Family Bonding

The family provides the love and nurturing required for the survival of children. As we grow older, we crave nurturing, but are not adept at asking for it. We long for affirmation from the‘significant other’ in our lives. Affirmation is when important people in our lives appreciate us and express it verbally, tonally,

non-verbally. The opposite of an affirmation is a discount. You need at least ten affirmations for every discount for the maintenance of a healthy relationship. A home filled with discounts becomes a torture chamber instead of a sanctuary. It is important to make sure you give affirmations to all members

of the family, particularly the ones to whom you usually send devastating Heat Seeking Missiles (HSMs) like, ‘Why is your room like a pig sty?’ ‘Why do you always forget everything I tell you?’ Make every day an occasion to show how important your family is to you.

Happiness is a choice

Contentment with whatever you have is the greatest path to happiness. Comparison with those better than us makes us discontented. Comparison with those who are worse off makes us proud and arrogant. Shanti or a peaceful, calm mind, suffused with affection and compassion, makes our field a happy one while spreading like a fragrance to embrace all those around us. Everyone has only two choices—life-enhancing and life destroying. An event is not as critical as is your reaction or perception of it. It continues its life inside you, a nuclear landmine of memories that wreak far more destruction than the actual event. The more mindspace you allocate to unhappy memories, the more time you spend in the past while being a spectator in the living present, the more you miss the joy the present moment offers. At any given time, the past should not inhabit. The ability to planning our future,  should be devoted to a rational planning exercise, not aimless daydreaming that nibbles at your day like a rat in a godown of rice.

All of us need a tender, loving caretaker within who nurtures us, not an internal drill master who victimises us in an insulting and disparaging tone, sucking out all our energy, enthusiasm and happiness.

Buying Happiness

You can buy happiness by spending your money using these seven principles:

1.       Spend on experiences instead of things: holidays instead of jewels, movies instead of curios

2.       Spend on small every day pleasures, instead of saving till you are blue in the face, to buy the one, huge, dream house. Do not ignore the roses and the chocolates. Drink that great cup of coffee and wear great clothes.

3.       Don’t spend a lot on long term warranties.

4.       Pay now and consume later. Anticipation helps you enjoy the pleasure twice. Waiting for a time share holiday, planning your monthly movie or weekend getaway, adds to the joy.

5.       Look into details before making big investments.

A house on the beach, sounds good on paper. But if the traffic jams are terrible, you have to drive there, pay for the security and the caretaker and then think again.

6.       Avoid comparison shopping and keeping up with the Joneses.

7.       Spend on others. It will make you happier.

Time for Growth and Learning

How to solve problems in the great textbook of life? There is no use solving problems in other people’s books. Concentrate on passing your own exams. Your life provides you with a chance to achieve the highest in yourself, by using pain as stepping-stones to enlightenment.

No one can avoid bad times, but you can ensure that you look at this time as a time for growth and learning. When the mind -numbing pain that immediately follows loss has subsided, you can take proactive steps to provide emergency attention to heal your body, mind and spirit.

Pour music into your soul. Touch people who love you. Explore new places. Reach into great books and study alternate futures. Pamper yourself and ask your loved ones for hugs.  Meditate. Be silent. Plug into the universe. Let go. Let God catch you. Your sankalpa or intention must be pure. Be clear about your goal. Be non-judgmental. Love and seek to understand with tenderness. Learn and immerse yourself in knowledge. Learn all you can about your chosen field from books, internet, from people, competitors. Remain focused. Never give up. Never, ever.

Building A Stable Health

Building a life is not like putting up a building, but more like growing a tree: slower, organic and evolutionary. It cannot be done in a hurry. Like Nature, human development, in order to be healthy, has to follow a slower, more stable timetable. Those who seek to speed it up beyond a point will have to pay the price. The price may be of their own lives. Many have died to live up to some unrealistic modern myth of yuppiedom and success.

Genetics may enable us to accurately identify those who have a predisposition to heart disease, and take defensive action like following the Zero Heart Attack Path well before there is a problem. Interventions where the heart can repair itself with help from genetics are under discussion. But the fact is that each one of us can find a powerful ally in Mother Nature to repair our ailing hearts. We can do it naturally and happily with help from our families and friends.

We must also never forget that knowledge without values is the abyss into which mankind may unknowingly fallen.  You do not have to be a bean counter negating your soul for a few rupees more.

Women role in today’s Economy

Women have moved into the workforce in an unmistakable wave. In modern societies today, many of them bear the dual burden of managing a home and career. The infrastructure necessary to help them: crèches, dependable childcare, help from husbands, gadgets to make housework easier, is not yet in place. This generation of transitional women is at high risk from heart disease, particularly during the menopausal years. Statistics show that women have fifty per cent chance of dying of heart disease, ten times higher than their risk of dying by breast cancer.

