Effective Parenting in Challenging times - The EPIC Program

On July 29, the Love to Share Foundation held a Parenting Workshop, exploring how to effectively parent children in challenging times and situations. The goal of this workshop was to illustrate the various factors involved in the relationship between parents and their children and how to enhance the connection and bond between both sides of a family.

Although there were a plethora of topics and ideas covered, one of the main points made was the role and importance of parental communication in building a strong and long-lasting connection with the child. Communication is an extremely broad term, and this workshop went into detail about the systematic
process of communication that is necessary from the parents to the child so that the message reaches the child in a way that does not impact the child’s self-image or confidence. The main steps to communicate in a way that builds healthy relationships within families are as follows: observing actions/words, recognizing the feeling with regard to the observations made, identifying what the ultimate need is, and communicating the need through these observations and feelings in the form of a request.

As described in the workshop, being able to communicate in such a systematic, compassionate, and empathetic way will foster the relationship between parent and child while also resulting in the child responding in the proper way, as opposed to an argument that damages the connection within a family.

Although we all enter this world as infants, it is essential to realize the importance of strong familial relationships and connections, as these connections are the building blocks for the future of the family, especially the child. Not only did the workshop contain the blueprint on how to maneuver through the intricacies of effective parenthood, but also provided hands-on exercises for the audience to employ each of the methods and processes described throughout the presentation for all of the topics such as Children’s Challenges and Parental Roles, Compassionate Communication, Connecting Empathetically, Goaded by the Past or Guided by the Future, Focusing on Strengths and Praising Wisely, and Keeping an Eye on Purpose and Valuing Values. This workshop was a huge success and was extremely rewarding and useful for all parties involved.

Love to Share Foundation focuses on self-improvement and personal development, which led to the emergence of the EPIC Parenting Workshop which focuses on building a congenial environment for positive, honest exchanges in a household leading to the all-round development of a child. This EPIC Parenting Workshop falls under the Building EPIC Relationships Module(registration link at end of article), which consists of in-depth sessions (extending till Fall) revolving around building strong interpersonal relationships at home, work, or a nonprofit one volunteers for. One of the many ideas demonstrated in these sessions is the PERMA model of happiness which conveys how positive relationships are key to one’s happiness. Mr. MK Ramanujam and Ms. Poornima Kumarasami have been working tirelessly on training and guiding the speakers of these workshops.

First Body, Mind and Soul Event in Dallas

Love to share foundation chapter had its first Body, Mind & Soul Retreat on April 28th in the presence of Mr. M.K. Ramanujam at One Eleven Ranch Park in Garland, TX.

The participants were given a warm welcome and a brief note on what to expect in the retreat, by Sriram ji from Houston. The day and place were beautiful, apt to begin the retreat; with birds chirping and greenery all around under the early morning sun rise. The first session was Yoga, led by Smt Priya Mahesh. She guided everyone with Sun Salutation – mantra & stretches and breathing techniques. Next in line, was a Silent-Walk session. Sriram ji guided everyone through this session. Following this, was the Reality retreat -Meditation session led by Sriram ji. Then came the most awaited session of Sri Ramanujam ji’s – “Vital Conversations”. He addressed the participants with more insight on the overall retreat and encouraged everyone to practice it consistently and spoke about the actual happiness and calmness we gain by practicing it regularly.

Around 20 – 25 participants from different walks of life took part in the retreat. The participants enjoyed the retreat very much and shared their individual experience on each session at the end. They also showed their interest in taking part in the upcoming sessions. A satvik lunch was served to all.

Reality Retreat Sessions in Bay Area,CA

Love to Share Foundation’s Bay Area chapter had its first Reality Retreat on the 23rd and 24th of April 2018  in two different locations, San Jose and San Ramon respectively.

Mr. M.K. Ramanujam, who guided us through this session helped us discover our true nature of peace and bliss through the calming practice of mantra meditation.

Mr. M.K. Ramanujam, very beautifully explained that meditation is not the first step but the penultimate step to perfection and he showed how we could meditate upon a sound- a Manthra, to silence the mind.

