Posted by Lexa Shallcross
 
     Prabha Sinha, founder of the Pratyush Sinha Foundation, spoke to the Emmaus Rotary on Thursday, May 16, 2019 about her work to bring the practice of Mindfulness to at risk students and their teachers in the Allentown and Bethlehem School Districts.In the 2018-2019 school year the Foundation was able to impact over 10,000 children, adolescents and adults. Sinha said that while working with "at risk" children, she has come to see that everyone is "at risk" because of the amount of daily stress with which we live.
     The Foundation is named in honor of her deceased son who shortly before his death told her "to do what you love." He is her inspiration. Her work grows and she is hoping to begin working in the East Penn School District.
 
 
Rotarian Dee Eng and guest speaker Prabha Sinha met when their sons became close friends in school. 
Gary Rohrbach tries out his new phone's camera by taking a shot of his spouse and the speaker. See above.
 
     "Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally," taught Jon Kabat-Zinn who would later add to do all this as if your life depended on it because stress kills.  The events and rapid change we face every day can leave us stuck in our animal brain were the tiny hippocampus rules. Wired for survival our brains can leave us in a flight, fight, freeze mode when we sense danger.
     
       
 
We can practice using our higher, executive brain functions to override these reactions and to get us to a less stressful state. We can practice "mindfulness."
      Being in the present moment can be hard. Daily practice is necessary. The average person has 50,000 thoughts a day and about 60% of them are repetitive.
      The 6th Annual Lehigh Valley Yoga Festival will be held on Saturday July 12, 2019 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. This is a fund raiser for the Foundation. The day is described as being filled with yoga classes, workshops and demonstrations that will broaden our horizons, meditation and other healing modalities taught by some of the area's favorite teachers, along with music that will uplift our spirits.  Advance tickets are $60.
                www.LehighValleyYogaFestival.com 
               www.pratyushsinhafoundation.org
                   #mindfulnessmatters