The Global Economy

The current development of the global economy means that the 173 countries of the world will share a single market place. Demand and supply will respond to the compulsions of global competitiveness. Every country is eyeing the one billion strong Indian market and its fabled 250 million middle class. No company can escape the restructuring and blood-letting, the downsizing rampant today. The possibility of the pink slip stares every executive in the face.

It is being slowly realised that economic prosperity can lead to poverty in the quality of life and health. Is India gradually becoming a global back office with uninteresting, boring, repetitive jobs being dumped on us? The joy of craftsmanship is being replaced by the monotony of the assembly line.

This expanding global economy and the lethal workplace have created serious conflicts in the individual’s life. Many have to confront the question of how their values measure up against their need to own and have the world’s goodies.

Be the change

* Force the world to look at issues like: What kind of world are we leaving for our children? Where have leisure, poetry and caring been banished? Why has the door been shut on the smiles and joy of our children? Why do we have no time for our friends or small acts of kindness? Why are deadlines so terrible that they extract death as the price? None of us would mind dying for great causes, but to die for a power-point presentation, seems slightly frivolous.

* Do not get stereotyped into how others see your role: as a mother or an all forgiving rescuer in the workplace. Encourage men to discover their so-called feminine qualities of sensitivity and caring. Do not stereotype men!

* Affirm women who are role models instead of trying to find chinks in their armour. Network with them. There is a queen-bee complex, which causes successful women managers to surround themselves with male managers and discourage the entry of women. Identify this and speak up when required.

* There are points in a woman’s life-cycle when her intensive physical presence is needed. There are high priority interactions which cannot be delegated. Build a support system with family, household staff, neighbours and friends to help you enjoy these

times. Men too have been deprived of active participation in these peak experiences in the past. Make your company recognise and respond to these realities.

* Hitch your wagon to the pursuit of daily and consistent learning. Be Saraswati. Bring your heritage of creating wholeness from leftovers, and wealth from waste. Be Lakshmi. Call forth the courage to speak, write and act for what is true and good for all.

Be Shakti. Be all woman. Be all human.

Creating Positive Energy

Around every person there is a field of emotional energy. Some people always look and feel radiant and everything in their life flourishes and grows. They have a positive energy field around them. Some people, on the other hand, always feel and look morose and tense, everything in their life seems to fade and die. They have a negative energy field around them.

The positive field is created by positive emotions and the negative field draws sustenance from negative emotions.

An ancient Indian prayer says: ‘Let all beings be happy.’ Not just friends and family, but all men, not just men but the wider world of all beings. When the great musician Tansen sang, it is said that deer wandered into the palace to listen. Decades ago, the great scientist J C Bose wrote about the response of plants to kindness.

Learning to create a positive field is an important part of the climate of wellbeing. The positive field is created by tools and behaviours that may be verbal, tonal and non-verbal.

Parameters for Physical Wealth

1.      Perfect breathing

2.      Exercise, Rest, Sleep, Bath

3.      Food, Water, Timing of food

4.      Positive Thinking

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. 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. Your Happiness Quotient is directly affected by your physical condition. Health is the foundation for a feeling of well-being and joy.

Wellness and Health for Happiness

Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely an absence of disease or infirmity. Really speaking, health is not a state but a continuous adjustment to the changing demands of life and the environment.Positive health implies perfect functioning of body and mind in a given society.

Ayurveda defines health as ‘svasthya’—to be one’s highest spiritual self. It is the state of equilibrium of the three doshas or mind-body energies that govern our external and internal environment―vata (wind); pitta (bile); and kapha (phlegm), along with a contented state of the senses, mind and soul.

All the ancients believed that no attempt should be made to cure the body without treating the mind and soul. To be healthy is to have the ability, despite an occasional bout of illness, to live with full use of your faculties and to be vigorous, alert and having a joie de vivre, even in old age. This concept of operational health has been termed ‘wellness’. It is a sense of all-round wellbeing.

Happiness is key to Success

Focus on cultivating happy people and avoid toxic people. Build protective walls against toxic events that threaten your tranquillity.  Too much television is tele-visham—tele-poison.  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. Some days we seem to live a fantasy life dominated by daydreams while reality tugs at our heartstrings for attention, like a neglected child. There is no use focusing on Aishwarya Bacchan’s beauty while neglecting to do the most basic things to maintain yours.  This is the only body, mind and soul you will be given.  Take care of what is yours and enjoy it. 

