Developing mental wealth through Art of Living breathing courses

The Art of Living Foundation was developed as an effort to help individuals better manage their minds and take leadership actions that will improve society as a whole. The foundation was developed by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a globally revered spiritual and humanitarian leader, who has spearheaded an unprecedented worldwide movement for a stress-free, violence-free society the Art of Living foundation finds solutions for a stress-free and happy life through breath, meditation and yoga.
Speaking with this publication was Ajay Tejasvi a certified international leadership trainer, who has supported corporations and students across 30 countries sharing self-management and wellness techniques to support a healthy, happy and productive life. Tejasvi highlighted that presently in “our society, the use of aggression to resolve situations is quite common especially with young men. In our generation aggression is associated with masculinity or strength, but actually if you look at it psychologically those who behave aggressively are very insecure inside, actually it has been proven that inside they are very weak and fragile and that’s why they want to show some sort of aggression outside.”
In this regard, he noted that one of the aims of the Art of Living Foundation, is to flip the concept and show individuals that assertiveness does not equal aggression.
Tejasvi noted that today’s society has two common issues “aggression and depression”. He shared that the mission of the Art of Living foundation is to address these two issues in an unconventional way by offering practical tools and techniques to empower individuals. “society is swinging between two poles on one side we have aggression and on the other we have depression, people are completely depressed and sad and not able to connect with each other.
To address both of these issues the Art of Living Foundation offers very practical tools and techniques that help you feel strong from within, through the power of the breath, through calming the mind and then you’re in a position to really take decisions and respond rather than react, a lot of people do things reactively or aggressively then we hurt somebody and regret it.
Managing these negative emotions are usually not taught in school or in the household but that is where the breath comes in,” he noted. According to Tejasvi, studies have shown that certain emotions influence your physiology through the breath. The Art of living workshops educates participants on how to positively influence their mind by using the breath in certain patterns through a simple breathing technique that helps to harmonise emotions and manage daily stress.
Meanwhile the Arts of Living Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Raul Ortemberg noted that it is their job to educate the younger generation, to eliminate certain issues that are prominent in the world today and shared some words of encouragement for the youths of Guyana.” When you feel to do something negative out of anger or frustration postpone and when you think to do something good do it immediately normally what we tend to do is the opposite” secondly, he encouraged youths to invest money in themselves “invest money in yourself instead of spending money on partying and alcohol, use part of it to take a program to grow and to learn, it will change your life” he stated. He further noted that the use of alcohol and drugs are only a temporary solution and resorting to the use of drugs will only open the door for more challenges. In this regard he encouraged not only the youths but all members of society to enroll in programmes offered by the Arts of Living Foundation.
The Art of Living Foundation has been around for two decades in Guyana and is active in more than 170 countries across the world, the Arts of Living Foundation has touched the lives of over 500 million people and will continue its commitment to disseminate mental wealth in Guyana and across the world in an effort to foster a peaceful environment.