Avoid Loneliness

Reisman speaks of the ‘lonely crowd’. Loneliness, a sense of exclusion, is a poison that can cause illness as easily as a virus or bacteria. Loneliness is the most lethal of modern diseases. For example, newly widowed women have a higher rate of breast cancer than wives or single women.

The break-up of community feelings, urbanisation, highly competitive workplaces, have increased the possibility of toxic workplaces.

Learning the Relaxation Response through meditation, yoga nidra, prayer or even deep breathing will help you identify the state of your body when you are relaxed, and the acceleration of the system when you are in the clutches of the Big Five emotions kama, krodha, madha, lobha and matsarya (lust, anger, possessiveness, greed and jealousy). Mindfulness will help you unclench and relax the muscles, slow down the racing heartbeat. You can start by consciously breathing slowly and calmly.

Doing a good deed or helping others seems to have an enhanced immune response. Watching a film about Mother Theresa is also known to enhance positive emotions. Welcome and embrace active positive emotions. They are the success of life, the secret of health, the foundation of energy. This may be the reason for the success of movements like Rotary and Lions, organisation that practice service as a way of life. 

Enjoy Your Work

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.

To work at something you love, to be ‘self-actualized’ in Maslow’s terms, is to protect yourself against dying young. As Khalil Gibran wrote, ‘What is it to work with love?... It is to weave the cloth from the strings of your heart, as though your beloved were to wear it.’

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.

Affirmations for Family Bonding

(Sit with eyes closed and silently affirm)

         I have a safe and happy home.

         I enjoy unconditional love.

         The food I eat and the water I drink here nourish me.

         God blesses us and keeps our children safe.

         This home is a sanctuary and a refuge.

         All conflicts can be solved.

Mindspower

The mind is central to success in business today. Carl Segan wrote of the mind: ‘Every human being has the capacity to store the equivalent of 7550 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica.’ Women managers, like men, need to develop the powers of their mind. The Indian ethos gives us key answers in this journey towards having a razor-sharp mind that can cut through all that is superfluous to the heart of truth. Develop the ability to wipe your mind clean and silent through meditation, because great concepts can be created only when the mindspace is clear of mindless static.’

As the first few generation of women who have entered the workplace, women managers must 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. It is for the promoters of change. Those who dictate the unknown future. Women must be leaders to be accepted as such. They need to banish forever their fear of being centre stage, their reluctance to accept that; they are where the buck stops.

Energy from Positive and Negative Forces

‘We draw energy from the wind or air and sunlight. We draw energy from water, earth (things grown on the earth).  We also draw energy from the divine forces of the universe, which pour into us through the chakras.

The sun pours heat, light and vitality, which greatly improves health and wellbeing.  That is why people feel depressed during the winter especially in the far North, like Scandinavian countries and the Arctic

A place can have a positive or negative field.  You can feel it when you enter a temple or church where regular services are performed. That is why people go to places of pilgrimage like Tirupathi. The feeling of prayerful sacredness envelopes all who go to that space.

During a disaster, a cloud of fear is created.  Anyone who enters that space is filled with fear, even if he is normally brave. The infectious nature of all emotions is similar. Hatred speaks from mind to mind, till the cloud of hatred draws to it all the people in that space even when the person is usually rational.

How to deal with Depression

Depression is signaled by a pervasive low mood, loss of interest, in everyday activities.

The person has a lowered ability to enjoy things or experience pleasure. ‘Nothing pleases me,’ a depressed person will say. ‘I did not feel like waking up in the morning. Combing my hair and bathing needed a major effort.’ This is how a depressed person feels and all of us are depressed at one time or another. No laboratory can confirm this. Doctors have to depend on what the patient says. It can appear suddenly or be a life-long disorder. This can affect one’s whole life and harshly impact the family and its ability to enjoy life.

Treat Depression

• Being able to rise above the gloom is crucial. Soothe yourself by talking kindly to yourself. First-aid by the self is necessary while we are feeling low, insulted or tired.

• Any form of meditation or silence will heal and illuminate your inner space.

How to Deal with Anger

Red light

1. Stop, calm down and think before you act.

Yellow Light

2. State the problem and how you feel.

3. Set a positive goal.

4. Think of lots of solutions.

5. Think ahead to consequences.

Green light

5. Go ahead and try the best plan.