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.

Sixth Annual Life and Soul Health Fair in Houston, TX

On September 10th  the sixth annual Life and Soul health Fair organized by Love to Share Foundation America in Manvel attracted two hundred local residents.They benefited from close to 20 different screenings including free mammograms. Over 100 flu shots were given away free of cost to local residents. The Fair was brought together by local businesses and individuals who generously donated their time, expertise and contributions for the needy in the community.

Participating organizations included Pearland Medical Center, HEB, Texas Medical Association, Alvin Community College, Walgreens, Texas Eye Institute, Sleep Center at Kirby, Dr. Richard Johnigan III, Southeast Cardiovascular Associates, Pearland MRI, Coastal Vascular Center, Genesis hearing clinic, Ina Patel with New York Life Insurance, UTMB Breast Health, Third Coast Terminals , Duke Medical, Resmed, Third Coast, Bandy and associates, Cooling Tower Solutions.

Approximately 11 organizations and individuals were especially endorsed and recognized for their exceptional community services and consistent support for the past five years by the Mayors of Pearland and Manvel.

Local area physicians providing free consultations and screenings included: Dr. Seema Nanda and students – Texas Eye Institute, Dr Parvathy Krishnan – UT Health, Dr Jorge – UT Health, Dr Stefan – UT Health, Dr Deepa Iyengar – UT Health, Dr Hema Salvady – Clearlake Rheumatology, Dr. Boggia – Bay Area Gastroenetrology, Dr Jyoti Rao – Gastroeneterology Consultants, Dr. Bansal and Dr. Maislos Fernandes – Southeast Cardiovascular Associates, Dr. Divyang Ayar – Coastal Vascular, Dr. Diana Duff, Dr Julie Coombs and Dr. Middleton – Pearland Medical Center, Henrietta Okonkwor  – AGNP – Sai Primary Care.

Over 40 enthusiastic volunteers ensured safe parking, shuttling of participants, and a smooth flow during the health fair. These included high school students from Dawson High School, Manvel High School, Debakey High School and University of Houston and volunteers from Global Organization for Divinity.

Love to share foundation conducts several social outreach activities across the United States throughout the year. Life and Soul health fair is an annual flagship event of its local chapter in Houston and the next health fair is scheduled for Sept 16th, 2017. Please visit www.lovetosharefoundation.org or call us at 281.402.6585if you are interested in knowing more about the organization.

Table Tennis Championship Tournament in Seattle

The Love to Share Foundation America team along with the Pro Sports Club organized the 3rd annual table tennis tournament in the Seattle area. The tournament was held on Sunday, March 20th  2016 and 16 players participated  in this fundraiser tournament that would help fund medical facilities and schools in India. The participants were divided into two pools of players to play each other in a round robin fashion. The top two players from each pool moved to gold division knockouts and the next two players from each pool progressed to the silver division knockouts. The tournament lasted for a total of four hours and involved some very high quality talent. Former Maharashtra state champion Pradhumna Bhosale won the championship.

LTSF Volunteering at Minnie’s Pantry in Plano, Texas

Dallas Love To Share Chapter volunteered at Minnie’s Pantry  in Plano on Saturday,March 19 2016.  Many youngsters volunteered with zeal.  The volunteers helped in packing lunch boxes for more than 200 people. It was indeed an humbling experience to see how something as simple as a juice box or a cereal bar are valued when they become part of such bags that reach them.

Musical Performance at a Senior Center in Dallas

The Youth wing of Dallas Love to Share Foundation Chapter, conducts a musical performance at a Senior center   once every month. The performance for the month of January’2016 took place on 24th. The children presented their musical talents and spent some quality time with the residents. The cheer and the excitement the kids bring to the residents and the appreciation the residents demonstrate are priceless.

‘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.

Life and Soul – 2015

Love to Share Foundation America conducted its Fifth Annual Health Event – Life and Soul 2015 at New Life Plaza successfully and associate with a lot of service minded individuals.

Mayor of Manvel Ms. Delores Martin and Texas State Representative Ed Thompson kicked off the event. Mayor of Pearland who was out of town sent us a message that ‘his heart was at the event’.

