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.

Body Mind and Soul Retreat in Houston

Love to Share Foundation America conducted its first of a kind -Body Mind and Soul retreat away from the maddening crowd in the serene ambience of Brazos Bend National State Park on Sunday, January 21, 2018.

The event started with an hour of silent walk introspecting on the inattentive nature of the mind, followed by an hour of yoga for physical well-being. This was followed by Reality Retreat – divine name meditation in the rustic surroundings of the amphitheater of the park. Harmonious lunch was served to all the attendees and the event ended with a reassuring discussion on mental health.

By the divine grace of Sri Swamiji – 57 registrants immersed themselves in the journey of happiness. Young children also enjoyed the natural park with fun events and games. Due to popular demand Love to Share Foundation America will be hosting another retreat in the presence of Sri Poornimaji within a few weeks, please stay tuned for further updates.

‘Effective Stress Management’ Workshop at Facebook Seattle

Ms.Poornima conducted a  “Effective Stress Management” workshop at Facebook, Seattle office on Wednesday, December 5th 2017 from 12pm to 2pm. A diverse group of Facebook engineers attended that session. Facebook members from Menlo Park, California office, joined remotely through video conferencing session.

‘Happiness at Work’ Workshop in Microsoft, Seattle

Ms.Poornima conducted a session on Happiness at work for women’s in Cloud and Enterprise Division Microsoft. 20+ diverse group of professionals at Microsoft attended the session on Friday, December 1st 2017 from 12pm to 2pm. The session was very interactive and was well received by the audience.

First “Life and Soul”Community Health Fair in Dallas

Service to mankind is service to god. Love to Share Foundation America is a non-profit organization that aims to serve the community through food drives, health fairs, schools supplies drive, workshops, etc. It organized its first “Life and Soul” – a free community health fair in Dallas, Texas on October 7, 2017. This fair has been happening in Houston for several years now and it made its debut in Dallas this year. The event started with a brief introduction about the vision and goals of the health fair by Lakshmi Senapathi. Chief guests Dr. S K Nair, a prominent Neurologist from the Dallas Fort-worth area and Mr.Pardeep Kohli from Pebble creek  Montessori then shared few words about the importance of service to the community and then formally kicked off the event by getting their vitals checked by the doctors. The team of doctors at the fair consisted of Dr. Radhika Kolli, Dr. Aarthi Ravi and Dr. Lekshmi Nair. They were assisted by nurses Viji Sankaran, Sabitha and Arthi Ranganathan. The health fair offered free blood pressure, sugar screening and free flu-shots for participants. The organization also offered free bike helmets to kids in order to promote safety. A random participant was chosen to receive a free glucometer. About 20 participants benefitted from the event and received information on leading a healthy lifestyle. Love to Share Foundation America thanks the owners of Pebble creek Montessori for letting us use their premises for the event. Special thanks to the team of doctors and nurses, as well as to all the volunteers who came and spent their Saturday morning volunteering at the health fair. We are looking forward to coming back next year.

Seventh Annual “Life and Soul” Community health fair in Houston, TX

The 7th annual “Life and Soul” Community health fair was held in the Houston area of USA on September 16, 2017. This free health fair was organized by Love to Share foundation America, Global Organization for Divinity USA’s sister organization that focuses on social service and community activities. The health fair offered many free health tests including Blood pressure, BMI, blood sugar, EKG,thyroid ultrasound, bone density, lung function, stroke screening,mammograms, vision and hearing screenings.Several local health organizations and service providers came together to offer these services. Over 300 people attended the health fair, including participants and volunteers.

‘Walk with a Doc’ event in Manvel

Love to Share Foundation America’s Body, Mind and Soul Initiative conducted its fourth Walk with a doc event in Manvel – Pearland area on Saturday June 10th 2017. 25 community members walked approximately 2 miles and Manvel City Secretary Tammy Bell and Pasadena Fire Chief Aaron Bell were special guests. Mr. Bell shared very useful information about fire safety in homes and the use of fire trucks during motor vehicle accidents with the walkers.

Our next walk with a doc will be on July 29th and the special guest will be Dr. Hema Salvady who will talk about Joint Health.

Body, Mind and Soul conducts free weekly walks, Yoga and Reality Retreat Meditation sessions at Namadwaar Houston  at 3642 Bailey Avenue, Manvel Texas 77578. Please contact us at 281 402 6585 for more details.

‘Walk with a Doc’ –Special Event in Houston

Body, Mind and Soul of Love to Share Foundation of America organized a physical activity called “Walk with a Doc” on Saturday March 25 2017 . The event was sponsored by Texas Medical Association, Prudential and various other Institutions. The objective was to keep a healthy Texans and program has to be lead by a Physician. The Honorable Mayor of Manvel Mrs Martin addressed the gathering and the Mayor also lead the Walk. About 40 people (Men, Woman and Children) participated and walked together for about 1.9 miles (3 KMs) in the Manvel and Pearland area.

Table Tennis Tournament in Seattle

The 4th annual Love to Share Foundation America and Pro Sports Club table tennis championships happened in the Greater Seattle area on Sunday, March 19th, 2017.  A total of 28 players participated to help raise money that would help fund various non-profit causes such as free medical services. For the first time, in addition to the adult’s division, there was a children’s division as well.  The adult participants were divided into four pools of players with round robin play within each pool. The top player from each pool moved to the gold division to play off for the 1st through 4th places while the second placed player in each pool progressed to the silver division to play off for the 5th through 8th places.  For the children’s division, there were two pools of players with the top two in each pool playing off for the 1st through 4th places.  The tournament lasted for a total of three hours hours and involved some very high quality talent including a former Maharashtra state champion.

LTSF Booth in Laura Ingalls Elementary School

About six miles from the Houston Namadwaar there is a public School by name Laura Ingalls Elementary School. The School has about 800  students. These Students’ Parents have origin in several countries around the world such as UK, Germany, Italy, France, India,Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria. The School has a tradition of observing one day in a year as International Day. This year on Thursday, January 19th 2017  the International Day was celebrated on January 19 2017. The Love to Share Foundation of America has put up a booth to highlight the various social and voluntary activities such as the annual free health fair, free Meditation, Yoga and Fitness program offered under the name “Body, Mind and Soul”. The Principal, Teachers and other Staff besides about two hundred visitors visited the booth and enthusiastically enquired about the Foundation and its activities.

‘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.