The North East Institute of Social Sciences and Research (NEISSR) started the 2019 academic year with a Peace Retreat cum Orientation from January 21-22 at the institute premises, Bishop House, Tajen Ao Road Dimapur.
A press release from NEISSR informed that seven sessions spread across the two days focusing on the seven pillars upon which NEISSR is built- Mindfulness, Spirituality, Love, Punctuality, Integrity, Leadership and Dialogue were held during the occasion.
Dr Deben Bachaspatimayum welcomed the students to the new session and invited the community of students and faculty to participate in the peace retreat as they started the new academic year.
NEISSR’s Principal, Dr Fr CP Anto, facilitated the session on Mindfulness, where he highlighted the inability of academic education even among the highly educated in transforming lives by pointing out the human condition infected by corruption, violence, fighting, lack of self control, state of disorder, discontent.
Mindfulness is vital so that one can be transformed and be transforming agents, he said calling for culture of mindfulness helps enhance intellectual skills, personal, interpersonal and societal skills.
Dr Anto later led the students and faculty to a time of meditation.
The session on spirituality was taken up by Fr John Poji and Meriakthule Chewang, where they underscored the importance of self reflection and spirituality as a way of life.
Mind, body and spirit are interconnected and they cannot be separated. The students articulated their understanding of spirituality at the end of the session, they stressed.
Fr Beni Varghese, Principal of St. Joseph’s College Jakhama delivered a talk on Love and the mission of every person to share about God’s love even as one respects people of different faiths, cultures and backgrounds.
God is love itself -unconditional, unchanging and unending, he said.
On the second day, the session on Punctuality was facilitated by Sungjemtola Jamir and Dr Deben Bachaspatimayum.
The students were proactive in the group activity based on Punctuality as they addressed and presented the outcome of the group discussion, the release said. They enumerated the challenges to being punctual, contributing factors and practical ways of overcoming the challenges.
Imnuksungla Pongen and Dr Amit Das presented talks on leadership and used audio visual media as they engaged the students in active participation during the process.
Dr. Deben Bachaspatimayum involved the students in an activity that demonstrated the role of dialogue in community and spoke on the importance of dialogue to measure the depth of kindness and unity.
The Peace retreat cum orientation concluded with parallel sessions on professional, individual and group goal setting of the three specializations for the Fourth semester students- Youth Development, Community Development and Peace and Conflict Transformation and Introduction to syllabus and curriculum activities for the second semester students.
(MExN)
