Traditional 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. For example, the Keralites, in spite of coming into contactwith 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.

Religion

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 was weakly 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, over indulgence 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.

Meditation And Pranayama

One way to break the pattern of stressful living and strive for personal wellness is to change the responses to tough situations. There is, of course, no way to make the situations less tough. 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. Knowing and practising meditation can provide you with a silent space where you can retreat into peace: slow breathing, steady heartbeat, low pulse. This space is always available within a person who has learnt to meditate. While you cannot change your job, family or your life-situation, you can certainly learn to breathe more peacefully, thus reversing the process of excitation and avoiding the emotional hijack. It is not possible to learn meditation by thinking about it, any more than it is possible to learn swimming by talking about it. If you have to swim, you have to get into the water. Learning meditation and understanding your breathing patterns through pranayama are the best investment you ever make.

Your Family Health Assessment

Here are few questions to judge about your family health and by answering these questions, you can analyze your family health conditions and you can improve the health. Answer Yes (Y) / No (N) 1. Is your family important to you? 2. Do you spend quality time with members of your family? 3. Would you like to increase the amount of quality time you spend with your family? 4. Does your family include those outside the nuclear family? 5. Is your family linked together through the internet, letters or phone calls? 6. Is respect from your family important to you? 7. Do you show appreciation for things your family has done for you? 8. Do you seek to make your family life different from what it is today? 9. Do you do things to bring about a happier marriage and family life? 10. Do you seek out books and classes that would help you to be a successful parent? Do alcohol and tobacco play a part in your life? Is it a problem? 12. Do you speak up too much or too little in your family? 13. Is there too much fighting in your family? 14. Do you have a bad temper? 15. Does your family do fun things together? 16. Are you considerate in handling of misunderstandings between family members? 17. Do you come from a broken or divorced family? 18. Given the present situation, is there anything you could do to strengthen family ties? 19. Could you possibly use outside help such as counsellors and friends, to assist you in attaining a solid family now or in the future? Score a. Good: More than 10 Yeses b. Adequate: More than 6 Yeses c. Poor: Less than 5 Yeses Score

Secrets to Increase Family Bonding

Every day, at an appointed hour, sit peacefully with your eyes closed and breathe. Then repeat the following affirmations.  I have a safe and happy home.  I enjoy unconditional love.  The food I eat and the water I drink here nourishes me.  God blesses us and keeps our children safe.  This home is a sanctuary and a refuge.  All conflicts can be solved.

Create Positive Field to have a Ideal Home

Fill your home with affirmations, positive strokes, a peaceful atmosphere and a nurturing space that enhances prana. Make it sparkling clean, fragrant with incense and flowers, and beautiful. Be respectful of the sacred forces that can animate it. Avoid violent, depressing television programmes. Just as you would not allow a terrorist into your home, do not allow them into the blessed space of your home. Surely you are the protector of the field that exists in your home. A healthy home is a healing space, a nurturing positive mind-field. It can be a place where all wounds are healed. If your home is not a sanctuary, but a battle-field, do something about it. Get help, maybe professional help. Family dynamics can cause disease or reverse it. Reserve time for laughter and happiness—schedule time for it, like you do for your work. Laughter, smiles, compliments and hugs create a powerful positive field in the home.

Involve in Happiness Creating Activities

• Singing together. • Thanking your gurus. • Being loving and giving affirmations to parents and elders. • Forgiving those who harmed you in your life—let go. • Calling forth the highest from others. • Thinking of God, the source of all abundance. • Celebrating Abundance. Praising God.

Happiness Mantras to Improve our Wellness

 The world is like a buffet counter at a five-star hotel. Let’s not grab everything on our plates. Let us be choosy, so that we may avoid spiritual indigestion and physical exhaustion.  Let us replace stress with positive emotions that engender joy. Let us increase our HQ.  ‘I felt like a waterfall,’ said Diane Roffe-Stainrotter, gold-medallist skier in the 1994 Winter Olympics. The joy of a job perfectly executed, fills the body with the chemicals of bliss.  Professor Mihalyi Csikzent speaks about a state called the flow, which athletes, musicians, surgeons—in fact everyone—experiences when they are at their best. It is the experience of doing your job with  total immersion in it. So absorbed are you, that there is no place for anxiety or niggling worries.  Finding a job you love is one of the ways you can immunise yourself against heart problems.  A good marriage is a protective shield against heart attacks.  The capacity to enjoy the free gifts of Nature—sunlight, rain or flowers—allows the chemicals of bliss to flow. It is in this gentle chemical bath that the body is able to replace dying and dead tissues.  Merely avoiding negative emotions is not enough; one should consistently cultivate the positive emotions of love, compassion, courage and peace.

Ardhanareeshwara Model

The new millennium is a time for growth and promise for women. It is time for them to emerging from the stereotypical role of how others see them: as a mother or an all forgiving rescuer in the workplace. Men too are replacing their conventional roles as the bread-winner or boss with the ‘Complete Man’ image, where it is permissible for them to cuddle babies and shed tears, and discover their so-called feminine qualities of sensitivity and caring. The sharp man/woman divide, the Mars/Venus chasm has been miraculously bridged by the challenge of the times. It is a time to build partnerships and collaboration. To be ‘ardhanareeshwara’ is the challenge all human beings face today. This is why the ratio of men to women in the IT industry begins to approach that magical figure of perfect collaboration, fifty-fifty.

Ardhanareeshwara Model

The new millennium is a time for growth and promise for women. It is time for them to emerging from the stereotypical role of how others see them: as a mother or an all forgiving rescuer in the workplace. Men too are replacing their conventional roles as the bread-winner or boss with the ‘Complete Man’ image, where it is permissible for them to cuddle babies and shed tears, and discover their so-called feminine qualities of sensitivity and caring. The sharp man/woman divide, the Mars/Venus chasm has been miraculously bridged by the challenge of the times. It is a time to build partnerships and collaboration. To be ‘ardhanareeshwara’ is the challenge all human beings face today. This is why the ratio of men to women in the IT industry begins to approach that magical figure of perfect collaboration, fifty-fifty.