Historical society director works on meditation room business in her free time

Visitors to Smithtown Historical Society events are used to seeing the smiling face of Executive Director Priya Kapoor-Lasky, so the fact that she practices meditation regularly comes as no surprise.

Now Kapoor-Lasky is starting up a new business where she is setting up meditation rooms or corners for customers, when she’s not working at the historical society.

She’s always had a separate room of her own, she said, until recently when she got married and her son moved back in with her. She added that her daughter also lives with her.

The solution, she said, was setting up a meditation corner in her bedroom because she felt like something was missing without a space dedicated to the practice.

“It looked so pretty in the room that everybody kept saying that ‘you have a natural talent for this, you should do this,’” she said. “And that’s when I said, ‘OK, you know what, that does sound like a good idea.’”

It’s something that she’s done all her life for family and friends and even helping in her temple.

Kapoor-Lasky said having the space is a reminder that the practice is an important one. She said the goal of meditation is to enjoy it so much that when you’re doing it nothing else comes to mind. She added that it’s a difficult goal to achieve, even though there are benefits while trying to do so.

“What happens is the process itself is so soothing that most of your issues, most of your problems, get solved during the process, or you just feel peaceful when you’re sitting there,” she said. “It’s like your very warm and cozy area where you’re just sitting, and you feel safe.”

Kapoor-Lasky, who grew up in India and is Hindu, said her parents were religious when she was growing up and still are. They would teach her if she needed to deal with something to take a few minutes to meditate.

“That became my go-to thing,” she said. “I teach the same thing to my kids now.’

Meditation spaces are also important for offices, she said, especially after many have been working from home for a year. Kapoor-Lasky added that a designated space provides employees a way to step away from their desk to recharge or rest their eyes after looking at a computer screen for hours.

“You need some unconventional things which were not there before,” she said.

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