The Hindu Business Line : Will yourself to wellness

Do not get alarmed and despondent if the doctor diagnoses a serious illness. Seek several medical opinions. This is important because some doctors are ignorant of new, more effective medicines available; some believe only in drastic action like surgery; some misguide due to their own egoistic limitations; the rest are plain commercial.

Arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can about your affliction. Be strong and determined to heal yourself. Remember, you are worth every effort you put in to get healthier and happier.

"Change your thoughts and you change your world," said Rev Norman Vincent Peale, the guru of positive thinking. The Peale perspective calls for greater personal responsibility in our everyday thoughts, words and deeds. It shifts our outlook from giving in to fate to changing fate. This era's healing affirmation is: I am a powerful person, not because I want to rule, control, dominate, but because I refuse to stay ill, small and fearful. I am a powerful person because I refuse to be anything less than what I really am.

Practising this affirmation means:

* Giving up habits that moor you to poor health.

* Starting a fresh cycle of good habits and living without masks.

* Lightening your backpack of things that drain you.

Lightening conserves energy and increases your enjoyment quotient. Rid yourself of energy drainers — if driving or commuting in rush-hour traffic tires you, talk flexi-time with your boss or prospect companies that have this facility. If your car is in a mess, give it for repair or sell/trash it. Stitch on a missing button or give away the shirt. Pay your taxes, bills on time. If your inbox overflows, sit down now and work through it. Consolidate all your bank accounts into one. I read somewhere that each of us averagely copes and tolerates about 80 to 100 things a day. That's not good.

This is the kind of stress that piles up and makes you blow a fuse. What is little understood is that negative stress evokes stress hormones. It vitiates the immunity system, stops digestion, induces fatigue, muscle destruction, diabetes, hypertension, ulcers, menstrual problems, heart disease and neuron damage and ultimately leads to death.

Consciously decide to live stress-free and make appropriate changes:

* Sleeping peacefully eight hours every night.

* Eating nourishing food moderately.

* Being no more than 10 per cent overweight (if at all).

* Regular exercise — 32 minutes of stationary cycling makes me feel serene; one hour makes me feel happy; one-and-a-half hours make me feel greatly optimistic and happy.

* No alcohol — it impairs neuron balance.

* No smoking.

* Not exposing oneself to any stress — clutter, tiresome people, thoughts of greed, jealousy, one-upmanship.

* Taking prescribed medicines regularly.

Such habits will calm the alarmed thoughts scampering through the mind when you've just been told about the illness. It takes about four months for the mind to truly quieten or lose its fears and settle down.

Practise Relaxation Meditation (RM) to break the cycle of emotional stress that you've unwittingly got into. Psychiatrist Dr David Viscott describes: "Pain in the present is experienced as hurt. Pain in the past is remembered as anger. Pain in the future is perceived as anxiety. Unexpressed anger, redirected against yourself and held within is called guilt."

Do RM before sleeping. Lying comfortably on your bed, silently command each part of your body — from toes to scalp — to relax. You'll find a great positive difference in yourself in seven to 10 days — a lightening, peace and joy.

Let's conclude with wisdom from Dr Deepak Chopra's book, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: "No one can really hurt you unless you give them the power to do so. This power lies in your own unresolved pain. You can take control of the old pain and reclaim power over your emotions. Outside events have no power to hurt you. The hurt comes when an interpretation occurs in your mind. Live beyond interpretation, in a state of witnessing the pure untouchable awareness that is the real you."

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

Picture by K. Pichumani

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