Using Mindfulness: To Develop Health Habits
Udaya D. Annakkage is a professor in the Dept. of Engineering at U of Manitoba. He is a versatile person, a song lover and teacher of mindfulness. Among those skills, Sri Lankan Seniors Manitoba (SLSM) identified his ability to conduct one-hour mindfulness training for SLSM members on Feb. 2, 2024, at Whyte Ridge Com. Centre.
For this task Uadya enlisted the services of his daughter Malsha and of Kalpani Kaushika. Udaya explained overall mindfulness practice principles with a short mindful rehearsal for seniors to pursue daily. Malsha described the mindful activities one-by-one to develop health habits whereas Kalpani demonstrated five methods to apply mindfulness.
The questions and answers session was dragged on for a long time due to curiosity of seniors to know the correlation between health and mindfulness.
Commemoration of three events followed by lunch
Three flags namely Canada, Sri Lanka and Winnipeg City were positioned in three appropriate locations to commemorate the relationship between Winnipeg and Sri Lanka. The venue was at Chili Chutney, Indian Food Restaurant and the date was on Feb. 2nd (FRI) 2024. The three events were as follows:
(A) City of Winnipeg: Established 150-Years Ago (19-1-1874).
To acknowledge this, Sri Lankan Seniors Manitoba is planning to conduct a seminar to expose outcomes of the aviation history of two capital-cities specifically Colombo-Winnipeg. This historical event created mutual benefits not only for the two cities but for the two countries. Inhabitants of both cities will be the partners of the proposed session.
(B) Sri Lankan Association of Manitoba: Established 40-Years Ago (4-2-1984).
In 1984, there were about 50 households known as Sri Lankan origin. Out of which only 39 individuals were identified and 19 others we were unable to locate. Out of the total number, only 30 members were willing to work to establish Sri Lankan Association of Manitoba. The inaugural meeting was held on Feb. 4, 1984, in Room No. 2C01, Centennial Hall, University of Manitoba. The nominated office bearers were: (1) Castus Peiris (President) (2) Aloysious Perera (Vice-President) (3) Patrick Gomes (Treasurer) (4) Pauline Silva (Secretary) (5) Padmini Hapuarachchi (Assistant Secretary/Treasurer) (6) Tilak Abeysinghe (Director) and (7) Herbert Embuldeniya.
(C) Sri Lankan Independences Day: Obtained 76-Years Ago (4-2-1948).
All attendees stood up and narrated Sri Lankan national song. Although a dress code was not specified a few were dressed up in national dress with women in saree and men in sarong and white shirt.
