it would mean or if it would or could be helpful. But I knew I had to find some way to manage the pain I was experiencing. With my English background I found it hard to accept the idea of loving myself but I found out how to love the gifts I have been given, to know that caring for myself is not something to be ashamed of and to feel the same sympathy for myself as I would for others. I was taught the mechanism to find peace in looking at the sky at night, in the trees around me and to rest into the knowledge that there are people who love me. And I am worth being loved.”
Regarding her learnings, Andrea comments she discovered, “how to relate to people in a way I didn’t know how to before.” In addition, she has learned to let herself do things she enjoys and that make her happy. The emotion of guilt is no longer part of the equation. Andrea gives her personal take on wellbeing as a process that enabled her to feel capable and acquire a balance between responsibility and self-care.
“I hope I will always be open to accepting new ways of being as a result of my experience and I hope that I can continue to help others to be open to it too.“
Since her experience with The Wellbeing Project, Andrea has developed a new project: Two Wheels For Life. The organisation aims to develop and fundraise for Riders for Health and focus on motorcycles to ensure that life-saving healthcare reaches those in need. Wellbeing is a constant learning for Andrea. It offers her alignment and confidence while she remains the ambitious change-maker she is at her core.
“I DON’T THINK THAT THERE IS ONE PERFECT TIME FOR SOMEBODY TO UNDERGO A PROCESS OF WELLBEING.” “I DON’T THINK THAT THERE IS ONE PERFECT TIME FOR SOMEBODY TO UNDERGO A PROCESS OF WELLBEING.”
By Kabir Vajpeyi and Jacquelyn Salvador
There are moments in life when we become acutely, almost obsessively focused on what we’re doing. This focus can be useful for making progress in specific areas, but it can also cause us to forget about the context and other areas that are just as important. This is the issue Kabir Vajpeyi ran into when he became enveloped by his work with learning and child development. He’d been neglecting the human element — both within himself and for others. Slowly but surely, the pressure that he put on himself began to make it difficult to relate to people, and left him feeling rushed and worn down.
“If someone said they weren’t feeling well, my thought wasn’t how to take care of them,” Kabir explains, “it was ‘who’s going to finish this job.’”
His self-imposed drive to work and make progress also prevented him from spending time and connecting with his family. He worked late, and he noticed his personality taking a turn for the worse as the demand increased and took a toll on his energy and emotions. It was Kabir’s wife who finally expressed her mounting concerns for his wellbeing, which led to Kabir’s participation in The Wellbeing Project. Within the program’s community of support and wellness-centered retreats for entrepreneurs and changemakers, Kabir came face-to-face with the importance of taking care of his own wellbeing. He realized that it was critical in order to make a greater impact through his work.
“I was spending something so precious and tender, rather ruthlessly – life.
To me, the well-being journey has been literally a poignant, beautiful pause. A pause to stay still, sit down, look inside, feel, become aware and nourish my inner-being. And moving on with heightened self-awareness, repose and quietude, profoundly more sensitivity and responsiveness in life.
It made me focus on myself, without any guilt. I understood that working on self is not being self-centric. In fact, it is the most unique and beautiful gift to oneself and everyone around.
Earlier my work was my only identity. Now, this is no longer true. Now, at first, I am human being – a son, a brother, a classmate, a husband, a father…a friend.
Earlier my relationship with everyone was largely functional or work-centric. I would find myself helpless and even hopeless on matters related to relationship. With uncompromising support of some of the most outstanding resource persons at the Well-being project, I was able to work on almost all my significant relationships – with my own self, my attitudes, with my immediate and larger family, my friends, my neighbours, my colleagues at work, my work.
Later, on my own, I worked with my clients and everyone whom I meet every day. I discovered the value of being humane, kind and compassionate with everyone. I now practice it. It has made a huge difference in the quality of my relationships with everyone. This is now positively impacting not just me, but with almost everyone whom I am engaging at personal, social or professional level.
I discovered that I cannot change the world at all. Unless I change, nothing will change around me. I must be able to take responsibility and not blame others. To begin with, the one thing I can immediately change is, how I respond to what is going on around me. Matters may not have changed much in substance around me, but now, rather than reacting, I am able to sensitively contemplate and respond to it. I have become better at it. This has reduced my stress and anxiety substantially and I am able to respond to most difficult situations rather calmly – with greater sensitivity and patience.
I took upon a meditation practice and this has qualitatively changed the way now I feel and think. This has fundamentally changed my state from being anxious and stressed to being aware and peaceful. It has also changed how I engage with different people; how I work – how I am able to find solutions, contemplate and deliver them to the society and the government.
I realized that well-being is not just for me. It is everyone, everywhere in the nature. I cannot keep it to myself. If I am able to experience and live it, so could everyone around me too. I am striving for this at my own level.
I know that it’s a journey worth continuing…”
In looking back, one of the most interesting revelations Kabir had from The Wellbeing Project was that the greatest work and progress was made not by focusing on the work itself, but by shifting toward a focus on the participant’s deeper needs and elements. In fact, even though he and the other participants were all deeply involved in and committed to their work, they rarely ever talked about work during their participation in The Wellbeing Project. That’s what created such a nurturing atmosphere for change and growth. The ability to slow down and really focus on the human element created a powerful foundational shift within Kabir. He’s now seen firsthand the importance of inner wellbeing, which enables us to do our greatest good. That element has created positive effects in his personal emotions, his relationships, his work interactions and his overall work.
Kabir is now a strong advocate of taking action to set the process of wellbeing into motion, whenever and wherever we notice that need. “You don’t need to first burn out and then get into [wellbeing],” Kabir offers as encouragement, “whenever you realize its significance, that’s when to start realizing who you are, what is inside you, what you can offer.”