Let the cells of your body be gently bathed in happiness, positive thoughts and healing energies. Run from, toxic people and build protective walls against toxic events that threaten your tranquility. The Vedas speak of the self as a beautiful lotus growing in the muddy waters of life. With its roots in the muck it rises above it, in perfect beauty and bliss. 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. Practice swayambhu―a word that describes happiness welling out of you, like an underground stream in the mountains. 

Age and happiness

In new survey of 40 year olds in Britain, picked age 33 as their most rewarding and contented year. They felt life was more fun and most felt optimistic about the future. Only 6% felt they were happiest in University and 16% in childhood. Family and friends were listed as life’s biggest joy and one in three said children were their greatest source of happiness. Age 33 sees the end of the turbulent teen years while preserving the courage and enthusiasm of youth.

Another Time magazine report zeroes in on age 46 as the year where people experience increasing levels of satisfaction as they move towards the golden harvest years into their 80s. Acceptance of the passing years can be a relief. The reason can be the death of ambition and the birth of acceptance.

“Being an old maid, like death by drowning—a really delightful sensation when you ceased struggling,” a gem from a Edna Ferber book. Perhaps acceptance of ageing itself is a source of relief. “How pleasant is the day”, observed William James, an American philosopher, “when we give up striving to be young—or slender.” Retiring early however has nasty side effects. Men retiring a year early, lower their odds of surviving to age 67 by 13%. Most of those dying are those forced into retirement by job loss. Those who are more prone and guilt, anger and anxiety are tend to be unhappy. People who enjoy interacting with others are happiest.

52 Ways to Increase Social Capital

1. Organize a social gathering to welcome a new neighbor.

2. Join a Rotary club or a similar social action group.

3. Register to vote and vote.

4. Support local merchants.

5. Volunteer your special skills to an NGO

6. Donate blood (with a friend).

7. Start a community garden. Exchange plants and seeds.

8. Mentor someone of a different ethnic or religious group.

9. Surprise a new neighbor by making a favorite dinner – and include the recipe.

10. Tape record your parents’ earliest recollections and share them with your children.

11. Plan a vacation with friends or family.

12. Avoid gossip.

13. Help fix someone’s flat tire.

14. Organize or participate in a sports league.

15. Join a Book club.

16. Attend home parties when invited.

17. Become an organ donor or blood marrow donor.

18. Attend your children’s athletic contests, plays and recitals.

19. Get to know your children’s teachers.

20. Sing in a choir.

21. Get to know the clerks and sales people at your local stores.

22. Volunteer in your child’s classroom or chaperone a field trip.

23. Join or start a baby-sitting cooperative.

24. Attend Memorial Day parades and express appreciation for others.

25. Offer to shop for a sick neighbour.

26. Have family dinners and read to your children.

27. Go to church or temple or walk outside with your children; talk to them about why it’s important.

28. Take dance lessons with a friend.

29. Gather a group to clean up a local park or cemetery.

30. Say hello to strangers.

31. Log off and go to the park.

32. Ask a new person to join a group for a dinner or an evening.

33. Play host to a potluck meal or participate in them.

34. Volunteer to drive someone.

35. Say hello when you spot an acquaintance in a store.

36. Play host to a movie night.

37. Exercise together or take walks with friends or family.

38. Assist with or create your town or neighborhood’s newsletter.

39. Start a group to discuss local issues.

40. Pick it up even if you didn’t drop it - trash.

41. Join a project that includes people from all walks of life.

42. Sit on your verandha.

43. Be nice when you drive.

44. Make gifts of time.

45. Send a “thank you” letter to the editor about a person or event that helped build community

46. When inspired, write personal notes to friends and neighbors.

47. Organize a fitness/health group with your friends or co-workers.

48. Ask to see a friend’s family photos.

49. Start a laughter club.

50. Help someone who least expects it.

51. Say “thanks” to public servants: police, firefighters, doctors and nurses in government centers.

 52. Open the door for someone who has his or her hands full.