Dual responsibilities have reduced the woman’s capacity to perform her role of a primary caregiver. Her ability to absorb and reduce tensions has been greatly compromised. A common response is the super-mom syndrome. This is a woman who feels that she can be a super career woman and a super-mom. Maintaining this dazzling image can have a damaging impact on the overall health of women in this transitional era. Only joint efforts by the couple and the involvement of elders and the extended family, or community support can adequately fill this gap. To succeed today, women have to look like a woman, think like a man and work like a dog. It is a challenge all women have to meet and survive to enjoy success.

The Happiness Quotient Killer

Stress is destructive. Stress is ageing. Stress is a killer. Thirty-six chemicals pour into the blood—lethal chemicals like adrenaline and histamine. Blood rushes through the heart, blood pressure and pulse rates shoot up. The rate of breathing increases. The body gets ready to fight or flee. Digestion is switched off. All parts of the brain, except the primitive ‘lizard brain’, are switched off.

The force of blood-flow in an enraged person causes minute tears in the tender fabric of the arteries. Fatty deposits find a convenient place to park themselves to repair the tears, and cholesterol, the plaster of paris of the body, slowly builds up to occlude the artery. Soon the tender flexible artery becomes stiff and hard, preparing the stage for a heart attack.

The good news is that there is hope at the end of the tunnel as people are becoming aware of the stress epidemic and are making conscious choices to not to become just another statistic. A fundamental shift in leisure time and spending priorities has taken place in recent years. This includes higher budgets for movies, personal fitness, meditation, holidays, adventure sports and fine arts. You have a much better chance of doing what you love as an artist, sportsman, musician or film maker today than ever before. Meditation and pranayama provide a way of reducing the automatic and violent reactions to stress. You can actually control autonomous systems like heartbeat and pulse rate, which were thought to be outside the individual’s control.

Music – Stress Reliever

Music has the power to purify the emotional field like nothing else.  Pranayama helps you sing without losing your breath. The mindspace becomes sweetly harmonious and no harsh words can be spoken there. Here is a quote from Rabinranath Tagore’s Geetanjali:

“I touch with the edge of the far-reaching wings of my song, thy feet which I could never aspire to reach”.

Every day we should choose the sounds that allowed into our field. Perhaps we could set a song for the day in our mind. Those who met us would see the sparkle of that song in my eyes and feel the rhythm of its harmony in our limbs. Why should we allow foul language into our mind?

‘Shabdh or sound is Vani Saraswathi, the Goddess of Learning. Words are sacred to her. Choose to say beautiful words, to hear lovely words. Banish harsh, angry and foul language from the inner spaces of your heart. A sure happiness killer is stress, hence beware of it. 

Sustainable Environment

You can create a sustainable environment around you. This happens when you treat the Earth like a friend. Replace whatever you take from her with love. We need to stop doing many things to achieve a sustainable, clean environment. No Plastic bags, no empty shampoo sachets. Carry a cloth bag.

Each of us has a personal responsibility to fulfill. Each of us has a personal duty to do something to spread the message. Use all communications for life changing, life affirming activities, Stop complaining. Do…do Something.

The Carbon footprint is measured by the CO2 or other greenhouse gases created by an object, person or action. Each of us needs to aim at a lower carbon footprint. MCAfee estimates that 78 percent of all incoming e-mails are spam. 62 trillion spam messages are sent every year! The turning point is here. If we do not read the warnings, revolution is at our door. Let us not be caught unawares. We can still save planet Earth ourselves by being proactive.

Buying Happiness

You can buy happiness by spending your money using these seven principles:

 Spend on experiences instead of things: holidays instead of jewels, movies instead of curios

2.      Spend on small every day pleasures, instead of saving till you are blue in the face, to buy the one, huge, dream house. Do not ignore the roses and the chocolates. Drink that great cup of coffee and wear great clothes.

3.      Don’t spend a lot on long term warranties.

4.      Pay now and consume later. Anticipation helps you enjoy the pleasure twice. Waiting for a time share holiday, planning your monthly movie or weekend getaway, adds to the joy.

5.      Look into details before making big investments.

A house on the beach, sounds good on paper. But if the traffic jams are terrible, you have to drive there, pay for the security and the caretaker, then think again.

6.      Avoid comparison shopping and keeping up with the Joneses.

7.      Spend on others. It will make you happier.

Life –Ultimate Class Room

We have so much waiting for us. Each of us comes into the world with a need to learn many things. Life is the ultimate classroom. Each of us has different problems to solve, tests to pass. Events will swirl around us uncontrolled, regardless. Our response is something we can control. Choose to say beautiful words, to hear lovely words. Banish harsh, angry and foul language from the inner spaces of your heart. Perhaps you could set a song for the day in my mind. Those who met us would see the sparkle of that  song in our  eyes and feel the rhythm of its harmony in my limbs. Why should we allow foul language into our mind? 

Power of Potential

Like a lighthouse throwing its beam on unexplored secret terrains, think deeply about  yourself than ever before to explore real power of your potential.  Just find time for more “flow” activities. Activities that fill your with bliss, like dancing, painting, singing, gardening, cooking, etc. Rediscover the sports you once loved, which made you feel vitally alive. Everyone on the earth is given only twenty-four hours, use them wisely so that you have more life in your years.

