From this holistic
perspective, health isn’t merely the absence of disease or symptoms; it is a
state of optimal well being, vitality, and wholeness. We are healthy when
we’re able to fully digest everything we take in, extracting what is nourishing
and eliminating whatever doesn’t serve us. This includes our food, our
relationships, our jobs, and all our life experiences. Illness, in contrast,
develops when there is a disruption ― a blockage in the flow of energy and
information in our body mind. Symptoms and sickness are the body’s signal that
we need to restore balance, eliminate whatever is causing the blockages, and
reestablish the healthy flow of intelligence.
The
Mind-Body Connection:-
Since the body and
mind are inextricably connected, every time we have a thought, we set off a
cascade of cellular reactions in our nervous system that influence all the
molecules in our body. Our cells are constantly observing our thoughts and
being changed by them.
Each day at the
Chopra Center, we see guests who reinforce our view that our thoughts and
choices and experiences influence our tendency to be healthy or become ill. A
man in a toxic work environment has incapacitating headaches that don’t respond
to multiple medications. A woman decides she will no longer accept her
boyfriend’s demeaning behavior, and her debilitating panic attacks
“mysteriously” subside.
Of course, this is
not to say that all illnesses are “caused” by our thoughts. The relationship
between the mind and body is complex, and sometimes things happen at a physical
level for which we don’t have a plausible explanation. We have to acknowledge that
we may have an inherent tendency for health or imbalance, and in some cases,
genetic inheritance is the major factor underlying an illness. At the same
time, we have amazing potential to heal and transform ourselves through our
thoughts, perceptions, and choices. The body is a magnificent network of
intelligence, capable of far more than current medical science can explain.
Cultivating
Balance
Establishing a
healthy dialogue between our thoughts and our molecules helps us shift from
imbalance to balance. And when we’re in an optimal state of dynamic balance, we
naturally tend to listen to our body with love and reverence and make choices
that support balance, happiness, and well being. The following seven mind-body
prescriptions will help you create this positive feedback loop:
1:-Take time each day to quiet your mind and meditate:-Meditation is one of the most powerful tools for restoring balance to our mind and body. In meditation, you experience a state of restful awareness in which your body is resting deeply while your mind is awake though quiet. In the silence of awareness, the mind lets go of old patterns of thinking and feeling and learns to heal itself. Scientific research on meditation is accelerating with the growing awareness of meditation’s numerous benefits, including a decrease in hypertension, heart disease, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and addictive behaviors.
2:-Each
day eat a healthy diet that includes the six Ayurvedic tastes and a wide
variety of colorful fruits and vegetables:-
Next to breathing,
eating is our most vital bodily function. To create a healthy body and mind,
our food must be nourishing. Ideal nutrition comes from consuming a variety of
foods that are appropriately prepared and eaten with awareness.
A simple way to make sure that you are getting a balanced diet is to include the six tastes (sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and astringent) in each meal. The typical American diet tends to be dominated by the sweet, sour, and salty tastes (the main flavors of a hamburger). We do need these tastes, but they can lower metabolism especially if eaten in excess.
A simple way to make sure that you are getting a balanced diet is to include the six tastes (sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and astringent) in each meal. The typical American diet tends to be dominated by the sweet, sour, and salty tastes (the main flavors of a hamburger). We do need these tastes, but they can lower metabolism especially if eaten in excess.
The pungent, bitter,
and astringent tastes, on the other hand, are anti-inflammatory and increase
metabolism. These tastes are found in food such as radishes, ginger, mustard,
peppers, spinach, mushrooms, tea, lentils lettuce
In addition to
including the six tastes in each meal, focus on eating a variety of fresh and
freshly prepared foods, while eliminating or at least limiting items that are
canned, frozen, microwaved, or highly processed. These are “dead” foods that
weaken health and accelerate aging.
3:-Move
your body: Engage in daily exercise.
Regular exercise
offers incredible benefits for your body and mind. Drs. William Evans and Irwin
Rosenberg from Tufts University have
documented the powerful effect of exercise on many of the bio markers of aging,
including muscle mass, strength, aerobic capacity, bone density, and
cholesterol.Not only does exercise keep the body young, but it also keeps the mind vital and promotes emotional well being.
