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I had heard about Auroville a long time ago already. I do not remember how…

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While I was thinking about what I would do during my project, Auroville was not in my plans. I had not thought about it, actually.

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I started my journey. Plum Village, Rumania, Yeu Island, Seoul, Hong Kong, Lao, Philippines.

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We agreed with my parents and sister to meet for the Christmas holidays. India was in between the Philippines and Paris. We decided to travel together in Kerala for 10 days.

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And then it was like an evidence to me. I would spend some time in Auroville before joining my family.

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I booked my flight tickets, went through the e-visa procedure, wrote on Facebook that I was going to Auroville, asking for recommandations : who should I meet ? what should I do there ? where should I stay ?

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I only new that Auroville was a utopian town, and that was enough.

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A friend recommended a guesthouse to me. I wrote an email. The room was available.

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Two weeks before leaving I start looking at Auroville website to know more about the place and what I can experience there.

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I see that there are « Inner Discovery retreats ». Sounds interesting ! Both to grow on my personal path and to discover and learn about the methodology and philosophy. I subscribe to the Inner Discovery retreat : I will have 3 individual coaching sessions.

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Insights about Auroville 

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First of all, here are is some information about this special and unique place.

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Auroville was founded in 1968, and was built by the Aurovillians themselves.

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The project is based on the vision of two spiritual masters : Sri Aurobindo and The Mother – who was French. At its heart, there is the wish to accelerate human evolution – through the development of the level of consciousness and awareness.

There is no traditional government, rules are established out of consensus, there are alternative systems (education, environment, economy, health, art…). It is a laboratory.

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There are amazing things going on, just as there are big difficulties. Light and shadow, as always.

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When I arrive at Chennai airport, it is late and dark. There is a driver waiting for me with a sign with my name.

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Hello, India !

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The journey to Auroville will last around 3 hours.

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I am a bit worried in the car because I notice that my driver is very, very tired. So I hope that he will not fall asleep. I ask him if he is ok and not too tired. He says he is ok. I think : should I make conversation with him all along the trip so that I make sure he does not fall asleep ? And on my side I also feel so tired, I am half asleep and do not have the courage to speak ! The driver stops several times to have chai tea and stretch.

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2am. We arrive, safe and sound ! An old Indian man who takes care of the house is waiting for me. He brings me to the little house in a forest garden, where I will be staying. It is peaceful.

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I fall asleep instantly.

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I had no expectation at all while arriving in Auroville. I had not really understood what this place was about, I did not know exactly what I would do, who I would meet… I had set the intention to discover and explore.

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I had decided to go with the flow, and see what happens.

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I chose to entitle this article « My Auroville experience » because when I was there, I really thought that there may be as many experience of Auroville as people who go there. There are so many things you can do, perspectives to focus on (spirituality, politics, ecology, education, arts, …), people you can meet, places where you can go… I thought that each person creates his/her own experience there.

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I wake up with the birdsong all around me. And I love it. I am in small house in the middle of a garden/forest.

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I think : « I will feel good here ! ». I meet the person who runs the guesthouse and he gives me advice about how to get started : where to find a bike, an ATM, an Indian SIM card, where to register and get my Auroville card – people who stay at Auroville have to do this. This card allows you to pay in many places of Auroville.

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My journey in Auroville begins with my first « Inner Discovery retreat » coaching session. It is good to have already something planned, to have an appointment.

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I am meeting Juan, my coach, at Vérité Community.

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Yes, in Auroville, places have interesting names ! Solitude Farm, Silence, Adventure, Quiet, Miracle, Sincerity…

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We sit outside and get to know each other. He gives me a white small notebook.

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I share quickly about my background and project. To me, the direction I am taking is quite clear and I would like to focus more on barriers I have identified, and that prevent me to go ahead with fluidity. These last months have really helped me to get to know myself better and I know more what I need to work on.

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And we get started. He makes me talk, gives me highlights, shares knowledge and experience with me.

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I have exercices to do for next time.

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Then I tell Juan that I need to go to the Visitor Center to rent a bicycle – I would love to ride a motorbike here (like almost everybody here), and Auroville is the perfect place for this. However, I have never done it, I am afraid of driving cars in France, and I have a very bad sense of direction. So I think that a bicycle will be a good start.

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Juan offers me to drop me there. On the way, we stop at the school to pick-up his young daughter.

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And we end up having lunch, the 3 of us, in a North-Indian small restaurant close to the visitor center. I drink a fresh papaya juice, try my first thali, and feel so happy. My stay here begins wonderfully ! Juan’s daughter wants to wash her hands every 5 minutes because the soap is blue and her hands become blue when she washes them.