Manthras are powerful words which by nature has the ability to silence the mind.B ut the questions arises – How to silence the mind with a sound?

Ramanujamji explained this paradox with an analogy. He said, in order to prevent a plain neat compound wall being suddenly invaded by unwanted posters, its not just enough if we remove them all, but we also need to stick another message that would say – “Stick no posters” and we need to hold on to this  poster until we are assured that there would be no other new ones on the wall. Likewise in order to silence the mind, we need it to hold on to a mantra – until the mind is devoid of all unnecessary thoughts. That’s why the meaning of the mantra is -“mananAth thrayathe ithi mantra” – that which the mind can hold on to and that which protects the mind from unwanted thoughts.

Ramanujamji, demonstrated this with the powerful mathra called the “mahamanthra” and he used a simple technique to practice this meditation by slowly draw the mind inside from outside with this manthra – first physicaly by calling out the sound, then a little subtle(sookshmam) by imitation of the sound by mumbling and finally very subtle(athi sookshmam) as a thought in the mind.

All those who had gathered for this retreat session thoroughly felt revitalized and were amazed to learn this very simple technique of meditation to calm the mind.  Close to 80 people attended the reality retreat workshops on both days.

Body, Mind and Soul Workshop in Seattle

On Sunday, April 22nd  2018, Mr.M.K.Ramanujam conducted a  four hour long Reality Retreat: Body, Mind and Soul meditation workshop. The workshop had various segments in it including silent walk, yoga, meditation and Q&A. There were 25 attendees at the workshop and all of them went out relaxed and looking forward to more such sessions. The session received immensely positive feedback and hope that with more Reality Retreat classes, it will be able to instill calm and clear thinking for all the attendees. “Life is a lyric” was also released and was distributed to all the attendees of the workshop.

‘Yuva 2018’-Youth Leadership Workshop in Seattle

On Saturday, April 21st  2018, Mr.M.K.Ramanujam conducted the youth leadership workshop, Yuva 2018, for children 10 and above. This was conducted at YMCA in Sammamish and had very good attendance by about 25 children.

The talk walked the children through various stages that one goes through before having an emotion. Through this process, the children became familiar on how to deal with these various stages and how not to end up in an emotion without understanding why they are experiencing it. Through these types of workshops and through the teen Gopa Kuteeram classes, our hope is to instill self-confidence, clarity of thought and love for life with the generation next.

Work Life Balance Workshop at Microsoft Seattle

Mr.Ramanujam started out his visit in Seattle with a talk to the DevDiv Women Leadership Council at Microsoft that was attended by around 50 Microsoft employees. The talk covered work life balance and how one should look at work as a means to enrich life and not as something to be at odds with. His talk received very positive feedback with many wanting the presentation materials. This one hour talk happened on Thursday 19th April 2018.

Empathy for Leadership Workshop in Atlanta

On Friday March 16 2018,  a wonderful corporate event led by Mr. MK Ramanujam on Empathy for Leadership as part of Love To Share Foundation America initiative was conducted at Roam Perimeter, Dunwoody, GA.  Mr Ramanujam conducted a thought provoking session on the importance of Empathy in the corporate world and brought different perspectives with practical anologies on how to apply Empathy on different situations understanding the opposite party’s needs without compromising our need. The event was well attended; very interactive and over 60 software professionals attended the session. The audience were requesting for a longer workshop-kind session in upcoming year. Thanks to Mr. Manohar Ashwath for organizing the program.

Empathy for Leadership Workshop in Atlanta (Copy)

On Thursday March 15th   2018, Mr. MK Ramanujam addressed a group of medical professionals – doctors, nurses and Medical graduates as part of Wellness Program facilitated by Emory Hospital Wellness Program. The program was organized by Dr.Subra Kugathasan, MD.

Mr. MK Ramanujam talked about mind dynamics and how mindfulness techniques help improve listening skills, decrease professional burnout, improve workflow and help efficiency at work. He expounded various kinds of techniques that are widely followed for mindfulness and what benefit we can derive out of it. At the end of the session, Mr. Ramanujam also did a demo on the Mantra meditation technique which all the audience participated and experienced it firsthand. Over 30 Emory Hospital medical professionals attended the session. Thanks to Mr.Sabari for coordinating with Emory team.