A complete fitness program includes exercises to develop flexibility, cardiovascular conditioning, and strength training.Strength training.Find an aerobic activity that you enjoy and will be able to three to four times each week for twenty to thirty minutes. After your body is warmed up, spend five to ten minutes stretching. Be sure to include strength training in your program to systematically exercise the major muscle groups of your body. The key is to start off slowly, find physical activities you like, and do them regularly. You will be surprised how quickly you increase your endurance and enthusiasm for moving and breathing.
4:-Take
time for restful sleep:-
Restful sleep is
essential key to having health and vital energy. When you're
well-rested, you can approach stressful situations more calmly, yet sleep is so
often neglected or under
emphasized. There is even a tendency for people to boast about how little sleep they can get by on. In reality, over time, inadequate sleep disrupts the body’s innate balance, weakens our immune system, contributes to weight gain and depression, and speeds up the aging process.
Human beings generally need between six and eight hours of restful sleep each night. Restful sleep means that you’re not using pharmaceuticals or alcohol to get to sleep but that you’re drifting off easily once you turn off the light and are sleeping soundly through the night. If you feel energetic and vibrant when you wake up, you had a night of restful sleep. If you feel tired and unenthusiastic, you haven’t had restful sleep.You can get the highest quality sleep by keeping your sleep cycles in tune with the rhythms of the universe, known as circadian rhythms. At the Chopra Center, we find that if people can commit to a consistent sleep ritual, they can usually retrain their mind to experience healthy sleep patterns.
emphasized. There is even a tendency for people to boast about how little sleep they can get by on. In reality, over time, inadequate sleep disrupts the body’s innate balance, weakens our immune system, contributes to weight gain and depression, and speeds up the aging process.
Human beings generally need between six and eight hours of restful sleep each night. Restful sleep means that you’re not using pharmaceuticals or alcohol to get to sleep but that you’re drifting off easily once you turn off the light and are sleeping soundly through the night. If you feel energetic and vibrant when you wake up, you had a night of restful sleep. If you feel tired and unenthusiastic, you haven’t had restful sleep.You can get the highest quality sleep by keeping your sleep cycles in tune with the rhythms of the universe, known as circadian rhythms. At the Chopra Center, we find that if people can commit to a consistent sleep ritual, they can usually retrain their mind to experience healthy sleep patterns.
5:-Release
emotional toxins:-
Many of us harbor
emotional toxicity in the form of unprocessed anger, hurt or disappointment.
This unprocessed residue from the past contributes to toxicity in our body and
needs to be eliminated. You can begin by asking yourself, “What am I holding
onto from the past that is no longer serving me in the present?”
Once you have identified what you want to release, spend some time journaling about how your life will be different when you change. Then you can do a specific releasing ritual that declares to yourself and to the world that you are letting go of whatever it is you’ve been holding on to. If you need more help in this area, consider attending the Healing the Heart workshop at the Chopra Center. In a nurturing, supportive environment, you will be guided intensive, loving process to release emotional pain and then fill the newly created space in your heart with love and self-nurturing behaviors.
Once you have identified what you want to release, spend some time journaling about how your life will be different when you change. Then you can do a specific releasing ritual that declares to yourself and to the world that you are letting go of whatever it is you’ve been holding on to. If you need more help in this area, consider attending the Healing the Heart workshop at the Chopra Center. In a nurturing, supportive environment, you will be guided intensive, loving process to release emotional pain and then fill the newly created space in your heart with love and self-nurturing behaviors.
6:-Cultivate
loving relationships.
Enjoy a good belly-laugh at least once a day.
From the scientific perspective, laughter is an elegant mind-body phenomenon that reduces the production of stress hormones and boosts the immune system. Researchers in Japan found that people with rheumatoid arthritis who watched “rakugo” or comic storytelling experienced a significant decrease in their pain and stress hormone levels as well as an increase in two immune-enhancing
From the scientific perspective, laughter is an elegant mind-body phenomenon that reduces the production of stress hormones and boosts the immune system. Researchers in Japan found that people with rheumatoid arthritis who watched “rakugo” or comic storytelling experienced a significant decrease in their pain and stress hormone levels as well as an increase in two immune-enhancing
