Principles of Healthy Living

• Start the day with a glass of warm water and a dash of lime. • Eat only freshly-cooked meals, not refrigerated leftovers. • Include one green vegetable and one yellow vegetable in every meal. • Go on a ‘juice fast’ for a day. Start with vegetable juice, and sipfruit juice for lunch and dinner. • Kick the old coffee-drinking habit. Have a glass of fresh fruit juice instead. • Make every meal an enjoyable experience. Set dishes out attractively and chew slowly to appreciate the full flavour of the foods you eat. • Make every meal an enjoyable experience. Set dishes out attractively and chew slowly to appreciate the full flavour of the foods you eat.

Beware of Happiness Traps

•Expecting too much from others. • Not accepting yourself as you are; demanding too much of yourself. • Not being content with anything. • Feeling you are not contributing. • Feeling excluded. • Playing politics and being manipulative. • Feeling you cannot prevent another’s suffering. • Constantly craving for food. • In a rush all the time. • Excessively or often angry. • Full of lethargy and inactivity. • Having too much tiredness. • Ignoring others.

Principles of Happy Life

1. Exercise every day. 2. Make friends with a doctor, preferably a young doctor. 3. Love myself (this is a tough one). 4. Give more affirmations, go slow on discounts. 5. Keep in touch with friends. 6. Play more. 7. Cultivate flow activities. 8. Spend more fun time with family. 9. Spend uncluttered time and do interesting things with the kids. 10. Do something new every day. 11. Be a participant in life, not a spectator.

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!

Nurturing the Prana

Prana is the life-force that flows in all living things. Kirlian photography has captured pictures of the pranic aura. When prana leaves the body, the body dies. When prana is in full flow, the person is full of vitality, energy and enthusiasm. Prana creates a field of possibilities where the seed of any idea develops rapidly, where our activities proceed smoothly and bear rich dividends. To develop prana, meditation, pranayama and a calm attitude are key. Freshly-cooked healthy food, pure fresh air and yogic exercise nurture and enhance prana. Eating too much, consuming stale food, exercising till you are ready to drop dead, constant arguments, overworking, getting emotionally upset, breathing polluted air, all interfere with the smooth flow of prana. Moderation is the rule.

The Secret Power of Emotional Fields

Around every person there is a field of emotional energy. Some people always look radiant, and everything in their life flourishes and grows. They have a positive energy field around them. Some people, on the other hand, always have a morose or tense air about them, and everything in their life seems to fade and die. They have a negative energy field around them. A positive field is created by positive emotions and a negative field draws sustenance from negative emotions. Energy causes all beings to act in this world. The higher the level of energy, the greater will be the accomplishments. When we are tired, our energy level plummets and we do not feel like doing anything. When the field around is negative with hurt, anger, possessiveness, greed, jealousy, fear and abhorrence, we are less able to act with speed and efficiency. These emotions suck the energy and life-force out of us. All beings have within them the all-pervading life-force, the same one that creates and sustains life in the universe. It is the universal or cosmic energy that binds and connects all creatures in a single, networked web. That is why it is difficult to be completely happy while hurting others. It is necessary at all times to make sure that the negative field is not created.

Yoga: Mind, Body and Spirit

Yoga rejuvenates the physical system and restores mental equilibrium. The word ‘yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit word yuj which means to ‘yoke’, ‘unite’ or ‘join’. It implies the joining or uniting of the individual consciousness with the universal consciousness. This chapter deals with the most popular element of yoga—asanas or body exercises. Yogasana is the science of the beauty of form. It combines effortless postures and definite stances in the projection of a healthy and striking personality. Asanas mould every part of the body to its ideal contours. Yogasanas, in conjunction with pranayama, bring harmony and balance to every part of the body, and are highly therapeutic for the body, mind and soul. Yogasanas are best practiced with good teachers, and there are various well-known schools of yoga to choose from, namely, the Bihar School of Yoga, the Krishnamacharya Yoga Foundation, the BKS Iyengar School of Yoga, and the Sivananda Centre for Yoga. Every Indian city has yoga teachers.

