Take a break

Has your life been one long struggle to scale new heights? Do you feel you are on a roller coaster and not able to get off. Do you feel like everything is passing too swiftly for you to grasp anything, like the view from a speeding train? Then ….. it is time to take a break. Let the break be something you will benefit for the rest of your life.  Start this by taking time to switch off the cell phone, turn off the i-pad and really try to answer that difficult question – Quo Vadis? Whither goes thou? This is the time to detach from all your distractions and discover life’s real purpose. Why are you here, why do you exist, what is the meaning of your life on this planet?

There is the story of Zen master who held up two cups of tea and said to his student. “Both these cups are full. One cup represents everything I know about enlightenment. The other cup is everything you know. If you want to fill your cup with my knowledge you must first empty your cup of your knowledge. So enter your “break” with an empty cup, the beginner’s mind, curiosity and innocence. Take an empty page and write “My true purpose in life is ……keep writing till what you have written moves you and makes you feel like crying, overcome by a surging tidal wave of emotion. This may take you 20 minutes or 20 days or a year. But when you see the correct answer you will know it.

Here is what I arrived at: “To celebrate every day, live mindfully, igniting everyone with enthusiasm and courage. To die with no regrets”.

Once you discover your purpose make sure that you live for that purpose minute to minute, day to day, for the rest of your life. I am sure you agree the break was worth it!

Summer Symphony

The holidays are here. Summer has placed it burning foot print on gardens. It’s hot and humid, but the flowers are blooming and the dust swirls round in riots of colour.

The British took their families to hill stations to enjoy cooler climes away from the hot and dusty plains. But with air- conditioning any place can be like a hill station. So start by summer proofing your life. Dress in cool cottons and be meticulous about personal grooming.  However the British newspaper blog from a cosmetic major that warned, “How good you look depends on your under arms,” is probably taking it too far.

If you have an emotional meeting scheduled, plan it for an evening, preferably over a cool drink. Attitude is everything. Think cool. Your attitude decides your altitude. A hill station attitude is what you need to beat the heat. Here are a few tips to enjoy the summer:

1.       Take a walk before 6.00am in a garden, park or tree lined avenue.

2.       Stock up on fresh juices and lots of ice.

3.       Invest in long luxurious cool water baths.

4.       Invest in flowering seasonal plants that grow only in summer.

5.       Water the plants and let the children play in the spray

Air-condition your attitude. Take on tasks that will not get you hot and bothered. Stay out of the burning noon time sun. As Kipling said, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the afternoon sun. Schedule juice breaks or iced tea instead of having hot coffee. Cool off in the evening with friends on the beach. Complete outdoor chores in the early morning or late evening. Set out a tray of water for the birds and animals outside your house gate. Plan time on indoor games and enjoy holidays with the kids.

“How to survive the heat?” ask the fools

“How to fully enjoy summer?”, should be your wise question.

Summer Symphony

The holidays are here. Summer has placed it burning foot print on gardens. It’s hot and humid, but the flowers are blooming and the dust swirls round in riots of colour.

The British took their families to hill stations to enjoy cooler climes away from the hot and dusty plains. But with air- conditioning any place can be like a hill station. So start by summer proofing your life. Dress in cool cottons and be meticulous about personal grooming.  However the British newspaper blog from a cosmetic major that warned, “How good you look depends on your under arms,” is probably taking it too far.

If you have an emotional meeting scheduled, plan it for an evening, preferably over a cool drink. Attitude is everything. Think cool. Your attitude decides your altitude. A hill station attitude is what you need to beat the heat. Here are a few tips to enjoy the summer:

1.       Take a walk before 6.00am in a garden, park or tree lined avenue.

2.       Stock up on fresh juices and lots of ice.

3.       Invest in long luxurious cool water baths.

4.       Invest in flowering seasonal plants that grow only in summer.

5.       Water the plants and let the children play in the spray

Air-condition your attitude. Take on tasks that will not get you hot and bothered. Stay out of the burning noon time sun. As Kipling said, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the afternoon sun. Schedule juice breaks or iced tea instead of having hot coffee. Cool off in the evening with friends on the beach. Complete outdoor chores in the early morning or late evening. Set out a tray of water for the birds and animals outside your house gate. Plan time on indoor games and enjoy holidays with the kids.

“How to survive the heat?” ask the fools

“How to fully enjoy summer?”, should be your wise question.

Lonely in a crowd

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 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 a crowd. There is no one with whom to spend free time or discuss important matters.

Loneliness intensifies with modernization: greater immigration, smaller households, media consumption. Seniors are particularly vulnerable and become stranded in the suburbs. Many have only a single confidante, a spouse. Those who are on the net a lot are lonelier. Those trying to make friends on the net are lonelier. Long commutes lead to dramatically increased feeling of loneliness. Single people are loneliest, widowers are lonely.

