• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Bharat Savur

Is there a way out of depression apart from sleeping pills and meditation? Sure there is. Simple exercise might be just the thing to put the spark back in your life.

It's called the LRS or the low response syndrome. Not mentioned in any medical textbook, it is nevertheless a subtle form of depression that's hitting executives. On the surface, they function normally. But, below the façade is a dreariness. Assets seem like burdens; possibilities and promotions like punishments; appointments, commitments and deadlines like bondage. Assets need planning; possibilities and promotions need preparation; appointments, commitments and deadlines need focus. And the mind is simply not up to these tasks or suggestions. Its response-ability is low.

The mind is said to respond at three levels — basic, inferral and intellectual.

An example of the different responses:

Question: Hello, may I speak to Mr Shetty, please?

Basic response: Yes. (No attempt to call Mr Shetty.)

Inferral response: Yes, please hold on. Mr Shetty, call for you.

The intellectual response is best illustrated by this allegory: Little Tanya drops her favourite mug and it breaks into three pieces. Refusing to cry, she tells her brother, "I'll ask God to mend my mug." Her brother scoffs, "Do you really expect God to answer your prayer?" Tanya replies staunchly, "Oh yes, he will." An hour later, the brother looks into the room and asks Tanya, "Well, did God answer?" Pointing to the pieces, little Tanya says, "Yes, he did. He said `No'".

An overload of self-expectations, wrong foods, medicines and alcohol cause the mind to regress from the highly sophisticated philosophical intellectual-response level to the twilight area between the inferral and basic-response level. The brain interprets this plummeting as `danger' and floods itself and the body with defensive vigilant neurotransmitters to bring on that sinking feeling — the low response syndrome. The effect is one of ennui, a sense of futility, as if meaning has slipped through the fingers. It's zero zone.

Most people believe that meditation will act as a non-invasive medication and magically transport them from blues to brightness. Wrong. Meditation spirals the already over-introverted mind-brain into a `shoonya shock' — a deeper neurological nothingness. It's like giving an over sleeper sleeping pills. A pooped sleepwalking perception is unable to see the awesome eternity spread out in all its splendorous potential in the zero-zone. Rather, it sees it as an intimidating inky black bottomless pit.

If not meditation, then what? Do the double-image exercise. Look at your reflection in the mirror and imagine how your subconscious body looks. It's the aura-like body within your outer body. Below the façade of your open eyes, visualise your etheric drooping eyelids, below your squared shoulders visualise the etheric slouch.

Now, imagine you've just got a new video game or two free tickets to Hawaii (anything that you usually find exciting). Notice how your brain sparks to life. Cash on this life-spark. Standing right there, start twisting your torso from left to right and back, and continue doing it at a smooth measured pace until you've done at least 30 repetitions. Authentic Yoga teachers strictly disuade depressive people from meditation. They encourage them to do body-dynamic yoga to reverse the ebbing energy of the mind.

The brain and neck form a funnel to the spine, the main artery of the body. Thus, the spine is said to receive and hold all kinds of contradictory impulsive and compulsive emotions. When impulsive joy is overtaken by compulsive greed, the spine loses its natural psycho-physical flexibility. Most of our energy is spent in fighting this rigidity and our response-level lowers. When the brain sparks with an exciting thought, this flicker is further fanned by the torso or spinal twist. The congested conflicts in the spinal column loosen. The spine is said to be like a sophisticated flute, each section of it vibrating at a different frequency. The twists set off dense vibrations at its base to finer ones towards the neck. As they harmonise like a silent musical composition, you feel the relaxing-giving-way-to-supple-serenity running right through your back.

The etheric image of the spine would look like a rope swaying in a slow, flowing, graceful, sinuous dance. You will feel your neck muscles relaxing, lightening, the feeling spreading in ripples to your shoulders and upper arms. You will feel an intense need to cry or laugh as long-held issues detach or dissolve from your tissues. The spine houses a hierarchy of energies. The powerful animal energy at the base, the human energy at the centre, the spiritual energy at its peak. As the hierarchies harmonise, joy explodes benignly in the brain. And you want to spread this joy all around, everywhere you look, everywhere you go. This joy, this wanting to give, this intense connecting to everybody and everything is your rediscovered response.

Now, you are ready for meditation, for breathing deeply of life and eating with fulsome enjoyment. For walking like you've never walked before. For talking and listening to people and wanting to give them a big slice of your joy.

The writer is co-author of the book `Fitness for Life'

Response can be sent to life@thehindu.co.in

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
In the nick of time

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line