Music has the power to purify the emotional field like nothing else.  The mindspace becomes pleasant and only positive words are spoken there. Choose to say beautiful words, to hear lovely words and think positively. Each of us comes into the world with a need to learn many things.  Life is the ultimate classroom.

Nurturing Life-Force

Prana is the life-force that flows in all living things. When prana leaves the body, the body dies. When prana is in full flow, the person is full of vitality, energy and enthusiasm. Prana creates a field of possibilities where the seed of any idea develops rapidly, where our activities proceed smoothly and bear rich dividends. To develop prana, meditation, pranayama and a calm attitude are key. Freshly-cooked healthy food, pure fresh air and yogic exercise nurture and enhance prana. Eating too much, consuming stale food, exercising till you are ready to drop dead, constant arguments, overworking, getting emotionally upset, breathing polluted air, all interfere with the smooth flow of prana. 

Enhance Positive Energy for Emotional Wellness

Elevate everyday experiences to the level of sacredness. When work is done with such love, it fills the body and mind with bliss and transforms any place into a sacred space. As Kalil Gibran writes in The Prophet, ‘What is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth from the strings of your heart, as though your Beloved were to wear it.’This reverence or shraddha is due to all, because of the divine spark that dwells in all men—whether he is a legend or a leper. Sometimes it is obvious. The Divine spark is the silent flame of consciousness that reaches out to you from a flowering creeper or a healthy pet. Sometimes this life force has lost its vitality and is dimmed by dirt, lethargy and lack of care. Clean the glass of your lamp. Make the light shine through. Decide to approach all events, people, and things with affection, shraddha.

Emotional Wellness

Around every person there is a field of emotional energy. We have a positive energy field and negative energy field around each person. A positive field is created by positive emotions and a negative field draws sustenance from negative emotions. Positive emotions help the person to be radiant, and everything in his life flourishes and grows. On the other hand, negative emotions always have a morose or tense air about them, and everything in their life seems to fade and die.

When the field around is positive, all words spoken in that field would be sweet and loving. Your mind will always focus on gentle and kind thoughts. When the field around is negative with hurt, anger, possessiveness, greed, jealousy, fear and abhorrence, we are less able to act with speed and efficiency. These emotions suck the energy and life-force out of us. That is why it is difficult to be completely happy while hurting others. It is necessary at all times to make sure that the negative field is not created.

The experiments of the great scientist J. C. Bose showed that plants grow faster with pleasant music and their growth is retarded in noise or harsh sound. Learning to create a positive field is an important part of the climate of physical and emotional well-being.

Home - A Safe Sanctuary

The home can be the cause for disease. It can also be the safe sanctuary for healing and reversal of disease. Fill your home with affirmations, with positive strokes, with a peaceful atmosphere, a nurturing space that enhances prana, the life force. Laughter and smiles, compliments and hugs can create a powerful positive field in the home.

‘Family is the shock absorber of society, to which the bruised and battered individual returns after doing battle with the world,’ wrote Alvin Toffler in his landmark work ‘Future Shock’. The family provides unconditional love for the crippled, the old and the helpless. It heals the pain of failure and provides rest from the assaults of a cruel competitive world. Family dynamics can cause disease or reverse it

Meditation to Create Vital life Force

Meditation and a calm attitude cause prana to flow through all our activities smoothly.

When prana is in full flow, the person is full of vitality and energy and enthusiasm.

Prana is nurtured by freshly cooked, healthy food.

Pranayama is very pro-prana.

Prana is fed by breathing pure fresh air.

Moderate exercise and yoga helps develop the life force.

Eating too much, consuming stale food, exercising till you are ready to drop dead, constant arguments, overworking, getting emotionally upset, breathing polluted air, all interfere with the smooth flow of prana. Moderation is the rule.

Prana enhances the positive field and the vital life force flows freely through it. It creates a powerful positive field—a field of all possibilities where any seed of an idea will develop rapidly.

Be Peacefull And Enjoy the Present

Each new day holds out a chance to create a whole new beginning, a sparkling new field of possibilities. At dawn, sweep out the toxic waste of hatred, anger and petty disappointments from your life. Sprinkle the pure waters of prayer on your soul and prepare afresh for a brand-new day. Go peacefully amidst the noise and the haste. Enjoy the sweetness of everyday things. Practice swayambhu―a word that describes happiness welling out of you, like an underground stream in the mountains.

Very rarely will an event or a person crash-land to disturb your life. We all have a choice to make every moment, through our senses, our thoughts and our actions. We can choose what we want to see, hear, touch, taste and smell, think, feel and do. Most of the time, we are responsible for our decisions―for our happiness and unhappiness. We can decide how we want to feel even in the worst-possible situations. To a jealous mind, an innocent smile is proof of adultery. A prisoner can choose to keep the flame of freedom alive within him and maintain a cheerful disposition. Events or people around us are not under our control. But our reactions, our responses to them are. Respond with love and peace.

‘Irritable Face’ Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome is something all of us know about. But how about the irritable face syndrome – the ‘castor oil’ face? Some people, on principle, wake up with the sole purpose of spreading gloom and doom. They act as though nothing good will ever come out of this day.

