Ciao everyone!
A couple of weeks ago, I arrived at CIMBA after scrambling with winter storm weather delays and the uncertainty of new airports. After barely making my flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, I was fortunate enough to meet several CIMBA students who were flying into Venice with me. It wasn’t long after that that I realized that I would be walking into one of the most transformative experiences of my life. I’ve been traveling on weekends and even planning a trip to the Olympics with many of the people I met at Frankfurt airport that day. Now, with a couple of weeks of getting settled in under my belt, I wanted to take some time to reflect on an experience that isn’t talked about often: Genesis.
Genesis is a 2.5-day experiential leadership and personal development series of workshops that are designed to teach students various aspects of neuroscience, as well as taking the time to reflection their experiences to become a better version of themselves. This series is led by Dr. Zach Linge and Dr. Jayme Ringleb, who are both Associate Directors at CIMBA.
When I first saw Genesis on my schedule, I was admittedly a bit skeptical. I wasn’t aware of what Genesis meant, or even why it blocked out 2 days that were otherwise meant to be classes. The first day, all 84 of us walked into the Di Marchi room, where we then proceeded to sit down and listen to Zach talk about neuroscience, and introduce to us the to pics of mirror neurons and System 1 vs. System 2 thinking, as well as a six-column model that we would take a deep dive into in the following days.
The second day was the longest day, following a 9 AM to 9 PM schedule. Now your first thought might be, “Wow, that’s a really long day,” or “What are you doing for that long?” Both of these questions were answered promptly. Whereas the first day was mostly listening to Zach, the second day was about getting together with fellow students and talking about our experiences, journaling about our vulnerabilities, and taking a lot of snack breaks. We talked about what our biggest values were, who we are as a person, and what drives us. The six-column model took one of the weaknesses we assessed about ourselves, and column after column got us one step closer to making a statement on how to make progress towards making a commitment to that weakness.
Being vulnerable with yourself is hard. But being in an environment where everyone was reflecting and putting time towards assessing something they want to get better at was refreshing and great to see. I think for many of us, this was the first time that we introspected so deeply, and it made a positive impact by making us closer as a group and deepening our relationships.
One of the penultimate exercises we did was writing a letter to our younger self. For me, this was one of the best exercises we did. Soon after, we practiced mindfulness and gratitude. We all shared one thing we were grateful for, and many of us talked about how grateful we were to be able to have the opportunity to come to CIMBA and be welcomed into such a positive environment.
On our third and final day, we wrapped up our exercises and did more things we were grateful for. At the end of it all, we had a mini graduation ceremony that indicated our end of Genesis.
As I mentioned before, I wasn’t sure whatGenesis would hold when I saw it on my schedule. After graduating from the program, I can say it was transformative. I’m grateful for all the people I’ve met so far and the experiences I’ve had here at CIMBA.
It’s just the beginning, but I can tell it’s going to go by really quickly.
Grazie,
Srikar