Over 250 people attended the event and received over 20 different screenings – (Height, Weight, Body Mass Index, Body Temperature, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Blood Glucose, Hba1c, Cholesterol screenings, Vision and Glaucoma Screenings, Lung Function Test, Oxygen level, Breast Exam, Bone Density, EKG, Carotid Doppler, Hearing Screens and Mammograms) free of cost, as always there were no fees what so ever in this event as well.

50 people were administered Influenza Vaccine and 75 bicycle helmets were given away to children to prevent head injury.

More than 20 businesses and individuals sponsored and supported Life and Soul this year. Pearland Medical Center (in their booth they gave away 250 Teddy Bears!), Tuscany Village Skilled Rehab and Internal Medical Associates of Houston and Dr. Richard Johnigan participated in the cause actively.

10 physicians and nurse practitioners volunteered to participate in this event and provide their services. In addition, over 40 volunteers from various walks of life selflessly assisted in the smooth conduct of the fair.

Love to Share Foundation also received two grants this time – from Texas Medical Association and Walmart.

Numerous educational institutions and businesses partnered with Love To Share Foundation to conduct this event. A few of them are – HEB (conducted 205 Hba1c screenings), Texas Eye Institute, Alvin Community College, Walgreens Pharmacy, University of Texas Medical Branch, South East Cardiovascular Associates, Genesis Hearing Clinic, Third Coast International, Bandy and Associates, Cooling Towers, US Imaging, Sleep Center of Kirby, Duke Medical and Resmed.

Raffle draws were conducted using dignitaries and door prizes were given out to the winners every hour. Some of the key volunteers were honored at the event as well. The participants were extremely satisfied and many of the patients, after having attended the fair, went back to their communities and churches to spread the word about the program!

The event received overwhelming positive feedback, including ‘wide variety of testing given completely free of cost’, ‘a well-organized event’, ‘very courteous and friendly people’.

Donations from sponsors, partners and local community and gift-cards, vouchers and gift certificates from local businesses went a long way in supporting various different aspects of the program.

The event is a brain-child of the couple Dr. Lekshmi Nair and Jeevan Nair.

Cultural Fanfare at Houston

In keeping with its objective of promoting and protecting various cultural art forms, Love to Share Foundation organized a week-long dance festival from December 21-27th 2014, at the Meenakshi Temple in Houston, in conjunction with the ‘Madhura Utsav’ event hosted by Global Org. for Divnity.

Leading dance artists from India practicing different dance forms  like Kuchipudi, Odissi, Bharatanatyam, etc. were invited to perform with their students  Students of Ms. Sravanthi Modali (Kuchipudi), Ms. Rathna Kumar (Bharatanatyam), Ms. Supradipta Datta (Odissi), Ms. Indrani Parthasarathy (Bharatanatyam) and Ms. Padmini Chari and Ms. Surabi Veeraragavan (Bharatanatyam) displayed their respective dance forms for melodious music, which enthralled the audience.  On one day, a “Street Play” was also staged by the youth.  Around 45 little children enacted episodes from an ancient Indian Text called Bhagavatam, underlining values that are core to our being like faith, compassion, charity, gratitude, mutual respect and love.  The event was also performed as a fundraiser for the various projects of the Foundation.

As a token of thanksgiving, food was served to all the participants and audience on all seven days.

‘Anchoring Anger’ Workshop in Bay Area,CA

11 people assembled at the Evergreen community library in San Jose, CA on Sunday morning, November 16th 2014 with a goal to gain better understanding on one of the most fundamental yet one of the most complicated and potentially harmful emotion – anger. The interactive 3 hour workshop was led by Mr M K Ramanujam from Love to Share Foundation of America.

He started off the session by asking the participants to reflect on their last anger episode and note down the cause that triggered it, the underlying emotion and on hindsight, how could the situation been handled. The participants used the episodes they had noted down throughout the workshop to try out the concepts that were taught.

He then 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 made the point here that, although anger gives a clue about some perceived deviation from expectation or sense of right and wrong, if left unchecked, the same anger could cloud one’s judgement and deviate him further from the original goal. However righteous the anger is, no good comes out of it.

He also mentioned that any situation had four choices: blaming self, blaming others, understanding one’s emotions or understanding emotions on both sides. Typically, people reacting to anger choose option 1 or 2. Mindfulness will get an individual to Option 3. Option 4 is a stretch goal that one can strive for after attaining Option 3.

