Celebrating Summer

Summer is waiting, crouching in the shadows to leap upon us with an orange roar of colour, heat and sweat. In the drama of the four seasons, summer is the brightest. The Kashmir valley celebrates the Tulip festival in April at Siraj Bagh, clasped in embrace of the scenic Zabrawan range, in Srinagar. Nearly 60 varieties of beautiful Tulips worship the sun in over 5 hectares of land.

Imagine a living carpet caressed by the cool summer breeze, woven by the great Architect of the Universe Himself! It is a changing kaleidoscope of red, yellow, variegated pink, white, orange, light blue and magenta. The Kashmiris celebrate this event by displaying their handicrafts and cultural programs. Authentic Kashmiri cuisine is part of the festival. After last week’s events, I wonder whether blood is good for the Tulips to grow? Vibrant life and the tragic death of beautiful young people lie so closely woven together, here.

Summer too is like that, let us decide to enjoy the joy and vibrancy of the season and push the discomfort to the back of our minds. Welcome and celebrate the summer. Plant the colourful, short lived summer flowers. Float them in water, in artistic mud, wide mouthed, pots.

Celebrate summer in the evening breezes in flower strewn gardens and lazy beaches. Celebrate with raw mango juice and lime sherbet. This is the season for a luxury bath – set apart time for your tryst with cool water sprays in the pool and in the bath. Emperor Akbar had to get his ice from the Himalayan glaciers on elephant back. We just need to keep the fridge well stocked. Wear a cool attitude and retreat to cool air conditioned spaces at noon, instead of testing your tolerance with outdoor tasks.

Create a water spot for people who walk past your house. Fill the bird baths and set out water for the squirrels. Happy summer holidays!

Tips to Balance your Work and Life

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

2. Eat fresh, energy-giving foods.

3. Take a walk outdoors during lunch break.

4. Stay away from politics and back-biting.

5. Involve your spouse and children in your work. Bring them to the office during lunch break or on a Saturday.

6. Spend time reading and improving your mind.

7. Get involved in activities that will benefit others.

8. Develop an absorbing hobby or skill—driving, dancing, gardening, carpentry, painting, amateur radio, etc.

9. Keep in touch with your close friends and extended family, use the power of the internet.

Indigenous Health-Care Systems

The indigenous health-care system is commensurate with the traditional habits, lifestyle and value systems of a particular culture from where it has evolved. It cannot be effective if there is a radical change in the habits of that culture. This ‘patient–system– mismatch’ is very evident in the case of westernized American Indians who have lost their traditional healing capacities. On the contrary, the Keralites, for example, in spite of coming into contact with western culture, do not endorse its systems, and hold on to their own traditions. Perhaps that is why their age-old habit of using a high cholesterol diet has not resulted in an increased incidence of heart disease. The indigenous systems of medicine continue to have a stronghold in Kerala. All health-care systems, including modern medicine, are in agreement today over the issue that a patient’s psychological state has much to do with the healing process. Minor activities like taking part in a satsang, singing a tune you enjoy, and dancing for fun to your child’s delight can make you feel contented and allow the good chemicals flow.

‘The chief role of the doctor is, by various means, to induce the body to recover its trust in the Supreme Grace,’ said the Mother from Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, decades ago. The contact of the patient with the physician is only an occasion to awaken him to the touch of the healer within.

New Ways for Corporate Women

Woman managers need to appreciate that it takes heroic energy to rock the cradle and rock the corporate world. First pin a badge for bravery on yourself for attempting it. Then, promise you will not even begin to tread the path that leads to the joyless land of being a super-woman or super-mom. Enlist your men and families as willing accomplices in the challenging task of reconstructing a corporate.

Workplace that lovingly accommodates the needs of humans, for families, for music, poetry and time for just standing and watching the world go by! Be kind to yourself. Love yourself. Conquer fear and overcome the need for instructions. Pursue the ability to adapt and be a leader of proactive change. The New World is not for those who are what Nehru called unwilling victims, dragged to be sacrificed on the altar of change. Be leaders to be accepted as such. Banish forever your fear of being centre stage, your reluctance to accept that you are where the buck stops.

Relearn and re-install the software of the human heart that your mothers embodied. The New Woman of the past decade must not forsaken her heritage of loving and caring for the tough hard-bitten so-called ‘male boss model.’ Both men and women managers need to put the human being at the centre of all business processes.

