Journey Towards Self Mastery

The two key foundational leadership skills described by both researchers and top corporate executives are awareness and mastery over one’s inner landscape – mental models, thoughts, emotions, and sources of meaning. Why? Simply because it is their interplay which significantly determines one’s way of engaging effectively in the world. When developed adequately, these two inner meta competencies enable the leader to assess the complex and changing situations with minimum colouring and distortion. The leader’s vision, short- and long-term goals are also rooted in a calm, lucid appreciation of what is. Decisions and actions can become more flexible, pertinent and inclusive, and relating to people more open, authentic and nourishing. Journey towards Self Mastery (JTSM) is a reflective and experiential course as an initiation on this path of development. Its intention is to provide management students insights and practical tools to navigate with wisdom, live with more engagement, meaning and fulfilment, and in the process accomplish their quest for performance and success. The content of the sessions is based upon insights and practices from Eastern Wisdom Traditions (Advaita, Vedanta, Buddhism, etc.) and the growing field of Mindfulness, supplemented by frameworks from Cognitive and Developmental Psychology and research findings from Neurosciences. By the end of this Course, you will be able to 1. Identify your areas of subjectivity and distorted thinking patterns. 2. Apply appropriate responses to situations, through insights and skills gained from both Western Cognitive Psychology and Eastern Wisdom. 3. Construct foundations for your personal practice of meditation to become more aware and grounded, to operate from greater relaxation, and to be more creative and lucid in decision-making. 4. Prepare yourselves to be more empathetic and participative to deal with others at work. 5. Discover the sources of meaning and fulfillment in your life. 6. Understand the concepts of interconnectedness and interdependence, and their role as an active contributor to society. 7. Prepare themselves to act wisely by distinguishing between their capacity to drive change and the acceptance of what is beyond

• Identify distorted thinking patterns and subjective biases
• Apply appropriate responses using insights from Western psychology and Eastern wisdom
• Enhance empathy and participation in interpersonal work relationships
• Discover sources of personal meaning and fulfillment

• No deep prior experience required, but basic computer and internet skills are helpful
• Ability to follow English instructions and complete short practice activities