This last August 6 to 8, 2021, Elias Romualdez, the 19-year-old ESSA Youth Sector council member, conducted a 3-day Inner Conditioning Workshop at Tuburan Institute, Mintal, Davao City. This workshop had 11 participants with diverse background, age, and culture in the first day. Everyone in the room were truly listening to this young and smart man and they were very participative.
The workshop included plant study, eurythmy, astrophysics, purpose in life, and more on the inner work. In Day 2, the participants shared their creative experiences. Together with the facilitator, Elias, they discussed the persona and the higher self in connection with their creative experiences.
In Day 3, they shared their drawing on the growth of Sili as they knew it and described it. One of the participants, Arjun, expressed how the Sili saved his life from stroke and healed him. Melma, a participant, expressed her lack of real love relationship to plants. After, the group talked about the unity of the soul and the world, transcend, and include, and many more. The workshop ended with the realization of the connection of plant study, the butterfly’s metamorphosis, and the true purpose of oneself in the outside and inside world.
After the 3-day workshop, the participants decided to join ESSA and form ESSA Davao cluster. They shared their plans or their next step after what they learned and experienced in the 3-day Inner Conditioning Workshop. Some plan to do a youth camp and conference, create farms, propose laws in the local context about environmental protection and such. Most agreed to conduct a plant study with the help of Katherine Estember because most realized people lost connection with themselves, and nature and it is one of the solutions they thought about. In the end, everyone was enlightened and excited for their coming journey.