So when you wake up in the morning, wash your face, like it is a piece of unique, precious china. Blot it dry and give yourself a big smile in the mirror. Remember, the most important thing you will be wearing during the day, will be a smile. Appreciate yourself for all the things you have handled on the previous day.

Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor who wrote ‘Stumbling on Happiness,’ mentions the following things about the science behind the smile. Here is what he says:

·         Healthy people are usually happier.

·          People who participate in religious organizations are happier

·         People who feel financially comfortable are happier.

·         People in good romantic relationships are happier those who aren’t.

But here is the catch, “a new house or a new spouse can make you happier, but not much and not for long,” he says.

Negative events like losing a job or being disgraced do not make us as unhappy as we think they will, because very soon humans find the silver lining and become adept at seeing why everything works out for the best.  There is the case of Moreese Bickham the who served in the United State Army spent 37 years in jail and on his release said, “I don’t have one minute’s regret. It was a glorious experience.” Pete Best, the original drummer of the Beatles who dropped out just before they become big, said, “I am happier than I would have been in the Beatles.” So the point is, focus on minute to minute, small, joyful events. The high points and catastrophes are few and far between. So work out your daily happiness breaks.

Parameters of Physical wellness

Perfect Breathing

Focus on your breathing. Take a deep breath then exhale slowly.Repeat a couple of times a day. You can bring equilibrium to your mental state by breathing correctly. The first exercise in the ancient pranayama tradition—the art of filling every part of your body with life-force or prana. Always take longer to exhale so that the lungs are empty of stale air. Only then can oxygen flow in. The body is the boat human beings are given to sail across the sea of life. It is your duty to take care of it.

Rest, Relaxation and Rejuvenation.

A 20 minute nap improves memory retention and Nike expects workers to ‘just do it’ in their ‘quiet rooms.’ Meditation has the same effect, but delivers even better benefits. Rest enables stress chemicals to subside after competing all day. Non- competitive sports like walking, sailing, reading or socializing can provide a relaxing change of pace.

Healthy Food

Food brings people together, allows human beings to feel satisfied and comfortable, connects us with the earth and provides us with health. Freshly-cooked healthy food, pure fresh air and yogic exercise nurture and enhance prana.

Positive Thinking

Positive emotions like love, courage, humor, compassion wonder and peace create a positive field. To infuse our lives with what poets call “the rapture of being” is to create a positive field. Learning to create a positive field is an important part of the climate of well being. 

Action Plans to Maintain Perfect Health

·         Start the day with a glass of warm water and a dash of lime.

·         Once a week have only fresh fruits until noon; let your lunch be the first meal of the day.

·         Kick the old coffee drinking habit.  Have a glass of fresh fruit juice instead.

·         Include foods with high fibre content – plenty of fruits, vegetables and grains – in planning your diet    

 Don’t rush through your meals.  Set aside enough time to appreciate, enjoy and digest your food.

·         Shop for groceries yourself.  Notice the look, feel and smell of fresh fruit and vegetables and enjoy their intrinsic goodness.

·         Make it a point to have dinner with the entire family at the table, and not in front of the TV.

·         Focus on your breathing.  Take a deep breath, then exhale slowly.  Repeat a couple of times a       day.

·         Learn to relax.  Spend twenty minutes consciously relaxing each muscle of your body.

·         Spend twenty minutes a day in silent meditation, prayer or contemplation.

Healthy food for good physical wellness

Food brings people together, allows human beings to feel satisfied and comfortable, connects us with the earth and provides us with health.  Eating should be regarded as a sacred act. In an orthodox Hindu home, food is offered to the family deity first and is then consumed as prasad or offering with the diety’s blessing. In both cases, food is offered as an oblation to the five pranas which are regarded as five fires. Even if one does not follow this ritualistic concept, one should make eating a fully conscious and peaceful act. Hurry, worry, anger, distractions and chattering should be avoided while eating.

Meditation for Wellness

In order to treat or prevent disease, it is essential to look into our emotional, mental and psychological environment, as our thoughts and emotions directly contribute to our wellbeing or otherwise. Some doctors believe that it is more important to know the patient who has the disease than to know the disease the patient has. Wise gurus, and now modern research, both believe that meditation can contribute enormously to an individual’s psychological and physiological wellbeing. It reduces stress, hypertension, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, depression, improves cardiovascular health, memory and concentration, work efficiency, and immunological resistance to diseases. As a result, some form of meditation has become an essential part of wellness programs.

Physical Wellness

‘Physical fitness is of utmost importance as it is the starting point for wellness of the mind and spirit. We would have perfect health as a state where all body parts function at their optimal level and wherein the body, mind and spirit are in perfect balance and in a state of bliss. Positive health implies perfect functioning of body and mind in a given society. To be healthy is to have the ability, despite an occasional bout of illness, to live with full use of your faculties, to be vigorous, alert and with a sense of joie de vivre, even in old age. In order to treat or prevent disease, it is essential to look into our emotional, mental and psychological environment, as our thoughts and emotions directly contribute to our wellbeing or otherwise. Your Happiness Quotient is directly affected by your physical condition. Hence it is said, health is the foundation for a feeling of wellbeing and joy.

