Workshop on Sai Parenting: South Bethesda, MD
The Sathya Sai Center of South Bethesda held a workshop on the impact of Sai Spiritual Education (SSE) on parenting on Feb 23, 2019. The workshop, attended by 37 participants, was facilitated by Mr. Piyush Ghayal, who has an extensive experience in conducting SSE programs and Sai Parenting workshops and webinars on related topics.
Mr. Ghayal provided an opportunity to reflect on what happens in families when parents and children practice universal human values in their daily lives. He gave parents valuable pointers on how to listen and stressed that being a good listener is vital to building relationships with their child, solving problems, avoiding miscommunication and increasing self-esteem in their child.
The speaker reminded everyone of Sai Baba’s message that problems and worries are really to be welcomed as they teach us the lessons of humility and reverence. He stressed that growth and learning are blocked in a child when a parent takes ownership of a child’s problem and not allow the child to take responsibility for resolving it.
In the afternoon session, Mr. Ghayal led the participants in a fun interactive role play session, with some playing the role of parents, and others playing the role of children. This hands-on-learning allowed participants to internalize effective communication techniques that can promote values in children during their formative years. Everyone agreed on the importance of using right words and devoting adequate time to lovingly converse with children to direct them to a righteous path in life. Participants also took away written guidelines on how they can instill universal human values in children. The informative session concluded with a question and answer session.