My Lesson

Every Tuesday and Thursday we have our largest group therapy session, called "Community Meetings." Lasting about an hour and a half, these sessions bring all the PHP patients and a variety of therapists and aides together. We "check-in" about current struggles, discuss how we can help one another in recovery, hold ourselves accountable for behaviors, and more. On the IP/Res side we appointed a leader for each session. That person was encouraged to start the meeting out in a creative way- a lot of patients share songs or poetry that will get the group thinking and set the tone of the meeting. Unsurprisingly, the PHP patients are much less willing to engage in this sort of therapeutic mood-setting and positivism; they lead their groups like G.I. Jane.

So, I decided we needed a little perking up (or maybe a little pissing-off) and I asked to lead one of our community sessions. I opened the group with a discussion of the Hindu principle of Shakti, the divine female force that male deities require in order to act. I related a discussion of Shakti to a couple Hindu principles and quotes that I remembered from my time in India. Afterward, I used discussion questions to open the group.

If success is measured by personal satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment, and reaching out to just a few patients, then I was definitely successful. If it is measured by the number of eye rolls employed by the less spirituality inclined, then I was equally successful. If it was measured by awkward silences, the success meter goes off the wall. It was a lot of fun.

Process Group 4/28/2011: Shakti and the Ocean

1.) Shakti description from wikipedia
Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति) from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism.[1] Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as 'The Great Divine Mother' in Hinduism. On the earthly plane, Shakti most actively manifests through female embodiment and creativity/fertility, though it is also present in males in its potential, unmanifest form.[2]

Not only is the Shakti responsible for creation, it is also the agent of all change. Shakti is cosmic existence as well as liberation, its most significant form being the Kundalini Shakti,[3] a mysterious psychospiritual force.[4] Shakti exists in a state of svātantrya, dependence on no-one, being interdependent with the entire universe.

In Shaktism, Shakti is worshiped as the Supreme Being. However, in other Hindu traditions of Shaivism and Vaishnavism, Shakti embodies the active feminine energy Prakriti of Purusha, who is Vishnu in Vaishnavism or Shiva in Shaivism. Vishnu's female counterpart is called Lakshmi, with Parvati being the female half of Shiva.

2.) Quote:
"Merge into the Maha Shakti. This is enough to take away your misfortune. This will carve out of you a woman. Woman needs her own Shakti, not anybody else will do it...When a woman chants the Kundalini Bhakti mantra, God clears the way. This is not a religion, it is a reality. Woman is not born to suffer, and woman needs her own power."
-Yogi Bhajan (Harbhajan Singh)

3.) One important Hindu principle:
All rivers flow into the same ocean. Or, No matter the trail to the top of the mountain, the view is the same.

Questions for Discussion:
1.) How does the description of Shakti make you feel?
2.) What does the description of Shakti make you think?
3.) Does this description remind you of any recovery skills, other religious teachings, memories, etc.?
4.) Specifically, how does the second paragraph relate to the pillars and skills of recovery?
5.) Do you feel like the quotes relate to recovery? How?