Joyful Living

In order to experience the spontaneous happiness that bubbles out of your heart like a mountain stream. We need to concentrate on the following seven actions

1.      Physical Wellness

2.      Emotional Wellness

3.      Personal Wellness

4.      Family Bonding

5.      Nurturing Workplace

6.      Social Bonding

7.      Dharmic Living

Great mountain and beyond, a green sunlit valley is a beautiful and enjoyable sight. Only when you climb the mountain can you see the beauty of the journey ahead. Hence in the same way only when you learn the seven actions of happiness, you can realize and enjoy the real happiness.

Positive Mindspace

When the garden is clean, blooming and full of life, the snakes of anger have no place to hide; the thorns of greed get cleared away. Adbuta, or wonder, is one of the positive navarasas—the nine emotions. It heals and energises. To stand in wonder before the splendour of God’s creation is to be rejuvenated. The body and bloodstream are bathed in endorphins and serotonins which are Nature’s tranquillisers.’

Enjoy the nature - the chirping of the birds, the wind through the fluttering leaves, the murmuring river. The harmonious fabric of nature enfolds us in a blanket of pure beauty. The colours and shapes that flowed from the hands of the great Architect of the universe soothe us in positive emotions.

Life’s Greatest Gift

Happiness is a life’s greatest gift. There is joy to be found in the small things. Go peacefully amidst the noise and the haste. Enjoy the sweetness of everyday things. Events or people around us are not under our control. But our reactions, our responses to them are. Respond with love and peace. Focus on happiness and on cultivating happy people. Build protective walls against toxic events that threaten your tranquillity. Let the cells of your body be gently bathed in happiness, positive thoughts and healing energies. The Vedas speak of the self as a beautiful lotus growing in the muddy waters of life. With its roots in the muck the lotus rises above it, in perfect beauty and bliss.

Steps to Enhance Yourself

• Listen to yourself.

• Live in the present moment. Now. Every minute.

• Discipline yourself—it will give you true freedom.

• Do not pretend to be in total control.

• Allow yourself to be vulnerable sometimes.

• Ask for help. Network.

• Reinvent and renew yourself periodically.

• Make a sincere effort to keep promises and commitments—your internal sense of justice will punish all infractions.

• Forgive yourself.

• Explore the concept of acceptance of self.

• Love yourself. Accept yourself, your body and mind, as you are.

• In your quest for self-improvement, affirm and love yourself as you are today, here and now.

• Accept your life, good and bad as it is now, as a divine gift.

• Love another. A gift of yourself is the greatest gift you can give.

• Love others. Cacti can be as beautiful as a rose bush. Love them anyway.

• Reciprocate love. You are the mirror in which all your loved ones see themselves

Laughter and Tears

Happiness has a special role to play in creating better societies. There is clear scientific proof that happy people are generally healthier than unhappy people, due to certain key biological processes.

·         Those who use words like ‘joyful’ and ‘thankful’ to describe their lives, lived up to 10 years longer.

·         Happiness is associated with reduced neuroendocrine inflammatory and cardiovascular activity. There was a 32 percent difference in cortisol levels, between the happiest and the unhappiest.

·         Happy subjects showed lower responses to stress in plasma fibrinogen levels.

·         Happy subjects had low heart rates

Finding the causes and effects of that elusive thing called happiness has been notoriously difficult. Whatever brings you happiness, be it lots of money, respect from your peers, a large bar of chocolate or even a beautiful rose, it's hardly controversial to say that happy people are generally healthier than unhappy ones. That conclusion might be intuitively obvious, but just why are happy people healthier?

Find new reasons to laugh and plan ways to enjoy yourself. Cry when you have to and clean out toxic feelings and chemicals. Health and happiness will be your reward.

Loneliness

Loneliness is when you feel isolated and empty because of inadequate social relationships. A recently divorced doctor was found dead, when neighbours noticed a peculiar, foul smell enveloping the house after several days. Obviously nobody knew or cared. Today loneliness has become an epidemic. Uprooted from their place of birth people travel across countries to work. ‘The family is the giant shock absorber of society to which the bruised and battered individual returns after doing battle with the world,’ wrote Alvin Toffler. Large joint families are turning nuclear. People cut off from the warm blanket of joint family relationships, suffer from emotional and social isolation. You can be lonely at a party or in a crowd, where there is no one with whom to spend free time or discuss important matters.

Chronic loneliness is a serious, life threatening condition, associated with increased risk of cancer, stroke and cardiac vascular disease. Loneliness has been linked to depression and is a risk factor for suicide. It is associated with poor sleep and plays a part in alcoholism and substance abuse.

How to improve social connections and build your network

1. Organize a social gathering to welcome a new neighbor.
2. Join a Rotary club or a similar social action group.
3. Volunteer your special skills to an NGO.
4. Start a community garden. Exchange plants and seeds.
5. Mentor someone of a different ethnic or religious group.

