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World-renowned spiritual guru Dr Deepak Chopra will be staging a seminar next week to help tomorrow’s leaders reflect on the kingdom’s pressing issues facing them.
He believes they are better equipped to tackle problems their elders have struggled to solve.
Having penned more than 70 books, Dr Chopra, 66, plans to talk about the ‘soul of leadership’ by focusing on ‘reflection’, which he described as asking potential leaders the ‘big questions’.
And, as author of 20 New York Times best-sellers on human empowerment, Dr Chopra is more than qualified and confident that he can show them the way.
The Indian-born leader, now based in the US state of California, said: “I am waiting for my generation of leaders to die out – we’ve done a lot of disservice and it is time to look to the youth.
“They are our future, they are more open and at their stage in life – they are idealistic. Yes, they may be less focused but this can be a good thing as it allows them to be more creative.
“In the seminar I will be focusing on reflection. I will ask them the big questions. What kind of world do they want to live in? And what can they do to create it?
“A leader is the symbolic soul of a group consciousness. This consciousness could be a family, an organisation, a community or even a country … and a leader acts as a catalyst for change and transformation to help manifest new ideas.
“Bahrain may have gone through a chaotic time but the main thing to look at, especially with an uprising, is the context. It will always fall into one of five categories; career well-being, social well-being, economic well-being, physical well-being and community well-being.
“There is no such thing as a problem with no creative solution. You must look at the relationships involved and the story being told. You must understand the story, and as we are all storytellers, create a new one, which should act as a collective vision.”
This will be Dr Chopra’s second visit to Bahrain but he is sure much has changed in the 10 years since he first came here.
He said: “I have visited the Middle East on a number of occasions. I love to travel, in fact 40 per cent of my time I am abroad and learning new things. I hope that I can learn something about the culture and the people in Bahrain while I am there.
“I do not believe that my teaching will be interpreted differently in Bahrain as in the end we are all human and it shouldn’t matter what part of the world we are from. Of course, I will be sensitive to the local culture but this should not affect anything.”
Dr Chopra explained how a person’s well-being is vital to determine if they are a good leader. He described a leader to be physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy, with a rested body and a joyful mind.
He said: “If a leader is all of these things, people will trust that person. They should be able to inspire others with hope, stability and compassion.
“Well-being is the one thing that predicts everything … the economy, social unrest and conflict.
“My advice for these future leaders in Bahrain is to be playful, creative and always ask the big questions.”
Dr Chopra took an interest in becoming a doctor as a teenager and when he was studying at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences his interest in alternative medicine took over.
He and his wife, Rita, moved to America in 1969 after he graduated and he worked at several hospitals including the New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts, as its chief of staff.
In 1999, he was named among Time magazine’s list of ‘100 Most Influential People of the Year’. His work and association with celebrities and leaders such as US President Barrack Obama, former US President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, former Soviet statesman Mikhail Gorbachev and former president of Costa Rica Óscar Arias have further enhanced his status.
Dr Chopra’s popularity extends to the social media arena, with more than one million followers on Twitter and his own YouTube channel, TheChopraWell. It seems that his words of inspiration have led his two children Mallika, 40, founder of intent.com and Gotham, 37, a film producer, director and sportscaster, to succeed in the media world.
Dr Chopra is the founder of the Chopra Foundation, a non-profit organisation aimed at advancing holistic healing and education and the chairman of the Chopra Centre for Wellbeing in California. He is also a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Oprah.com and Huffington Post.
His books have been published in more than 80 languages in both fiction and non-fiction. The Wall Street Journal included Chopra’s The Soul of Leadership among the best business books of 2011.
*His Soul of Leadership seminar costs BD350 for expats and BD70 for Bahrainis as Tamkeen pays 80 per cent. It will take place on February 27 at the Crowne Plaza, Bahrain.
For further details, call 36048699 or 39986580.