‘Body, Mind, and Soul’ Retreat in Tomball,TX

By the Master’s Divine Plan, more and more seeking souls continue to find the path of happiness through the Body, Mind and Soul Retreat. On February 24th 2018, the retreat was an extra special one as it was conducted by Sri Ramanujamji.

About 30 registrants assembled at the beautiful Burroughs Park in Tomball, TX and started the day on a silent walk for 1 hour led by Ravi ji. This was followed by Yoga – exercises for the Body and the Breath, conducted by Malathi ji. The group then gathered for Reality Retreat meditation guided by Sriram ji. Sri Ramanujam Ji then gave a key note group motivational talk on the greatness of meditation and silent walk. How being on a path is so vital, but observing and enjoying the walk regardless of the chaos around is such a fascinating take-away. The day ended with harmonious lunch supported by Yen ji.

Future retreats will be planned on a once in a quarter basis to continue to motivate all in the pursuit of happiness.

‘Building Inner Strength’-Workshop for Students in Bay Area

MK Ramanujam (Ram) held a youth workshop on Jan 15, 2017 in San Ramon and it was attended by 25 middle and high school students as well as many of their parents.

The workshop encouraged students to first develop one’s inner strength by understanding one’s feelings and needs. Then to build close relationships with others by understanding their feelings, actions and needs. Relationship building will become particularly important as the student transitions into college and work environments.

Needs are expressed through feelings. Reading one’s feelings correctly is key to analyzing the underlying needs. Ram stressed the importance of distinguishing ‘wants’ from ‘needs’ in order to build inner mental strength and to empathize with others’ actions. The message to students was that more one is open to understanding and fulfilling others needs, more they will be willing to connect and reciprocate to fulfill one’s own needs.

Students were grouped in small teams and given an exercise to act out feelings for their teams to correctly guess them. To wrap things up, each team had a chance to share three things they learned from the workshop with the rest of us.

Many parents also attended the workshop and in the end were able to share their learnings with the students as well.

Empathy Workshop at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab invited Mr. M K Ramanujam again this year on Tuesday January 10, 2017 to conduct a workshop on the topic “Empathy: A building block for Inclusion”.

Mr. Ramanujam covered harmony filters from last year’s training at Berkeley Lab and then delved into detail on how to use those filters to empathize with others. He also showed examples of typical empathetic responses in different situations and also showed how typical empathetic conversations get sidetracked by well-intended but wrong responses.

The workshop concluded with participants working on exercises in groups followed by a debrief.

About 40 employees of Berkeley Lab participated in the workshop.

The workshop was followed by a Q&A session where participants discussed about challenges and issues they faced in implementing inclusion strategies in their groups.

Overall, the workshop and the Q&A session were well-received by the attendees.

Workshop on “Happiness and Inner Transformation” at MD Anderson Cancer Center

MD Anderson Cancer Center (one of the most prestigious cancer hospitals in USA) invited Mr.Ramanujam to deliver a lecture on “happiness and inner transformation” on December 29 2016. The lecture was attended by around one hundred Doctors, Surgeons, Nurses, QA Experts from the Hospital’s anesthesia department. Mr.Ramanujam dwelt in depth the need for focusing on the need rather than just judging and blaming. The key highlight of the one hour lecture was the way he articulated a complex idea “how to accept without agreeing”. The audience enjoyed the lecture so much that the Hospital already invited Mr.Ramanujam for a similar lecture next year. The Management felt the lecture was a key in the overall learning process of the medical professionals and therefore awarded one hour credit to each of the participants towards “ethics continuing medical education”

Group Meditation Session in PEARLAND, TX

Love to Share Foundation of America conducted a group meditation on Tuesday December 20 2016 at New Life Plaza in Pearland Houston. The meditation session was led by Mr.Ramanujam. He reiterated the significance of meditation as a tool to understand and also to manage stress. Mr.Sriram Ramanujam demonstrated the Mantra meditation and the audience did three rounds of meditation. The session was attended by men and women with diverse ethnicity. At the end, Mr.Ramunujam had a Q/A session and the participants were enthusiastic and asked several questions and also shared their experience with meditation.