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Then I rent my bike and buy a map of Auroville.

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I look at it, amazed by the names, but again, I think : « Oh no, I will get lost all the time, as usual… ! ».

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I have to go to the town hall to get registered and get my Auroville card. I meet an Indian guy who is also going there and knows the cycle path !

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I am soon officially an Aurovilian guest.

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In the morning, I go to the Visitor Center, order a masala chai tea at the café, connect to the wifi and start working on my laptop. At lunchtime, I am meeting Thomas. He is the cousin of the friend of a friend and lives very close to Auroville. It is really great to meet someone who lives here and can share his experience and knowledge with me !

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He is going to Pondicherry in the afternoon and offers me to drop me there so that I can visit the town. So I spend the afternoon there. For the first time, I see the seaside in India. I discover the historic and colonial part of the city. It is a beautiful town with typical architecture.

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I go to Sri Aurobindo ashram – as I mentionned, he and « The Mother » are the spiritual masters who created and developped the vision that gave birth to Auroville. I bought a small book about Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, the ashram and Auroville. I sat in the very quiet patio of the ashram, where there are the gravestones of the two spiritual masters covered with fresh flowers.

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Then I went to the Ganesh temple. There is an elephant called Lakshmi in the temple ; and everyday, Lakshmi gives blessing to people. However, when I went there, she was not there.

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Then I walked along the pier, looking at the seaside. I discovered the statue of Gandhi and Nehru.

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I felt that it was not easy to be a woman alone strolling in the streets of Pundicherry. I did not feel unsafe but men really looked at me, some were taking pictures of me. It is not confortable.

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Later on, Thomas was done with his shopping and brought me back to Auroville. On our way we stopped in some organic shops where he had to buy bread, cheese, vegetables.

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I had my second Inner Discovery retreat appointment with Juan.

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After the 2 hours coaching session, I looked at the activities they offered at Vérité Community. There was a 2 days shiatsu initiation workshop starting the next days and decided to subscribe.

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I wanted to know more about Auroville. I went to the visitor center where there are explanations and exhibitions. I registered for the Matrimandir visit – the Matrimandir is the geographical and spiritual center of Auroville. From outside, it looks like a golden golf ball placed in the middle of a very green garden. It is a place for meditation and concentration.

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I started reading a book that was in my room : Le mental des cellules (The Mind of the cells, in English) written by a French man called Satprem. This book is really fascinating and strange and quite hard to understand.

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As I explained earlier, the project of Auroville is above all spiritual.

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The Mother led the way in terms of human evolution : at the end of her life, she experienced a transformation of her body. She experienced a new way of being, through her cells. Satprem spent all these years with her, he was a witness of these experiences. She was explaining what she felt and he wrote everything.

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According to The Mother, this transformation to the next generation of human being happens not in the mind but in the cells of the body. Yes, I told you, it is very strange. But it was very interesting !

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For example, she explains that she is aware of being part of the universe, she does not know things through her mind but through her body, she can be aware of and feel things that happen to other people…

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I start my Shiatsu Initiation workshop. The teacher is from Israel. We are 8 participants, mainly women, from France, Germany, Belgium, India, Taiwan.

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Shiatsu comes from Japan but was inspired from a Chinese technique. It means « finger pressure » in Japanese. It is a therapeutic massage method based on traditional Chinese medicine principles.

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The teacher starts with a little bit of theory. But the objective of the workshop is to practice and train.

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So quickly we start with stretching and meridians warming-up exercices – in order to provide good care and energy to others we have to make sure that first of all, we are in good energy.

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This is what I really enjoy about jobs that focus on taking care of others – this is also what François Delivré mentions in Le Métier de Coach (The coaching profession, I would translate, but I think there is no English version). You have to feel good to be able to help others. So taking care of yourself is part of your job. Wonderful !

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The teacher gives us papers with the series of shiatsu movements. There is both texts and drawings.

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Then one of us comes on a mat in the middle of the room, lays on the ground, and the teacher shows the first range of movements.

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And then we work in pairs and practice.

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It is not easy !

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I have to touch and create pressure on the body of my partner, the right way, strongly enough, but not too strong. In shiatsu the practitioner really uses his weight to massage the body.

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Again, it is about letting go, trying, daring. I learn about myself : how do I feel while I have to do this, when I am doing that…

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It is also challenging to find the right position in which I am comfortable to give the massage. We have to move around the body of the receiver, keeping connection with him/her.

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As I am interested in developing a very holistic coaching/empowering approach that connects the mind, the body and the heart, I want to experiment approaches like shiatsu. As a receiver of the massage, and as a learner of the technique.