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.
6. Plan a vacation with friends or family.
7. Join a book club.
8. Sing in a choir or bhajan group.

Netitis

If you have a stomach ache it may be gastritis. If you have a problem in your back end, it could be colitis. But if you have an acute medical dependence on the net, it is netitis. There are numerous illnesses caused by doctors and their treatment. They are called iathrogenic diseases. Netitis refers to diseases that may be caused by practices downloaded from the net.

One of my favorite doctors said “I have patients who come to me with symptoms and their treatment, detailed in a printout. They don’t show me the paper till they have cross examined me thoroughly enough to ensure that I know my subject. Anything I prescribe is then subjected to a Google search and checked with peers. They then add or eliminate parts of the treatment based on a democratic vote. I do not mind all this, but they also hold me responsible for the outcome. They are then trapped in a net of their own making taking me with them. I wish every baby came with user’s manual, which would help us with the rocky path ahead.”

It is said that the body is a boat given to us to sail across the ocean of life. Here are a few tips to maintain the boat, so that it can face the storms of life.

• Make friends with a young doctor whom you can trust.  Then trust him and make him a partner in achieving radiant health.
• Consult him regularly to engage in conditioning, monitoring and health maintenance. Going to a doctor when you are seriously ill is too late.
• Do not self medicate or prescribe from the internet.
• Have a daily schedule of exercise, diet and meditation.
• Take 5 happiness breaks a day.  Plan 5 minute activities that give you a real kick.

By all means seek the help of the net to do this.

Sign up for Life long Learning

You have been learning since you were a baby. The brain of an adult has 100 billion neurons, the majority of which were formed during the first five months in the womb. Each of the brain neurons is connected to nearly 5000 others. These connections can be proactively increased. The hardware is there, but you can input the software by what  you key in.

Inputs rush into the brain from all 5 senses which means that we learn from the great classroom of Life. From events, people and activities. We can ensure that everything that is keyed into the mind computer is worthwhile. For when we consider that every human being has the capacity to store the equivalent of 7550 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, the mind is surely the ultimate, under utilized computer.

While books are a great way of accessing the life essence of great souls, they are not the only way to develop neural connections. These connections, dendrites and synapses provide more pathways for information to flow and enhance complex thinking. Meeting people from different fields can jolt you into a new phase of creativity. Those who love us teach us. Those who hate us teach us more. We learn from every event of our lives if we so wish. Neural connections can be created till the last day of our lives. Research has proved that any challenge, like learning a new language or adjusting to a strange new place can lead to increasing the processing power of our mind computer.

Celebrate the Day!

On the day after the full moon on 8^th March 2012, Holi the festival of colours was unleashed on India. It is an exhilarating festival, when everyone lights a bonfire, throws coloured powder and water at each other, dances and sings and goes absolutely crazy. It is a time for enjoying the riot of spring colours and saying farewell to winter. The underlying meaning is the promise that after the coldest winter, comes the vibrant joy of spring.

It is believed that the combination of different colours played at this festival take all the sorrow away and make life itself more colourful. Flowers of Dhak or Palash are used to make traditional colours. The spring season, during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and colds,so wet colours, traditional flowers of Palash are boiled and soaked in water over night to produced yellow coloured water, which also had medicinal properties. The playful throwing of natural coloured powders has a medicinal significance: the colours are traditionally made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva, and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors. This festival defines how celebrations should be held. Don’t use toxic chemical colours or pollute water ways with plaster of Paris statues. But why wait for Holi to celebrate your life in rainbow colours? Let all your celebrations nurture the earth.

Exercise Your Options

All of us knew that we could increase our muscle power and strength through exercise. But the latest research shows that regular exercise like walking or cycling for 6 months improves memory and learning abilities in children and the elderly between 15-20%. It actually increases the size of crucial parts of the brain. There is a new evidence that exercise can help increase the neural stem cells in the hippocampus, thus reducing age related memory loss and slow down in learning process. Carl Sagan says that every human mind has the capacity to store the equivalent of 7550 volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica. But brain development can help increase our brain’s band width.

So what happens when you have no time to exercise? Why not change your daily actions into exercise. Walk frequently around your office. Take the stairs instead of the lift.
Walk the dog a little longer. Play in the park with your toddler. Invent ways by which you can say hello to every muscle. Do stretches at your desk. Schedule meetings at the golf course. Incorporate swimming into your lunch appointment in a hotel. Keep an extra pair of walking shoes at the office and take a walk break at sunset. Let the kids meet you after work at a park or the beach.

Incorporate yoga into your daily life. The art of living is yoga which in India’s contribution to the world.

The word ‘yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit word yuj which means ‘yoke’ attach or join. It means the disciplining of the intellect to the Cosmos. The science of yoga is systematized by Maharishi Patanjali in 285 yogasutras. Yogasana is the science of beauty of form which combines effortless postures and definite stances in the projection of a healthy and striking personality. So exercise your mental options.