‘Building Inner Strength’ Workshop for Middle and High School Students in Richmond, VA

Love to Share Foundation of America invited Mr. MK Ramanujam (Ram) to conduct the Youth Leadership Workshop on Building Inner Strength for Middle and High School students in Virginia. 22 young aspirants attended the workshop from 10 am to 12 noon on Saturday, Dec 10th and gained a useful life skill to empower them to stand out amongst the rest of the crowd, identify and improve upon that inner strength.

Mr. Ram’s unique way of connecting with the young minds resonated beautifully with the teens in attendance.

The morning started off with some introductions, followed by the first module that dealt with principles and precepts of Leadership, the first of which was all about ‘emptying the cup’, a.k.a keeping an open mind and listening. The mirror principle and many other tips and anecdotes from Mr. Ram’s wide experience made it a very enjoyable session.

Session 1: 4 volunteers were chosen and each of them were given a word by Mr. Ram and their team’s tasks is to identify the word.  Words given are all related to expressions and during this fun event teams understood that there are more than one word to an expression.  Kids showed their amazing expressive techniques to showcase the words given to them.

Session 2: 8 volunteers – 2 from each team were chosen to perform a role play.  With less than a minute to understand the concept and perform, kids did great.

Session 3: 4 volunteers – 1 from each team were chosen by their own team to present what they have learned during this 2 hours session of building inner strength.  Each of them presented their notes, their thoughts on what is an inner strength, how to identify it, how to improve upon that, how to use it better to advance in their life.

Finally, Mr. Ram, gave feedback to the students on their presentation, a participation certificate and wished them all success in their forthcoming challenges.

“Building Inner Strength” Workshop for middle-school and high-school students in Concord, Boston

On Friday December 2nd 2016, from 3-5pm, Love to Share Foundation America organized an interactive talk /discussion session under the title “Building Inner Strength” for middle-school and high-school students in the Concord/Acton area at the May Fowler branch Library in Concord MA. The session was led by eminent speaker Mr. Ramanujam.

In this session, Mr. Ramanujam talked to the teen participants about how one should how one should look at the problems with an open mind and how important it is to understand other’s emotions and respond accordingly. Those who understand others are better  leaders. Highlighting the difference between the terms ‘need’ and ‘want’, he said how one could use the sense of judgement to prioritize their needs – thereby eliminating conflicts.

The session was well received by the twenty young adults who enthusiastically participated in exercises like role-play as part of the workshop. The young minds certainly had a take-away or two that they could put to use in their life for the betterment of their self-confidence and live a happier life.

‘Happy and Harmonious Living’-Workshop for Acton-Boxborough Community in Boston

On the 1st December 2016, Love to Share Foundation America conducted a program for teachers and parents of the Acton-Boxborough (AB) community on “Happy and Harmonious Living” at Conant School in Acton MA.  This session was led by Mr. Ramanujam who talked about the paradigm of acceptance.  A happy and harmonious family can definitely influence a society to live in harmony.  Highlighting the difference between the terms ‘agree’ and ‘accept’ he underlined the fact that though we don’t agree with each other every time, accepting one as they are helps in a happy and harmonious community. For the teachers, if they have succeeded in installing the ‘eagerness to learn’ in a child then they have done their job successfully.

Prior to Ramanujam’s talk, special invitee, Ms. Susan Reynolds, a social entrepreneur and educator from West Concord, laid the foundation for the evening by talking about the behavioral issues that the youth today are facing that lead to various mental ills like depression.

About 50 adults participated in the program.  The program was facilitated by parents from the Acton-Boxborough community.