Professions to be happy

Serve others. Look at your profession as a means to serve and make others happy.

Make a living causing the least amount of pain to living creatures

Eliminate mad deadlines or emergency.

Ensure freedom to be self-dependent and take own decisions.

Make space for innovation.

Believe in hi-touch along with hi-tech. Have a good level of contact with people and elicit positive responses from them.

Survey on Happiness

A recent happiness survey shows that hairdressers have the highest levels of happiness at work! The reason? They are in direct touch with their customers.

Chris Humphries, Director General of City and Guilds U.K., says:

Nowadays, job satisfaction and happiness is about fulfilling your potential, tapping into your own creativity and feeling that you can make a difference. Many are exchanging their desk-bound jobs for vocations that enable them to be hands-on, use their brains and be in-change of their own destiny.

In a Guardian article by Laura Smith, two out of five hairdressers described themselves as extremely happy. She gives two reasons: 1. Creativity 2. Contact with customers

Everyday Love

Our lives revolve round love. Next week our grandson Akira will be one year old. His little nostrils flare at the fragrance of a flower. He is an efficient drinker of milk and loves food. His perfect limbs stretch in strange flexible asanas and he does everything with noisy enthusiasm. He gazes up at the light and smiles to strange dreams. We are his puppets on a string.

Glued to electronic toys are we forgetting the need to communicate love face to face?  Are we forgetting daily acts of kindness and caring? While sms, email, Facebook or Twitter can enhance the instant communication of loving thoOur lives revolve round love. Next week our grandson Akira will be one year old. His little nostrils flare at the fragrance of a flower. He is an efficient drinker of milk and loves food. His perfect limbs stretch in strange flexible asanas and he does everything with noisy enthusiasm. He gazes up at the light and smiles to strange dreams. We are his puppets on a string.

Glued to electronic toys are we forgetting the need to communicate love face to face?  Are we forgetting daily acts of kindness and caring? While sms, email, Facebook or Twitter can enhance the instant communication of loving thoughts, nothing can replace the human touch. So make sure it plays a major role in building unbreakable bonds and bridges in your life.

Let us send out valentines to those we care for, entitled “What I really love about you is……..” everyday! 

Workplace Wellness Assessment

Here are some few questions to assess your workplace wellness:

1. Would it be personally profitable for me to spend more time reading?

2. Do I effectively balance time between family, social, academic and recreational activities?

3. Do I concentrate too hard on just getting the job done rather than on my whole career?

4. Do I see about my bosses as role models?

5. Do I hope that by improving my knowledge I will have a job and a good life?

6. Are there some active steps I might take today to ensure a successful future?

7. Would talking to professionals in various fields help improve my job awareness?

8. Would this be a frightening thing to do?

9. Are there some channels, people or sources that could make this a pleasant experience?

10. Have I honestly assessed my potential for growth and participation in future jobs?

11. Do I travel more than a week every month?

12. Do I rest when I am tired?

13. Have I learnt to say ‘No’ politely?

Score

a. Good: More than 9 Yeses

b. Adequate: 5 or more Nos

c. Poor: Less than 5 Nos

Tips to Work-life Balance

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

2. Eat fresh, energy-giving foods.

3. Take a walk outdoors during lunch break.

4. Stay away from politics and back-biting.

5. Involve your spouse and children in your work. Bring them to the office during lunch break or on a Saturday.

6. Spend time reading and improving your mind.

7. Get involved in activities that will benefit others.

8. Develop an absorbing hobby or skill—driving, dancing, gardening, carpentry, painting, amateur radio, etc.

9. Keep in touch with your close friends and extended family, use the power of the internet.

10. Plan to cut off from work on weekends.

11. Meditate. Take care of yourself.

12. Look at your life-goals and evaluate your job to see if it will help you achieve them.

13. Learn to say ‘No’.

14. Remember that people are more important than getting ahead.

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

16. Know that you are more important than the car you drive, house you inhabit, your bank balance or the promise of a foreign holiday.

