Deal with Big Five Emotions

The Big five emotions (Kama, Kroda, Madha Lobha, Matsarya) lust, anger, arrogance, greed, jealousy, can flood the body with the chemicals of stress. Stress is destructive. Stress is aging. Stress is a killer.

Ambition and increasing peer pressure ensures the 'Rat in a trap Syndrome', where you are trapped into running faster and faster, to stay in the same place. Work follows us everywhere. The blurring of work and leisure, has intensified in this era of 24-hour access, when the computer is just a fingertip away and the cellphone is as intimate as a heartbeat. The delicate tissues of the body are constantly awash in the lethal chemical bath of chronic stress. Interactive electronic devices have made stress continuous. Home is no longer a refuge.

Meditation and pranayama, provide everyone with a way of reducing the automatic violent reactions to stress.  You can actually control autonomous systems like heart beat and pulse rates, which were thought to be outside the individual’s control.  Knowing and practicing meditation can provide you with a silent room where you can retreat into peace: slow breathing, steady heartbeat, slow pulse.  This room 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 mediation and understanding your breathing patterns through pranayama may be the best investment you ever made.  In India, there is no excuse not to learn these things. Stress need not be a response to the pace of your life.  You can learn a peaceful response that protects your body.

UNDERSTANDING HEART – THE ENGINE OF LIFE

The heart is the most hardworking part of the human body.  From the minute it is created in your mother’s womb, it continues to beat till the last moment of your life.  The heart is approximately the size of your fist.  Open your fist and close it, as long as you can.  Try doing it as though you were trying to crack a walnut.  You will find that you cannot do it for more than a few minutes.  Yet your heart works even harder, at the same pace, for your whole life.  This is because of special nature of the cardiac muscle.  The cardiac muscle will contract without any signal from the nervous system.  So usually it is believed that you have no control over your heartbeat, which is a part of the autonomic system.  However, biofeedback systems can help you slow down your heartbeat, as recent research has shown.  Meditation techniques also slowdown the heartbeat.

The heart supplies blood and is the pump, which controls the circulatory system. It weighs 340 gms and is about 15 cms long and 10 cms across.  Protected by the hard bony ribs, breastbone cage and backbone, the heart provides fuel for all parts of the body, feeding the cells of the body with oxygen.  When the blood has given up its oxygen to the cells, it has a bluish tinge. The pulmonary arteries or arteries from the lungs collect the de-oxygenated blood and carry it to the lungs, where it once more picks up oxygen and releases carbon-dioxide.  The pulmonary veins carry oxygenated blood  (blood rich in oxygen) back to the heart, so that it can feed every cell of your body.  The arteries carry deoxygenated blood away from the heart, while the veins carry blood to the heart.  It is estimated that everyday, the heart pumps blood through 90,000 kilometres of blood vessels.

How to improve the field in your office

1. Organise outings with the team

2. Organise joint shopping

3.  Eating together during lunch

4.  Well decorated office

5.  Organise for movie together

6.  Always encourage , do not discourage

7.  Say only good things

8.  Good music in the work area

9.      Clean atmosphere - protection against dust and sound

10.  Small Plant

11. Start Humour Club or a League Club

12. Start a book and magazine club

13. Share personal problems within the team. Love your team members.

14. To relieve stress, provide a counsellor.

15. People should be encouraged for their achievements.

16. Share strengths and weakness openly.

Healing Meditation

Close your eyes, place you feet flat on the ground. Make sure your spine is erect and your breathing slow and even. Visualize your heart in the centre of your chest, toward the left side.  Place your left hand over your heart and then the right hand over it.

Breathe in and out gently, watching your breath as you breathe in and as you breathe out.

Take your attention to each part of your body and consciously relax it from the tips of your toes to the top of your head.

Visualize pure golden light pouring into you through the top of your head and filling your body, like cool water could fill a glass jug.  Sit peacefully and watch as both your hands surround your heart with healing golden light

The Science of Yoga

The art of living is yoga which is India's contribution  to  the world.  The word 'yoga' is derived from the sanskrit word yuj which means 'yoke' attach or 'join'.  It means the disciplining of the intellect to the Cosmos.

The Science of yoga is systematized by Maharishi Patanjanli in 285 yogasutras.   It has eight steps namely Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Prathyahara, Dharna, Dhyana Samadhi.

Their respective meanings are:

i) Universal moral commandments

ii) Self purification by discipline

iii) Posture

iv) Rhythmic control of breath

v) With drawl of the mind from the domination of the senses and exterior object.

vi) Concentration

vii) Meditation

viii) Thoughtless state in which one becomes one with the object of his meditation. 

This chapter is about the  third stage,  namely asanas.  Yogasana is the Science of beauty of form which combines effortless postures and definite stances in the projection of a healthy and striking personality.

Yogasana covers the harmony of bodily stances and breathing techniques that mould, every part of the body to its ideal contour.  This is possible through various postures like standing and sitting.  These asanas also subtly aid in the development of a new and striking personality.

Asanas are thus not merely yogi postures but they embody the proper physical and mental disposition through the harmony of body and mind.

These asanas will help recreate a healthy heart.  Practicing all eight stages of yoga is certainly a recipe for the healthy heart. The following asanas are simple and chosen for the healthy heart.

YOGA SADHANA

1. PADMASANA (LOTUS)

Brings harmony between the body, mind and soul.  Peace of mind flows down to those who suffer from anxiety, tension, anger and other negative emotions.

2. SARVANGASANA  (SHOULDER STAND)

This asana expands the rib cage and helps in deep breathing and also increases the lung capacity.  The inverted body pose also brings fresh supply of oxygen and rich blood to the heart.

3. MATSYASANA (FISH)

This asana expands your chest tones the nerves of the neck and back.  It also ensures that the thyroid and parathyroid glands obtain maximum benefit.

4. DARMIKASANA (SURRENDER)

People with high blood pressure, glaucoma or a detached retina, should concentrate on asanas which may rectify their condition before performing inverted poses like Sarvangasana, Halasana.

5. DHANURASANA (THE BOW)

An excellent asana for the spinal cord which strengthens the hips and takes care of spondylitis.  The expansion of the chest increases blood circulation in the heart muscles.

6. SAVASANA (SHANTI ASANA)

The body relaxes through various techniques like self-hypnosis, Kaya-kriya.  Persons who are sad and disturbed can be benefited.

7. YOGA NIDRA

The sleep of Yoga.

Does Yoga work?

Yoga is one of the six darshanas: it provides a mirror in which we may see ourselves and realise our full potential.  Yoga tries to create a condition in which we are always present in every action at every moment. It is the ultimate mindfulness that helps us to dive into every moment and experience it fully.  It helps us become full participants instead of distracted spectators.  Finally the classic definition of yoga is “ to be one with the Lord”.

According to Pathanjali’s Yoga sutras, the senses are the doors of perception.  There are nine types of interruption on the individual’s journey to the state of yoga and union with the Divine.  They are illness, mental stagnation, doubts, lack of foresight, fatigue, over indulgence, illusions about one’s true state of mind, lack of perservance and regression.