‘Purpose of Anger’– A Workshop in Houston, TX

On Friday,December 18th 2015, 2015,  15 people assembled at the New Life Plaza in Houston, TX  to gain better understanding  on one of the most fundamental yet one of the most complicated and potentially harmful emotion – anger. The interactive 2 hour workshop was led by Mr.M.K Ramanujam from Love to Share Foundation. He  explained how or what causes anger, how people express it (the aggressive stance shouting, arguing, throwing things or the passive aggressive stance- “silent treatment”) and what the effects of anger are on the individual as well as on people around him.

 He then gave a four step process on how to be mindful when one got angry. The four step are Observe, Feel, Need and Request (OFNR). The first step – Observe, involves taking a step back and analyzing the situation and trying to separate the event from the underlying cause that triggered the anger. The second step – Feel, is to understand the feelings(fear, hurt, pain.etc) that are coursing through oneself. The third step – Need, is to recognize the underlying unmet need that is getting projected as anger. The final step – Request, is to know how to place a polite request based on the observation, feelings and need combined with an actionable item and not a demand to the other person.

The interactive workshop was very well received by everyone.

Mantra Meditation at M D Anderson Cancer Center

On  Thursday December  17 2015, at the Main Hospital Building of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Mr. Ramanujam – Lead Speaker of LTSFA, led a meditation session addressing a distinguished and diverse group of Head of Departments, Oncologists, Radiologists, General Physicians, Pharmacists, and Researchers along with personnel from Administration and the Department of Finance. Mr. Ramanujam seamlessly took them through the ancient time – proven Indian approaches to meditation. His vivid examples of de-cluttering the mind gave a clear understanding of the meaning and utility of meditation. This was followed by an interactive session on Mantra Meditation, where over 65 professionals chanted the ‘Mahamantra’ in unison for 5 – 10 min. The participants later spent some time with Mr. Ramanujam, getting their questions answered and expressing their gratitude for giving them a unique insight into meditation. Beguiled by his deep understanding of the subject and the downright clarity of the presentation that spoke volumes of Mr. Ramanujam’s own experience, M D Anderson has invited him to conduct more frequent sessions in the coming years. Love to Share Foundation America expresses special thanks to Dr. Warren Holleman and Katrina Wright with the M D Anderson Cancer Center’s Department of Faculty Health for arranging this exclusive session for the second year in a row.

‘Harmonious Communication’ workshop at Lawrence BerkeLey National Lab, Berkeley CA

As part of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s(LBNL) Scientific Networking Division’s(ESnet) effort to create inclusive workplaces, the division invited Mr M K Ramanujam to conduct a 2 hour workshop on “Harmonious Communication for Effective Conflict Management” on December 10, 2015.

The purpose of the workshop was to understand how conflicts arise and how to resolve them effectively such that no lasting scars are left behind. Mr M K Ramanujam covered the following topics:

Why conflicts arise?

• Difference between acceptance vs resignation

• How to filter the signal and leave out noise in any verbal communication

• Identifying the underlying need in a request

• How to frame acceptable requests.

The workshop was attended by 35 employees from diverse backgrounds and was video streamed as well to remote participants. The workshop was concluded with two teams of volunteers applying the concepts to resolve an imaginary workplace conflict. Overall, the attendees found the workshop extremely valuable.

‘Purpose of Anger’- A Workshop in Seattle

On Sunday, December 6th 2015, at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse, Sri Ramanujamji lead a “Purpose of Anger” workshop from 2PM to 4PM.  There were 30 attendees who attended the event with the hope of understanding the root of their anger and learning techniques to tackle it.  Sri Ramajunamji started off by talking about how observations turn to evaluations, and finally become judgement and how if we are conscious of all this, it is possible to respond as opposed to react in situations when anger takes over.  He talked about the need to explicitly analyze the mind for unfulfilled needs when anger kicks in.  Once the need is identified, he stressed the importance of fulfilling that need to stop anger in its roots.

Towards the end of the session, everyone took a small break for snacks following which, Sri Ramanujamji invited six attendees to share their overall thoughts about the workshop and what they found most useful.  Numerous attendees personally interacted with Sri Ramanujamji at the end of the workshop and had a one on one question and answer session.