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We stop for lunch and go to the Garden café, an organic restaurant with a nice garden, very close-by.

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In the afternoon we go on learning and practicing. The teacher shows us the movements, then we practice in pairs. We change partners each time so as to have diverse experiences both as a giver and receiver of the shiatsu massage. The teacher passes around to help, advise and correct us.

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Very intense day !

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I go back to Vérité for the second day of the workshop.

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We go on and, while on the first day we had focused on the back side of the body, today we focus on the front part, the hands, head and face.

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The teacher explains to us that usually, a massage begins with the back side because the intimate parts of the body are on the other side. So it is better to create the first contact, connection and trust on the back side – I had never thought about this before but I found it very relevant.

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The workshop finishes early – around 1 or 2pm.

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In the workshop, there was another French girl, Caroline. We started speaking at one of the break. I was very curious about her and at the end of the workshop I offered her to have lunch together.

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We started talking while drinking a spirulina juice at the Garden Café and… I can say our conversation lasted 4 days. Meeting Caroline was magic.

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We are the same age, we have a lot in common in terms of personalities and ways of seeing the world and life. And in the same time we have different background, experience, and skills, we are really different.

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We both are on a path of exploring the world, creating our life, identifying what our talents are so as to develop them and have a positive impact on the world. We both are passionate and curious, we love to connect people and share what we learn.

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Being different, we have much to bring that the other does not have. And we are eager to learn about what the other knows well. I see Caroline as a friend, as a fairy, as a guide.

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A particular friendship was born immediately between us – which is not that common at our age !

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This morning I go to Matrimandir for the first time. In Auroville, they do not let neophytes go to Matrimandir without some introduction. They want to make sure that people are not there by chance, for touristic interest. They want to make sure people know about the deep spiritual meaning of this place.

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And actually, I had chosen not to go to Matrimandir too early for this reason. I wanted to go there once I knew more about Auroville and what this symbolic place was about.

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So at first, we watch a movie about the vision and philosophy of Auroville and the Matrimandir.

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Then we take a bus and have to leave all our belongings at the entrance of the Matrimandir park. No picture.

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We are around 30 visitors and a guide walks with us around the park, providing many explanations about the construction of the Matrimandir and the gardens, the old banian tree, the construction of Auroville…

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Then we get into this special place.

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From outside, I did not think it looked so nice. A golden sphere that looked like a golf ball, as I mentioned earlier. I saw it as a kind of old-fashioned art deco architecture. It somehow made me think of UFOs as we can see in science fiction movies.

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But I was really curious about this mysterious and protected place – the spiritual heart of a unique utopian town.

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At first, we go under the huge golden globe. And this hidden place is already wonderful.

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I will try to describe how it looks.

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The atmosphere is fresh and there is a round white space. There is a kind of very small fountain in the middle, with a crystal ball above it, which is hold by the spring of water. All around, there are lotus petals in white marble that form a huge flower. It is a very peaceful, artistic, poetic place.

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We seat around this place for a while.

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Then it is time to get inside the Matrimandir. We walk up and have to remove our shoes before we enter the sacred space. There are corridors and different rooms, there are caretakers that make sure that silence is respected and that people behave respectfully.

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We stop at some point and have to wear some special socks.

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And then we start walking up to the « Inner chamber » – the main meditation space. We get there thanks to walkways covered with white carpeting. The architecture is absolutely beautiful and very different. I am overwhelmed, this scenery is absolutely incredible. I feel like in a science fiction movie. I feel like in a secret society.

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This is not a church, this is not a temple, this is not a palace, this is not a museum, this is not a work of art, this is not an extraordinary nature setting. This is a spiritual place that definitely looks radically different than what I know.

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And then we enter the Inner Chamber. It is a breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful place. I feel a concentration of beauty and peace. It is almost unreal. I feel softly bathed into the whiteness of marble (I think it is marble).

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And in the same time it is somehow dark – the darkness of inner orientation and contemplation. Silence is almost picturable. I sense a form of density of silence. The air is fresh. The space is round, white, there are 12 columns around and in the middle there is a ray of sunshine descending from the top of the roof.

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There are cushions all around and people sit.

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After 20 minutes, blinking lights give us the signal that it is time to go. New visitors are waiting.

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We exit the Inner Chamber, go down the walkways, remove our socks, get out the Matrimandir, put our shoes on. We continue our visit of the garden. We can ask questions to the guide.

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And then we wait for a bus that brings us back to the Visitor Center.

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In the afternoon, I meet Caroline at the Dreamer’s café. We spend the afternoon continuing the conversation. The sun sets around 6pm in Auroville and we had to go back to our homes before darkness.