Yoga for good health

Enlightened Masters have also shown that meditation produces beneficial effects such as reduction of tension, lowering of blood pressure, relaxation of muscles, increased concentration and work efficiency, and increase of immunological resistance to diseases. As a result, some form of meditation has become an essential part of most holistic health programmes. 

Health is the foundation for a feeling of wellbeing and joy. It is very difficult to be full of enthusiasm if you are not in a state of positive health. The absence of disease is no indication of this state of perfect health. It is a hygiene factor for improving your HQ.

There are many steps that will take you to a state of optimum health. A complete medical check up once a year can provide accurate information about the state of your body to your physician. Make sure this becomes an annual habit.

Just as you would not tolerate a minor malfunctioning in your car, so too, you and your doctor should be vigilant for the slightest disturbance in your state of health. Minor problems, aches and pains should be dealt with immediately, rather than be endured with gritted teeth.

Listen to your body. If you are tired, rest. If you are hungry, eat. If you are lonely, communicate, ask for a hug. If you are angry, deal with your anger constructively, resolve it.

The body is our vehicle for the journey of our soul in this world. You may be an immortal soul who happens to own a body, but the body-vehicle has to be maintained in good condition, so that we may achieve the goals for which we were created.

Shoot up Your Sorrowness with Happiness

Each new day holds out a chance to create a whole new beginning, a sparkling new field of possibilities. We are responsible for our decisions―for our happiness and unhappiness. Events or people around us are not under our control. But our reactions, our responses to them are. Respond with love and peace.

Happiness is a gift, not a commodity.  There is joy to be found in the small things we take for granted—a smile, a helping hand, a kiss, a wave, a pat on the back, a glass of cool water, a promise kept.  At dawn, sweep out the toxic waste of hatred, anger and petty disappointments from your life.  Sprinkle the pure waters of prayer on your soul and prepare a fresh for a brand-new day. Go peacefully amidst the noise and the haste. Enjoy the sweetness of everyday things.

Life is the Guru

We know that learning can be had from various sources. Not only from books and teachers in classrooms but also from the experience of life itself. The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. All of us long for a teacher who gives you something to think about besides home work.

Uddhava is said to have asked his friend Krishna, “Who is a guru?” Krishna points at an eagle in the sky and explains, “That eagle soaring in sky can swoop down to earth in a single instant and pick up its prey.  As far as vision is concerned, that eagle is your guru. Look at the lion in the jungle, how splendid is its gait. As far as physical grace is concerned, that lion is your guru. Those who love you, teach you. Those who hate you, teach you more. Victory is a teacher but failure is a far greater teacher. Everything, every event in your life is sent to teach you. Whether you learn from the great classroom of life, depends on you.”

From teachers we not only learn subjects but also lessons on how to live. We watch our teachers and learn life’s lesson from them: compassion, dignity, courage. A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others. “The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth," says Dan Rather. Over 100 countries celebrate Teacher’s day. In war torn Afghanistan, students honour their teachers with special food, cookies, music and presents.

Choosing the Happy Job

Ashok Sen, has won the newly established fundamental physics prize with a US$ 3 million purse instituted by the Russian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner for his contribution in the field of string theory.

He works in a modest lab in a Allahabad Research institute, since 1995. ‘One doesn’t need any fantastic infrastructure for theoretical physics. Just a computer and an internet connection’, he explains. He is a scientist, a teacher who enjoys the leisurely pace of life in that scholarly city. His work is based on the Higgs boson theory postulated by another man from Calcutta, Satyendra Bose, with Higgs.

The good thing about the prize is that it does not require verification and urges physicists to take inspired leaps that may not be immediately verifiable. ‘Experimental verification of string theory is going to take some time and more sophisticated experimental facilities,’ he says.

So let us look carefully at how we choose our life’s work.

Build up Social Capital

Social contacts certainly enhance the productivity of individuals, teams, families and communities. Anything you own will not really help you, especially during a crisis, unless you have goodwill, fellowship, mutual sympathy and affectionate interactions with your family, neighbours, friends and work associates. The man who has no social capital, will find no support when faced by financial loss medical emergencies or any catastrophe where he needs a helping hand. Everyday life would be lonely and boring. Those without social capital are more prone to illness. Dean Ornish the heart specialist says that those who have five or more close friends are far less likely to get heart attacks than those who don’t.

Though no man is an island, there are four negative consequences of social capital: exclusion of outsiders; excess claims on group members and restrictions on individual freedom.

So gather your social network close around you like a warm multi-coloured blanket. Keep in touch on telephone, sms, internet. All of these channels can enhance the most important way of communicating-in-person and face to face.

Build your Brand

Each of us is a remarkable bundle of talents and abilities and skills. It is this package that defines our career ‘Brand’ on Life’s shelves. Branding is the process of giving your career a unique identity or brand that will make your product or service unique. You have the opportunity to do this for yourself. Like Gandhiji’s brand was non-violence. Your brand should invoke a feeling of recognition and respect among those you interact with. What makes one person and his work, more sought after than others? It is the power of branding, which is a promise of value of the product. It is the combination of tangible and intangible characteristics. Would not you like to be a brand that stands for excellence, dedication and passion?