Happiness for Health

Today so much of our lives are spent in the office. The corporate jungle takes an unimaginable toll on the heart. The endless deadlines, the deadly competitiveness, going from one crisis to another, negatively impact the body. Nature’s ultimate survival mechanism of fight or flight becomes a chronic response. Such a response is like using an atom bomb to kill an ant—totally inappropriate. Due to the modern urge to change jobs rapidly, many executives find themselves in threatening environments surrounded by potential enemies. They have had no time to develop friends or trusted supports. Every day they walk into the modern equivalent of a jungle infested with wild animals and danger. Family support systems are far away. Nuclear families build up explosive pressure due to a revolution of rising expectations, fuelled by the media.

Many of us spend most of our time at work. If we do not enjoy our work, if we feel overwhelmed by it, it will surely damage us. The constant pressure of negative emotions causes inescapable damage to our arteries and other delicate tissues. It also slows down the body’s capacity to repair this damage. Politics can make the blood boil with suppressed rage and unexpressed anxiety. ‘Fast tracking,’ being a corporate star, will extract the inevitable price of damage to arteries if you are not ‘mindful’, if you are not aware of the impact of everything you do on your system. Mindfulness will help you unclench and relax the muscles, slow down the racing heartbeat. You can start by consciously breathing slowly and calmly. 

Creating a positive interpersonal field

Develop the capacity to pick up subtle verbal, tonal and non-verbal signals from others.

Learn also the ability to send out soothing, nurturing signals to others, thus creating a positive interpersonal field. In order to develop this skill, practice working with people and listening to them with the same attitude as you would a beloved child, or respected parent. Your word, tone, glance should be completely focused on the person. Don’t dilute the interaction by playing with your Blackberry, talking on your cell phone or fiddling with your laptop. When you are with someone, pay complete attention. Anything less will only elicit a lukewarm response. Those who can create positive fields around themselves attract and build lifetime relationships. 

Valuing Human Effort

Young and handsome Ananda become the leader of a monastery when Buddha left his physical body. The townsmen were skeptical. They felt he was too young and frivolous.

They went in a group and asked him what the old bed sheetswere to be used for as the monastery had just been given new ones. Ananda said, ‘I had them cut into towels for the monks. ‘When those get worn out, what will you do?’ they asked. ‘I will fold them, stitch them and use them as doormats for monks coming in from the rain.’ Still they persisted. ‘What will you do when those too get worn out?’

‘I will have them cut into strips to use in the kitchen to handle hot vessels.’

‘Why do you take so much trouble over old bed sheets?’ they asked.

Ananda reflected for a while, then he said, ‘The life blood of some mother, some human being has been poured into making those sheets. That human effort should be treated with respect,’ he said. The townsmen left satisfied that Buddha had chosen well.

The Feminine Principle

Another interesting challenge today is for all human beings to develop the feminine principle. New leadership models require the development of the right brain, which is intuitive, holistic and creative. Most of these traits, along with nurturing and interpersonal skills, were previously relegated to a lower status in a predominantly macho world. The change in leadership styles required today, have made these very traits important. The Indian model of ardhanareeshwarar—a god who integrates the male and female elements in himself—is an ancient Vedic concept. Follow the logic through. The popular advertisement for Raymonds (the textile giant) shows the complete man as a man who can deal with a baby as comfortably as he can with a balance sheet. It shows someone who can laugh, and is not afraid to shed a tear. Accessing their feminine  side is a challenge men today face to deal with the transition to a more humane model of leadership.

Religion - the source to Encourage Social Unity

Religion, said the communists contemptuously, is the opiate of the masses. But if religion can calm the mind and slow down the heart and pulse rate, if it can make the engine of life work sturdily and

longer, why not adopt it?

Sri Aurobindo writes about a grand spiritual concept of health:

For nearly forty years I believed them when they said I wasweakly in constitution, suffered constantly from the smaller and greater ailments and mistook this curse for a burden that Nature had laid upon me. When I renounced the aid of medicines, then they began to depart from me like disappointed parasites.

Then only I understood what a mighty force was the natural health within me and how much mightier yet the Will and Faith exceeding mine which God meant to be the divine support of our life in this body…

Negative emotions—anxiety, fear, depression, anger, impatience,hostility, aggressiveness, overindulgence of any desire—cause imbalance. Moderation leads to harmony. An integral view of health demands an integral view of life. To attune the different elements of our nature around this central nucleus is the next step. Without such a reorientation and reorganisation of our life, it will not be possible to establish in ourselves the law of harmony and peace which is so necessary a condition for integral health.