Hello!

TALK!

"We encourage you to Talk! out your pain, heal your heart and make you smile. We use a combination of listening, counselling and life coaching skills and equip you with tools that will enable you to achieve your goals of a well-balanced life."

Somewhere around the first week of January 2019, someone posted about Theatre through Leadership sessions on a blogger's WhatsApp group. First session for bloggers/influencers/journalists was for free. The description of the post looked appealing. It was similar to the one posted above with the only difference that price had been taken out. Since one of my resolutions for year 2019 was self improvement, the description seemed to fit the requirement. I sent in my details to the poster who forwarded to Omer Farooq, the man behind Talk!. We conversed over a phone call, exchanged profiles and there popped up a group of influencers on WhatsApp. 

I went for my first free session to Omer's place on January 11th, 2019. Interestingly, I was the only blogger who showed up despite commitment from quite a few number. After a wait of an hour or so, my solo session began. The session went really well and Omer and his wife, Mehreen (who by the way is the expert and hands on with the whole thing) did a good job. As a blogger I had to post about them which I did on Instagram. I made a few short video clips asking about the course, what it does and why anyone needs to opt for it. 

Apart from a nagging gut feeling, all appeared to look good and after discussion with a friend, we both decided to opt for the whole course. At that time, the course comprised of 6 sessions in all, 1 session/ week and each session of 2 hours. Interesting thing is the cost of the sessions is very fluctuating. The post I have put above is of October where the sessions were Rs. 2,000 each. In January we were told its 3,500 per session. and today it is something else entirely. I will discuss about the fluctuating cost in my upcoming posts, for now lets focus on our own negotiation. At the time we joined it was Rs. 3,500 per session and was to be paid upfront for all sessions. Early bird discount was Rs. 1,000 which means Rs. 20,000 in total. Since my first session was free I had to pay Rs. 17,500 and my friend after negotiating with Omer also paid Rs. 17,500. Note here that I received no discount here, only my friend did. So after paying a total of Rs. 35,000 we were on board for 6 sessions which were supposed to take place on consecutive Saturdays for 6 weeks. 

SESSION - I 

Session - I is about finding the body neutral which means, being relax ready to adapt into any role anytime. The greatest quality of an actor is his/her ability to perform and act in any role. Once you are in a relaxed state of mind and body, your brain clears and you are more focused and act wisely in situations. Now how does this relate to leadership? Any Executive/Chairperson/MD and Managers dealing with critical situations that require quick decision making need to be relax ready and focus on wise decisions. The muscles using excessive energy leave less energy for the brain to focus. This is where session - I helps you and, conditions you into being relax ready. 

Session - I includes a few activities, first being able to focus at a point and clear your mind and focus only on the point and be more aware of the surroundings. This activity takes around 10 - 15 minutes. This activity is for the brain, conditioning it to focus. Next activities are for the body. The body exercises release tension out of the body and take the body into a relaxed state. Another such activity is the body flop which works for the whole body and releases stress and tension out of the muscles. Lastly, its about the walk. 

MY EXPERIENCE

First I'd like to mention here, the profile focuses on Talk, it gives the impression as if you are going to therapists. This is not the case, these people are not therapists. They aid in teaching techniques that help you achieve a state of calmness and relaxation to an extent.

So, I and my friend were on time for session - I, 5 minutes before 3.30 pm. I repeated the session - I as it was with other group members. The other group members were late and we had to wait for good 1.5 hours for them to arrive. When the session began it was around 4.45 pm. Two of the group members left after 45 minutes as they had a prior commitment and were not bothered to complete the session, least of all respect the time we wasted waiting for them. They were friends with Omer and Mehreen and were invited to just participate in good gesture. 

The time dedicated to each session is 2 hours as per the communication but with lots of cigarette breaks, tea breaks and chit chat the actual session is no more than and hour or 1.25 hours. Important to note here is these sessions take place at Omer's residence. The overall environment is very homely and casual. I work in a Corporate with C suits and have extensive experience working with foreigners bosses, as much as I enjoyed the casualness, I missed the professionalism and structure in the session. 

Overall, the session was productive and helped me a great deal with learning to be relax ready and present in the moment. The rest was on me to practice and develop muscle memory to be relax ready at all times. The key is - practice, practice and practice!

Review on session - II will be posted soon during this week. Drop in your comments for your feedback. xoxo!!!