Mansi Mahajan - Atlanta, Georgia

 

 Out of nowhere one day my best friend came to me with the idea of going to Panchgani for LMAD and listening to the acronym intrigued me to immediately say yes for it. And so, I attended LMAD in 2017 for the first time. I was completing my Bachelor’s from Pune at that time and a lot of things were happening and changing in my life. 

 

I had started living away from my family, I was participating and working in a lot of student committees with many different people and I was spending around 16-18 hours of my day in the campus doing something or the other. I had developed a very hyperactive mind, compounded by unnecessary habits like sleeping late and waking up late, unwanted overthinking and I was very attached to my phone. 

 
 

When I first entered the gates of Asia Plateau, the vibe of the place was very different and vernal, the coordinators were very vibrant and helpful. When I was introduced to the concept of quiet time, I found it very difficult to streamline my thoughts but then as the conference progressed my biggest learning was that quiet time was not about thinking rather it was about connecting to the conscious and inner listening. When I experienced it, the flow of my writing was unstoppable and I had found a new voice within me. My naivety transformed into self-confidence, and I went and spoke in front of everyone. Learning about the four principles made me realize that I was living by the principles but with my own perspective of them; by compromising one or the other in some form. I felt ashamed as I reflected on it and I understood the depth and importance of living with all the four principles. 

 

All the different sessions had a very deep impact on me. The pyramid of life taught me to set straight priorities and function accordingly. I let go my fear of self-doubt as I burnt it and it had a great impact on me. DLST was one of the most important sessions for me as I learnt that there is a proper time to perform every action. We need everyday discipline to build proper health and good habits. There were many small things that stayed with me the most; like my discussion with Viral Bhai where he was telling me to ‘Stop Thinking and Start Doing’; this was important for me because I was overthinking about everything in my life. I was always worried about the future and I kept blaming the past. But I learnt to live in the present and be in the moment. I was blown away after the Power of Vision session because I always had big dreams for my career and Bhisham Bhai’s line ‘Vision + Action = The power of future’ helped me make important decisions. I always wanted to do something for the society and it was by being a part of two NGOs. I always wanted to follow my passion and interests which was numbers, mathematics and finance and I also wanted to earn money from everything but I had never thought that all of this can be put together and I can have a career which will be the best for me. That exercise influenced me to plan my future, set short-term goals and achieve the long-term dreams and be happy to have achieve it and live it. Family day put me into tears while speaking with my father because I had always been close to my family but never had expressed gratitude for the role my family had in nurturing me and making me a strong person. 

 

When I returned from the conference, I felt like I had gotten new feathers to fly high. I was doing everything before but with many selfish thoughts; later I started performing all my tasks by being mindful and doing it with conviction. I consistently followed the new learnt power of inner listening through quiet time. Many of my negative emotions towards other like ego and aggression were crushed completely and I started living more happily than ever. I used all the learnings to move ahead in my career, get a good job and then get admission into a great university for my masters. LMAD helped me a lot during the covid time and I was able to attend and volunteer during the virtual conferences. Now I had the opportunity to come back and join the fellowship to dig even deeper in my conscious and live with utmost purity and learn to take the message of LMAD ahead to many young people.

 
Stories of Change

Subscribe Our Newsletter