Reconnect Event – Good Life Institute

Our GLI family from the Good Life Institute connected via the online platform ZOOM on the 27th of June, to reflect on their lockdown experiences and share how COVID-19 has shifted their perspective of life. 

The reunion was attended by former GLI participants – Karen Joachim, David Boehm, Harin De Silva Wijeyeratne, Upul Kumara and  Nishantha Abeywardena, who shared each other’s stories.   

It was also an opportunity for them to catch up with our Founder, Mr. Kushil Gunasekera to talk through their lockdown experiences and share learnings. Kushil detailed to everyone his journey over the past few months, from the perspective of both work and his personal life. He spoke about his work, which involves raising funds for the Foundation of Goodness and shared that on a personal level, he had focused on gaining more discipline, exercise and self-care.

Here are some of the experiences of our GLI family:

Spent time with family and neighbours. After many years I got to know my neighbours well and even played carrom with them! It was played with social distancing in mind as the board was massive and there was more than a 1-meter distance between the players! Also distributed dry rations across the country and was very grateful to doctors and the army forces for protecting us civilians during this time. 

–Nishantha 

 

David on the other hand has been extremely busy at work with the nature of the work that he does (IT Education Management), as all the kids needed to get online to continue with their studies, he has been very busy working to ensure continuity of education during the lockdown period. David believes the FoG has a very important role in the future to ensure that children from rural areas receive education and to also provide them with the emotional support to get through these trying times. He is very keen on getting involved with us soon to implement some exciting IT initiatives in the rural communities which FoG serves. 

Harin said that he has taken the time to do a lot of self-reflection, as well continuing to help the FoG through various activities during the lockdown period. Harin has also started a mental health initiative and has been working with his team to see how to further grow this initiative as especially during the lockdown period, many people needed mental and emotional support.

Karen has also kept herself busy with many charitable and humanitarian endeavours, in distributing food rations and raising funds to buy grocery packs to feed the Badowita community; a low-income settlement in Mount Lavinia. Karen has been on a deep spiritual journey during this time to try and connect with her inner-self. Her positive outlook is something that we all admire!

Meanwhile, Upul has started with organic farming, connected with the family and got to spend quality time with his children. 

A highlight of the meeting was when David mentioned that “things will never be the same again” and we all agreed that we can take this in our stride and post-COVID, have a more positive outlook in life, be more kind to one another and appreciate the little things in life which we once took for granted. 

The Good Life Institute is an initiative of the Foundation of Goodness, led by Kushil Gunasekera. It offers self-enrichment programmes incorporating the Foundation of Goodness philosophy based on good leadership, life experiences, inner beauty and the art of happiness.

To find out more information about the Good Life Institute please contact Kushil Gunasekera via email – kushil@foguc.org