To view this newsletter in the browser, click here                 Issue #182       A newsletter from Creativegarh to help you live a life of passion, purpose and meaning.         Shift into beginner energy.     The most powerful seat in any room.                     When the student is ready, the teacher appears, they say.           But ‘student’ here doesn’t just mean someone sitting in front of a guru - it means anyone willing to drop their knowing and step into beginner energy as they seek new answers. Anyone who is willing to become empty of spiritual arrogance and full of curiosity. Anyone who is ready to embrace life without any prejudices. Anyone who is willing to sit in a room not clinging to what they know and making room for new ideas, penny drops, a-ha’s and insights.           To be a beginner is to drop the roles at the door. To leave your designations, accolades, labels - founder, parent, healer, expert - outside and room and sit like plain and simple consciousness in a chair, ready for the new.           When you enter a room as a beginner, you don’t carry into the room what you have become but who you are before you want to become something else. You carry a new notebook, pencils, sharpener and an open nervous system. You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room, just the most teachable, just the one with the most open mind.           It’s not easy choosing to be a beginner - in fact it’s the toughest job in the world to be childlike - to let curiosity run amok, to allow new ideas to permeate your being, to allow yourself to be wrong, to fail, to sit in that room with no ego, to not have the final word, to be forgiving, always ready to try again, unreasonable and malleable. It’s not easy to empty the cup that is filled with all the knowledge one has scrounged, hoarded and collected over the years. For only when the cup is empty can it be filled with new wisdom, experiences and explorations.           In many traditions, it’s believed that the real guru is the space in you that can be taught, that space that is open for the new. The moment you say, ‘I already know’, guru tatva leaves the room.           Beginner energy is an antidote to cynicism. When you are in beginner energy, you know you have seen the mess but you are still willing to be surprised by beauty. The ego wants to be the expert in the room; the soul is just grateful to be invited. Staying a beginner is not a lack of evolution, it’s how evolution keeps happening through you.                 You’ve not become boring.     You’ve just stopped performing for the world.                     A sensory overload doesn’t cut it for you anymore. Loud electronic music, strobe lights and smoky dens don’t excite you anymore. You are the one who likes to be in bed, curled up by 9pm - a time years ago, you would start planning your night out. Inane chatter about inconsequential subjects makes you want to leave the room and you have no room for gossip and drama anymore in your life.           You notice you’d rather have one honest, soul-deep conversation than ten noisy social plans in a week. You say no more often - not from arrogance, but from an inner knowing that your energy is sacred, not unlimited. Your body, too, starts speaking up - it refuses certain foods, certain drinks, certain late nights, and you slowly start listening. You crave more nature, less neon, more sunrises, less after-parties, slow walks more than small talk. You find that silence, books, journalling, music, art and long stretches of solitude don’t feel like ‘missing out’ anymore - they feel like finally coming home to yourself. From the fear of missing out, you slowly glide into the joy of missing out.           You’ve become boring, you are told. You’re weird and you are not fun anymore, they say. You have become a saint, not a sinner many say and not all are excited about this transformation in your life. No, maybe you have not become saint yet but you have stopped worshipping the wrong gods – approval, performance, validation, endless stimulation. You haven’t stopped sinning either, you’ve just stopped sinning against yourself.           Sure, you are not available anymore. You don’t drink like before, you don’t stay till sunrise to listen to the same complaints on loop, you don’t volunteer for emotional clean-up duty after everyone has exploded their unprocessed pain all over the place. You don’t laugh at jokes that cut others down. You don’t enjoy trauma-bonding disguised as ‘we’re just venting’. You don’t feel the need to be the loudest in the room to feel alive.           But spirituality doesn’t make you boring. In fact, it makes you the most interesting person in the room - for yourself, and that’s what really matters. Spirituality does not make you harder to access, in fact you’re more available than before to the right energy. It doesn’t make you ghost the world but allows you to block everything that drains your energy.           You’re not boring - you’re just done entertaining from a place of emptiness. Spirituality doesn’t make you anti-social. It allows you to choose the tables you want to sit at, the people you want to sit with and the dish you want to order, joy salad over deep fried gossip.           Sadhana is sacred and sacredness doesn’t mean seriousness. You can dance more from joy, laugh louder from the belly and allow playfulness like a child.           Your favourite gods and spiritual teachers were never boring. They laughed loudly, they told stories, they teased, joked, danced, sang, travelled. They were fully alive and in fact, people travelled from far and wide just to spend time with them because their presence felt like magic.           And you can also be wild and wise at the same time. You can be a tad silly and sacred all together. You can meditate and also make memes. You chant mantras and also scream your lungs out at a Coldplay concert. Spirituality doesn’t have to turn the volume down on life. It just has to tune out the static so the real music of your laughter, playfulness, creativity and love can be heard.             Our upcoming retreats                         Mandi Sold Out 8th to 14th March     Mandi’s tranquil environment serves as the perfect backdrop for personal metamorphosis, ensuring you return home with a revitalised spirit and fresh perspective of life!   More details         Bhimtal Last 2 Seats Left 10th to 16th May     Bhimtal offers a rare kind of Kumaoni serenity. This landscape creates the perfect setting for inner work, allowing reflection to unfold naturally.   More details     Reignite conversation     Mandi Last 4 Seats Left 14th to 20th June     Mandi in summer is a calm escapade. Cool mountain air, green slopes, and quiet mornings create space to breath, rejuvenate and slow down.   More details     Reignite conversation           This week, let's revisit     Kasauli January 2026                         Experience a life full of purpose                     The purpose of my life is to use expressive arts to create an abundant flow in the lives of people.   Vaishali Gandhi Kasauli, April 2022         The purpose of my life is to encourage expression through creativity & design.   Dhananjay Khaitan Andretta, March 2025               For a daily dose of Creativegarh and our retreats, follow us here:                           Mantra Gold Coatings & The White Paper Creative         Sunita Somani         Pedal On               View Our Collabs for Joy                   creativegarh.com             You are receiving this newsletter because either you have subscribed to it through our website, interacted with us by filling an invite form or because you have asked us to put you on the database. 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