Here are some things you can do to become a trusted brand:

• Build a track record of excellence and goodwill
• Constantly pursue and share knowledge
• Communicate about yourself with stakeholders.
• Become an expert on your subject.
• Build an extraordinary network

Healthy Good Habits

We have much to live for. Don’t become one of the many million people who have a heart attack every year. It is the time to adopt daily habits of good health, because health is a 365-days-a year affair.

Here are some healthy habits for good health.

·         Start the day with a glass of warm water and a dash of lime.

·         Begin each meal with a raw vegetable salad.

·         Once a week have only fresh fruits until noon, make lunch the first meal of the day.

·         Kick the old coffee habit.  Have a glass of fresh fruit juice instead.

·         Eat only freshly cooked meals, not refrigerated leftovers.

·         Never skip a meal, even if you’re on a diet.  Eat a fresh fruit or have vegetable juice instead.

·         Choose to be radiantly healthy.  Keep yourself informed about the nutritive value of every food you buy.

Healthy Good Habits

We have much to live for. Don’t become one of the many million people who have a heart attack every year. It is the time to adopt daily habits of good health, because health is a 365-days-a year affair.

Here are some healthy habits for good health.

·         Start the day with a glass of warm water and a dash of lime.

·         Begin each meal with a raw vegetable salad.

·         Once a week have only fresh fruits until noon, make lunch the first meal of the day.

·         Kick the old coffee habit.  Have a glass of fresh fruit juice instead.

·         Eat only freshly cooked meals, not refrigerated leftovers.

·         Never skip a meal, even if you’re on a diet.  Eat a fresh fruit or have vegetable juice instead.

·         Choose to be radiantly healthy.  Keep yourself informed about the nutritive value of every food you buy.

Healthy Good Habits

We have much to live for. Don’t become one of the many million people who have a heart attack every year. It is the time to adopt daily habits of good health, because health is a 365-days-a year affair.

Here are some healthy habits for good health.

·         Start the day with a glass of warm water and a dash of lime.

·         Begin each meal with a raw vegetable salad.

·         Once a week have only fresh fruits until noon, make lunch the first meal of the day.

·         Kick the old coffee habit.  Have a glass of fresh fruit juice instead.

·         Eat only freshly cooked meals, not refrigerated leftovers.

·         Never skip a meal, even if you’re on a diet.  Eat a fresh fruit or have vegetable juice instead.

·         Choose to be radiantly healthy.  Keep yourself informed about the nutritive value of every food you buy.

Enhance Happiness To avoid Stress

The monsters of anger, greed and jealousy, shroud the gardens of the mind, poisoning the blood and turning it into a desolate wasteland of disease. Today, so much of our lives are spent in the office. The corporate jungle takes an unimaginable toll on the heart. Nature’s ultimate survival mechanism of fight or flight becomes a chronic response. This is because of the endless deadlines, the deadly competitiveness and the need for a constant state of high alert. One crisis leads to another. The body is constantly awash with the fight and flight response, resulting from a threat to survival. Such a response is like using an atom bomb to kill an ant —totally inappropriate.

Focus on cultivating happy people and avoid toxic people. Build protective walls against toxic events that threaten your tranquillity.  Too much stimulation, a mindspace crowded by fantasy, people and events, distracts you from working on your own home and backyard to create a healthy self. This is the only body, mind and soul you will be given.  Take care of what is yours and enjoy it.  Happiness is a gift, not a commodity. Each new day holds out a chance to create a whole new beginning, a sparkling new field of possibilities. Enjoy the sweetness of everyday things.

Life Nourishing Experiences

·         Receiving affirmations from significant others.

·         Going on a holiday with loved ones.

·         Enjoying nature.

·         Completing a task to your satisfaction.

·         Overcoming obstacles.

·         Being loved.

·         Doing something anonymously for others.

·         Acting courageously.

Celebrate Love

Celebrate anniversaries. Be generous with affirmations ‘What I really like about you is ….’ Create occasions to show verbally, tonally, and non-verbally that you care.

Family get-togethers affirm the bonds of blood and celebrate them.  Launching a family e-bulletin is a celebration of together news.  Everyone needs  ‘Oh’!  moments;  they heal the heart with good chemicals and peace.

Love needs both quality and quantity time. One cannot replace the other.  Leisurely spaces allow love to take roots and grow.  Love does not need an itinerary, or be totally programmed according to your convenience.  It flourishes in idleness, in long companionable silences, in tears and in stumbling.  Sharing is its life breath. 

Steps To Increase Your Gift Of Happiness

o   Take up a hobby.

o   Take up a sport.

o   Become a volunteer.

o   Join your local community association.

o   Get involved in your spiritual community.

o   Reach out for someone today.

o   Plug into the healing web of relationships.

o   Establish a family assembly.

o   Develop family traditions.

o   Eat together.

o   Give your child a hug.

