Talks that Transform

Uday Dandavate
2 min readDec 16, 2024

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During a light-hearted, deep conversation with a childhood friend yesterday, he asked me to explain the meaning of a phrase I used in one of my recent articles: well-being.

I explained that while well-being has many manifestations, my curiosity for understanding its meaning has led me to explore the phenomenon of physical, emotional, and spiritual development through healing. By giving ourselves time and space to heal from trauma, we can help our body, mind, and consciousness flourish. This process enables us to tap into our immense potential for expanding imagination and consciousness while freeing ourselves from fear and ego throughout all phases of life. The ultimate goal of well-being is healing and restoring our inner child.

Self-talk and meditation are critical in reconnecting with our inner child and expanding imagination and consciousness. They help us free ourselves from the fear of failure, guilt, and diffidence. While working on our inner selves, we also need a trusted network of relationships. We can maximize access to our full potential when surrounded by a caring community. My biggest concern in today’s world is the lack of time and space for healing. We neither engage in self-talk nor meditation, and we often miss opportunities for building a strong support structure. The result is a growing sense of disillusionment with established institutions, loss of self-confidence, erosion of social capital, and diminished self-esteem.

I have learned that we all possess an important skill that can help remedy the situation: conversation skills. Conversations help with the synthesis of ideas and wisdom and can lead to the emergence of creative outcomes. They can also help find common ground for accommodating conflicting ideas, beliefs, and aspirations. Being present (both physically and mentally), curious (eager to learn), and open (non-judgmental) are important requirements for getting the most out of a conversation. Unfortunately, we spend more time pushing pixels at each other than being present and attentive to one another. If we can step out into the real world more often, we will give ourselves the time and space to heal and ultimately emerge healthier.

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Uday Dandavate
Uday Dandavate

Written by Uday Dandavate

A design activist and ethnographer of social imagination.

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