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.