Feeling of Wellbeing

Auspiciousness or a feeling of wellbeing is created in a space or a field by treating it as sacred. What happens to a space that is sacred is transformation. When you consider yourself as sacred, you will treat yourself well. You will wear clean, good smelling clothes. Maybe ironed and starched, mended if torn, but clean and fresh. You will smile at yourself, encourage yourself. Just as you put on clean fresh clothes, you will also clean up the mental space or field around you. Sweep out all ill will, anger, fear and anxiety. Let there be the fragrance of incense, divinity of prayer and mantra, the smiles of loved ones, laughter and joy, the smell and taste of good plain, food. It is as important to clean the field around you as it is to have a bath. Sweep out the sad baggage of the past. Take into that field only what is bright and elevating, fine and happy. The space around you, your house, your office needs the same kind of careful attention. When a space is sacred, it magnetizes wonderful people and attracts beautiful events into it. All the words spoken in that space should be sweet and loving. When harsh words or events happen, do not allow them to take root like evil weeds. Sweep them away and find the gentleness and kindness that grows beneath.

Building Your Social Capital

We all try to amass wealth, by putting money in fixed deposits, dabbling in shares, buying gold or land or a house. Cold cash in a favourite option. But the latest research shows that social capital could be your greatest asset. An oven (physical capital) or an MBA (cultural or human capital) can increase productivity. In the same way, social contacts certainly enhance the productivity of individuals, teams, families and communities. Anything you own will not really help you, especially during a crisi,s 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.

Stress the Killer: Beware

The twenty-first century will be the century of the Mind. The Mind is man's last unconquered frontier. The Upanishads describe it as fast, fickle and uncontrollable, like a dozen swift horses travelling at breakneck speed. Mankind is paying a steep price for failing to learn more about the Mind before embarking on the race for success in the new millennium. Stress is the price we pay for success. Stress stalks the precarious climb up the corporate ladder. Any of the big five emotions—Kama, Kroda, Madha, Lobha, Matsarya (lust, anger, arrogance, greed, jealousy) respectively can flood the body with the chemicals of stress. Stress is destructive. Stress is ageing. Stress is a killer.

The Healthy, Nurturing, Home

A healthy home should be a healing space, a nurturing positive mind field. It can be a place where all wounds are healed. Alvin Toffler wrote ‘The family is the giant shock absorber of the family to which the bruised and battered individual returns after doing battle with the world!’ If your home is not a sanctuary but a battle-field do something about it. Get help, maybe professional help. Reserve time for laughter and happiness—schedule time for it, like you do for your work. Have a rule to avoid difficult topics during meal times or bed time. Music, if is soothing, can be a powerful force for peace. The very walls absorb the vibrations of the music. Mantras can do the same for your home. I sometimes feel that if music can be infused into the mindspace so that it plays quietly in your mind, as the background to your day, it can have a really soothing affect. Avoid violent, depressing programmes. Just as you would not allow a terrorist into your home, do not allow such movies into the sacred space of your home. You surely are the protector of the field that exists in your home. Make your home fragrant with incense. Clean and sparkling and beautiful. Respectful of the sacred forces that can animate your home.

Learn to Deal with Others and their Feelings

A drug addict once explained the difference between sympathy and empathy. He said, ‘You can never feel anything but sympathy for me and what I need is empathy.’ The he said, ‘Empathy is the capacity to feel my pain in your heart.’ To be ‘socially tone deaf’ * can lead to a life littered with broken relationships. 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. Unlike in a magnetic field, where positive attracts negative and vice versa, a positive, emotional and spiritual field, attracts positive people and events and, in addition, transforms even a normally negative person into a positive one. ‘How can I develop this skill?’ I ask. ‘Practice working with people and listening to them with the same attitude as you would a beloved child, or respected parent. Your word, tone, your very glance should be completely focused on the person. Don’t dilute the interaction by playing with your Blackberry, talking on your cellphone 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.’