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We meet again with Caroline in the same café and have breakfast. We talk and share our « knowledge and skills ». Among others, I share with her about Authentic Life Design (inspiration from Lessons from my 20s by Ryan Allis and Hive Global Leadership Program), about my Hive Global Leadership Program experience in San Francisco.

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She participated to quite a similar event in Thaïland – the Awesomeness Fest, a potential development and networking event organized by Mindvalley, a company based in Kuala Lumpur.

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Then I go to Vérité Community for a Singing tibetan bowls healing massage. I take my bicycle and ride on the red ground roads of Auroville. It is sunny and warm, perfect weather. There is nature all around. I love riding my bicycle in Auroville.

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In this massage, the vibrations and sound of the tibetan bowls are used. The massage lasts around 1 hour. I lay on the back with a white large sheet on my body, and from head to toe I receive sounds and vibrations.

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It is very particular and I like it. It reminded me a little of the gong baths I had in Paris with one of my yoga teachers, Caroline.

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My last full day in Auroville, already.

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As I shared with Caroline the previous day about Authentic Life Design, I thought that it would be great for me to do the workshop for myself again. The last time I did it was in San Francisco, last January – one year ago, more or less.

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So I go to the Visitor Center restaurant – I live very close-by ! I settle in a calm corner where I will be able to concentrate and order a Western breakfast : muesli and yogurt, and a very Indian drink : a masala chai tea. Yummy !

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And then I open my laptop and start my own Authentic Life Design workshop !

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As I share previously, Authentic Life Design is about taking a few hours of our life to take a step back and build our strategy to design the life we really want for ourselves.

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We take into consideration what our talents are, what our interests and passions are, what the world needs, and what we can be paid for.

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It starts with a brainstorm that makes us have as many ideas as possible – with the question « What would you do if you were unreasonable ? », for example.

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Then we determine what our life purpose is – with no pressure, we do not settle our life purpose forever, it is a draft and it is bound to evolve as we evolve !

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From that we determine our objectives : life time objectives, 10 years objectives, 1 year objectives.

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We write about the way we want to feel everyday and be perceived by others in this life that we create for ourselves : full of energy ? caring ? driven ? kind ? etc.

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Then we write about the habits we need to feel that way.

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For example, if I want to feel mindful everyday, maybe I should do some meditation everyday. Or determine some signals that remind me to be mindful. Etc.

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Lastly, we determine our 90 days action plan, in order to transform dreams and thoughts into concrete reality : Who should I meet ? What information should I look for ? Should I participate to a training to develop specific skills ? The idea is to start taking action immediately.

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It was interesting because I felt that my ideas were much more precise than 1 year ago ! It was much more specific and related to my personality and field. It was a way for me to see the path already travelled.

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For example, when I had to answer the question : « What does the world need today ? » what naturally came to my mind was : the world needs entrepreneurs and changemakers who are alive and driven.

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The world needs people who have found their vocation, who become authentic leader and develop expertise. People who develop their awareness and consciousness, who are connected to themselves, to others, to the world. People who learn to overcome fears in order to be able to use their energy to fulfill their purpose.

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Doing so, they will contribute to make the world a better place – should it be in the field of technology, food supply, sustainable development, education, health, …

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And here is the new life purpose I came to :

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« I am the holistic coach that empowers people to become authentic leaders. »

Leader is broad : people may lead their life, projects, organizations, communities and networks…

Holistic coach : because in the approach of coaching that I am developing I want to connect mind, body and heart.

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And then, we have to re-write our life purpose so that a 7 years-old child can understand it.

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Here is what I wrote : « I am the magician that helps people to discover and use the power within themselves to create for themselves a happy life ». I think the idea of being a magician is really fun. And I want my life to be fun !

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In the afternoon, I had my last Inner Discovery coaching session with Juan. As I was particularly interested in developing coaching approaches related to the body and energy, Juan shared with me a lot of ideas and insights about that.

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These 3 sessions with him were really great and helpful.

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Then I had to rush to the Town Hall to give back my Auroville card.

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We had a goodbye breakfast with Caroline. We shared typical Indian breakfast : idli (small round rice cake), and dosa (rice thin crepe), with the special vegetable preparations that come along with it. And coffee.

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It really felt as if we had come together to Auroville as we had spent so much time together ! And this was not that common for both of us because we are both very independent, we like to be very free, and spend time alone reading, writing …

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We were sad to leave each other ! And in the same time we felt both very happy and grateful for this magic encounter. We knew we would keep in touch, continue to share about our experiences and discoveries, and support each other in our parallel paths.

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I gave back my bicycle, came back to my guesthouse, and a driver brought me to Chennai airport.

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