Peace Over Pressure

PEACE OVER PRESSURE

Join us for an immersive workshop on Reclaiming Rest, Boundaries and Purpose in a Hustle Obsessed World

We gathered at the University of Guelph for an interactive and engaging workshop centred around reclaiming rest, the importance of implementing boundaries and an open dialogue about the pressures that come with hustle culture.

Youth and elder adults alike, shared their thoughts and experiences with the collective group and engaged in safe, open dialogue. We were honoured to have a youth keynote speaker, Yurilee Padua deliver an inspiring and motivational speech on her expertise as a nurse in a correctional setting and her experience learning to prioritize self care and implementing healthy boundaries in the workplace.

Furthermore, we were joined by our charity founder, philosopher, author and professional speaker, Srinivas Arka. Srinivas shared a moving speech addressing a couple of prepared questions.

Arka addressed the following questions:

Question 1: Society places such an emphasis on work ethic and “hustle culture”, it is so glorified that people begin to align exhaustion and lack of boundaries with being more successful.
1a. How harmful is this kind of thinking?
1b. How do we move away from this way of thinking and truly be successful in today’s society?

Question 2: Where does responsibility to others end and responsibility to ourselves begin?
Think about people pleasers and how they often aim to help or impress everyone around them always striving to be good support to others, at what point is it time to be responsible for ourselves and our own wellbeing? This question asks you to consider the balance between taking care of ourselves and others.

Here are excerpts from Arka’s responses:

“Your input counts, your valuable presence counts. Someone has to take a step and move in a positive direction, not just expect someone else to initiate change. You may be the one, it will start from you.”

“When something isn’t working, we have to contemplate, why isn’t it working? What can be done? Human created problems can be resolved by humans. We have the ability to bring major changes, but someone has to take the initiative and take that first step, and the world will receive you.”

“When you open your eyes, you have limitations but when you close your eyes your inner visions become infinite.”

“Intellect is unidirectional where as intuition is multidirectional.”

Throughout the event attendees participated in an engaging activities, including icebreaker bingo, followed by a lively game of trivia. Winners received prizes generously donated by a local yoga studio, a local Pilates studio and Booster Juice Rossland in Ajax. The event consisted of two musical guests, Minju Gu a flutist in the Guelph area and Joy Shuster and her orchestra students from Guelph Youth Music Centre’s Youth String Orchestras.

We closed out our youth event with a delicious pizza dinner.

We had an eventful and engaging day where community members socialized, enjoyed some meaningful dialogue and ultimately came together with the shared goal of growing in their mental wellness journey.