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 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 continues 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. 

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.

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

Role of the Wife

Dr Dean Ornish, MD, the founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California, and author of six best-selling books, says that men who feel that their wives love them are much more likely to reverse heart disease than those who feel the opposite. The home can be the cause for disease. It can also be the safe sanctuary for healing and reversal of disease. Everyone talks of quality time nowadays. Once, a girl from Kuala Lumpur told me about her exciting marriage to a man from LA. ‘We have a really good time on holidays,’ she said. Another bright young yuppie from a major bank said her husband worked for the same bank in another city. ‘We meet on weekends and feel just like we did when we were dating!’ she said her eyes shining. Is this looked forward-to weekend the alternative to the solid permanence and possible boredom of a traditional marriage? Are the constant travels away from each other the basis for the ‘open birdcage’ marriage to which the bird always returns from its travels? Today, when we look back, we believe that contentment is happiness

Today's Children Tomorrow's Future

The children of today are tomorrow's future. Children need the security of a simple, dependable schedule. Ambiguity or lack of dependability in family life is known to affect the individual’s capacity to live in a secure long-term relationship in the future. The family provides the love and nurturing required for the survival of children. Most working couples say, ‘I wish I had more time at home.’ If they cannot go home during working hours can their homes come to them? A classic turn-it-upside down thinking tool. Can children meet their parents for a picnic or lunch at the office? Can couples plan business travel together? Can the office incorporate a Saturday children’s day into its schedule to improve participation of the family? An open house for them to see the world their parents inhabit?

The teenage years of a child are a crucial time when family can make all the difference. This is a time of acne, broken hearts, a newfound interest in the opposite sex, in looks and clothes. The children of this century are much smarter and grasp things faster.