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 participants were then divided into groups of two to practice these ideas. Finally, two volunteers who were comfortable sharing their anger episodes, were asked to do so to all the participants and the whole group discussed how the principles that were taught could be applied to the situation.

At 12 PM, the workshop concluded and lunch was served. All the participants left on a happy note having learned anger management!

Life and Soul 2014

Love to Share Foundation America’s (LTSFA) fourth annual health fair – Life and Soul 2014 – was kicked off by the Honorable Mayors Delores Martin of Manvel and Tom Reid of Pearland on Nov 15. Both Mayors had wonderful words of appreciation to the organization for its selfless service to the community, and praised Love to Share Foundation for all its community initiatives. They also spent time visiting all the vendors and testing stations, and encouraging the volunteers.
About 150 people from Brazoria and neighboring counties braved cold, wintry conditions and were served with best in class medical examinations for free. The completely free health fair drew tremendous support from sponsors, vendors and volunteers, who were all constantly on their feet, tending to the needs of all the attendees. There were over 40 volunteers at the fair this year.
The sponsors of this years’ event were Frost Bank, Gale Compounding Pharmacy, Proactive Physical Therapy, Pearland MRI, Bay Area Printing, Best Coupons, Mrs. Janis Schneider, Sanofi Aventis and Astrazeneca, in addition to Texas Medical Association’s grant. The vendors who offered services were HEB – Plus, Walgreens, Alvin Community College and Texas Eye Institute.

Physicians who served during the fair included Dr. Deepa Vasudevan- Family Medicine, Dr. Radha Arunkumar – Anesthesiology, Dr. Jyoti Rao – Gastroenterology, Dr. Hema Salvady – Rheumatology, Dr. Ashima Chauhan – Family Medicine, Dr. Nisheeth Goel – Cardiology, Dr. Rajan Kadakia – Cardiology and Dr. Seema Nanda – Eye Specialist. Dr. Lakshmi Seshadri conducted a Diabetes Workshop.

The free testing offered included Body Mass Index, Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, Hemoglobin A1C, Complete Lipid Panel, Bone Density, Lung Function test, Electrocardiogram, Glaucoma, Vision and Retina Screens. Flu and pneumonia vaccines were also offered on a first come first served basis free of cost. The screenings and the vaccines offered had a value of $600 per patient.

LTSFA looks forward to reaching out to more and more community members with similar such future events. Apart from this annual free health fair, LTSFA’s social initiatives across the United States include blood and bone marrow drives, food and clothing drives for the homeless, environmental drives, educational supply drives/donations for special-need schools, medical supply donations to deserving nonprofit organizations in the field and Leadership workshops for youth as well as for employees of professional organizations and businesses.

‘Benefits of Mindful Mediation for Busy Professionals’ – at MD Anderson

The Benefits of Mindful Mediation for Busy Professionals – a mantra meditation workshop for the faculty and Staff of MD Anderson Cancer Center was held on Nov 13, 2014 at the Pickens Tower. Mr. M. K. Ramanujam, Lead Speaker and Trainer of Love to Share Foundation America was invited by MD Anderson’s Faculty and Well Being Department Director – Dr. Warren Holleman, for a one day event of leading the meditation workshop.
The event was attended by over 50 physicians, physicists, pharmacists, therapists, faculty and other staff members. Mr. M. K Ramanujam was introduced by– Dr. Radha Arunkumar, Associate professor, Department Anesthesiology. Mr. Ram instantly struck a chord with the audience who were captured by his lively cadence, simple language and the striking examples he used from everyday life. With a passion to help people rise above the mundane and a deep understanding of mind matters, Mr. Ram led the audience into the complex process of meditation with seeming ease. He navigated them through the states of meditation, preparatory process and significance of using a‘mantra’, finally leading up to 10 minutes of wholesome and crisp ‘Mantra Meditation’.
This is what Katrina Wright, (Project Director, Academic Affairs) had to say about the session: “It was certainly a pleasure and a breath of fresh air! It was nice to experience mantra meditation and I’m sure everyone who attended loved it. Thanks for including us and we hope to work together again!”

‘My Happiness Journey’ at AAAOM in MN

On Thursday, Oct 23rd 2014, Mr. Ram who represented Love to Share Foundation America, was invited to be a guest speaker at the American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM).  With the august audience, he shared his perspective and experiences on happiness under the title ‘My Happiness Journey’.