MettaBhavana – Feeling of immeasurable

When you give compassionately, you receive the gift of happiness.  The Buddhists believe in metta bhavana, a feeling of immeasurable loving-kindness towards all living beings. Like colour dropped into a glass of clear water, metta bhavana colours and permeates your whole life with the joy of all beings. In systems like pranic healing or reiki or even in organised religions, one prays for the peace and happiness of all beings in the universe. This can be an unending source of joy.

Sharing, helping each other and cultivating strong social relationships keep us healthy and contribute to a peaceful life. The rasa of compassion is a great source of creating a positive mental state and fortifying the body’s immune system as it taps into the feel-good chemicals in the body.

Studies have shown that those with eight to six close relationships were healthier than those with less than four. It is this feeling that promotes altruism and the many service clubs in the world. We need social relationships to truly thrive. Social networks can help us change our health activities. Laughter Club, Alcoholics Anonymous (the Twelve-step programme), Weight Watchers International, regular dance and exercise groups are examples.

Pets in cancer wards have been found to improve healing and reduce the negative response to chemotherapy.We need social relationships to be methodically developed to promote compassion and mutual empathy.  

Emotions and Feelings

Emotions, and the way you deal with them can affect your health. This guide will help you understand the impact of nine primary emotions in maintaining health. The positive emotions create a positive field which fills your blood with the chemicals of happiness and wellbeing. They are conducive to the building or rebuilding of the healthy heart.  The negative emotions create a negative field which fills your blood with the chemicals of unrest and unhappiness.

Navarasas are a two-thousand-year-old Indian concept of emotions which see the mind as a space filled with positive and negative emotions. These emotions are: love, laughter, compassion, chivalry, anger, fear, abhorrence and wonder. Shantha or peace is the result of handling all these emotions correctly.

Obviously, the positive emotions or states like love, humour, compassion, chivalry and wonder put the mind in a happy and enthusiastic state, thereby fostering health. On the other hand, the negative rasas like anger, fear and abhorrence produce a state of mind which creates, as described in Daniel Goleman’s book, an ‘emotional hijack’.

Family Networking is the best protection

Belonging to a supportive nurturing group, is the best protection you can have against disease and unhappiness. Being loved can prevent you from the flood of negative emotions that have the capacity to destroy you.

With the breakdown of the joint family in India, the shock absorber of family ties is threatened. Nuclear families are creating explosive situations, which are lethal.

Invest in your family. Keep in touch with your extended family. Join supportive groups.

Being ‘included’ in a group is very healing. Study the group to which you belong and see whether you share:

common goals, a common language

shared jokes, your pet-name

personal successes and failures

time together

a common shorthand of thinking and speaking

compliments

comfort and support

affirmations and help

Innovative approach in marketing

Peter Drucker, in his classic work on innovation, speaks of a real estate company which became a success in a depressed post-war market. It was months after the Second World War. No one was buying a house. Young people, just married, were particularly averse to investing in a home. Till a young real estate genius created a runaway success. He did not sell houses, he sold dreams. He sold a little 200 square foot studio apartment with a 2000 square foot blueprint of a dream house. ‘Build your dream home as and when you can afford it, in modules,’ was the message. He used the concept that people invest in dreams rather than immediately visible, touch and feel products.

The innovation tool, ‘Turn it upside down,’ helped me turn a major corporate hospital brand from a place of illness to a sanctuary of wellness. The same hospital taught me that the most important element of a place of healing is not the floor, not the walls, not the counters…. These things are important to care-givers who are on their feet and vertical to the floor. But hospitals are built for patients—most of whom are horizontal, on their back, lying on beds, looking at the CEILING. One of the hospitals where special care has been lavished on the ceiling is the Singhania’s hospital in Kota. The ceilings are a blaze of colour. Collages are created out of broken marble chips. What must have started as an attempt to practice economy, has resulted in a masterpiece to keep patients as happy and amused ‘watching the changing patterns on the ceiling like clouds in the sky!

Action plan to have Innovative Workplace

1. Create meaningful personal relationship with co-workers.

2. Take short relaxation breaks, at least thrice a day.

3. Eat fresh, energy giving foods.

4. Take a walk outdoors during lunch break.

5. Stay away from politics and back-biting.

6. Bring your family to the office during lunch break or on a Saturday.

7. Cultivate a hobby.

8. If you have a toxic workplace, look for another job.

9. Celebrate achievements, even small ones.

10. Make your workspace clean and comfortable. Surround it with happy pictures.

11. Listen to music with headphones.

Building a Social Goodwill

Man is a social being, and interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand other people.  It is to be able to see what motivates them, how they work and how to work cooperatively with them.  Interpersonal intelligence is the inward sense of being able to understand oneself, to form an accurate model of oneself and to operate that model effectively to live life.  Professor Howard Gardner of the Harvard School of Psychology told me that the two aspects of personal intelligence, interpersonal and intrapersonal, form the most important foundation for a happy, fulfilling life.  To those who define success as happiness, these two elements can be the bedrock of a happy life. This skill involves being able to pick up subtle verbal, tonal and non–verbal signals from others.  Charismatic leaders are able to reach others by breaking the barrier that exists between people.  A charismatic speaker can make thousands of people react like one mind.