In this blog, I want to share with you the experience of visiting my engineering college campus after 20 years of graduation.
I was surprised by the openness of Gen-Z towards self-discovery. You can gain a quick sneak peek at the in depth conversation about “alchemizing perception” and the “future of leadership."
So let’s dive in.
Entering my college campus, 20 years after graduating, was like being teleported to my early 20s. I could notice my breathing pattern changing, the perception of the present moment obliterated by the memory from 20 years ago.
Playfulness, aspirations, knowledge, and intellect, all came alive in this experience of nostalgia. I could almost hear the buzz of students in spite of no one being around.
On this occasion, I had been invited to be a guest speaker at an event. The event theme was “Alchemizing Perception."
It means shifting from a limited perception by releasing it thereby disappearing the tendencies of conflicts in our experiences.
At this event, the host and the audience were keen to understand how we can rise to a perception that has the power to broaden the perception spectrum. Some of them were also curious to find if there is a way to recognise how a perception gets formed and, when required, be free of it altogether.
This is a ‘larger than life’ journey to take on; and this event showed me that 20 year olds have taken on this journey.
I would like to do a small comparison of two real-life events that I have experienced 20 years apart.
Year 2002. I am in a training room with 44 others. All of us are in our early twenties. The trainer offers me the stage to speak about anything that I would like to. For three and a half minutes, I speak on the importance of self-discovery—"Who am I?" Not a soul in the room is able to connect with what soul-searching means. Result: 44 people in their early twenties mocked the speaker, me, for a week or so.
Year 2022. I am invited to be a guest speaker at an event. A crowd of 100 students in their early twenties attends. The questions from the audience include topics like karma, free will, destiny, and self-discovery. Conversations in the room flow with deep contemplations and revelations. Result: 100 people in their early twenties get down to genuine soul-searching, not knowing that they have won my respect for their entire generation.
This openness and maturity of Gen Z mean different things to different sets of people.
To the millennials, it means good news: We didn’t entirely screw up in bringing up the new generation.
The general disappointment towards certain traits of GenZ, that can be observed going around, ironically means that the millennials did not do a good job at upbringing. This event has given me an opportunity and evidence to see GenZ in a different light.
The creators of the program have shown a great deal of readiness. An openness towards bringing perception to a plane where it is free of all the contamination of bias and self-imposed rigidity.
This is a journey into clarity. We feel that an opinion or a point of view gives us a ground to stand on - supports our confidence and self assurance. It doesn’t take much to see the flip side of it though. Holding on to an opinion too tightly makes us resistant to change, growth, and moving with flexibility in a world that is ever changing.
The openness of the youth towards this alchemizing their perception brings in a whole new possibility for the future generations. This would make us more interrelated and hence create an environment of interrelatedness. The environment we create is one of the most dominant factors in the upbringing of the next generation. This means, the youth of today is creating a conscious world for the upbringing of the future generation.
Of course, this interpretation of mine smells like hope based on a generalisation made by a small subset of people, but paying attention to this hope and giving it time and energy, I feel, is our chance to bring it to reality.
It is wondersome how the world is changing. GenZ is setting a ground for matured living. It invites the leaders in their 30s and 40s to catch up with this transforming world..
By alchemizing perception, the leaders can bring transformation to their day-to-day conversations. They get the ability to influence conversations from a clutter-free inner space. Also, keep the resulting decisions clean of any contamination of individual and limited perception. This process, right here, is the access point to their own transformation and that of their teams and organizations.
In the coming days, I plan to post excerpts of the alchemizing conversation that took place at this event.
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Shoonyo is a visionary and spiritual mentor. After 18 years of meditation and significant research into mind powers, NLP, martial arts practice with a black belt, healing practices, and deeper spiritual practices, he experienced the clarity of awakened space and began sharing with seekers.
Shoonyo worked as a business intelligence manager in London for 10 years. He abandoned an opulent international corporate career to guide people towards awakening space.
Shoonyo now runs 3 ventures in India; Corporate training and leadership, One:One mentoring for business owners, and a mental wellness NGO known as Shoonyo Foundation.
Other than business ventures, he has authored two books: " Looking for the obvious", an amazing work of spiritual fiction; and "Embodying Bhagavad Gita," a nine-month practical course on the Bhagavad Gita. He is Amazon's # 3 best-selling author and is cherished by elite readers.