CONFIDENCE AND SELF-ESTEEM- TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN?

Many   years ago, when I was in school in India, I had a classmate who was veryconfident in taking initiatives. He could do things that we, as children could not.  Some of us thought that he was outstanding. He would, for example, be smart in replying to teachers’ questions in informal settings where others would be left fumbling for words. He had participated in radio programmes and had done plays on the radio, a medium that was inaccessible for many in India in the late sixties. Undoubtedly we were impressed.

 In hindsight, I remember, this same classmate used to be easily excited. He was highly nerve strung. He could not sit still with ease. He chewed his nails. He was suffering with anxiety. Whatever activities he participated in, he gave the impression he was confident. But he had low self-esteem. He participated in these activities to get attention and to deal with his own anxiety.

 It is now apparent to me that because his self-esteem was low, he tended to take initiatives more than others. Obviously, it impressed everyone around. But the real need was to get attention. To hide his own fears and anxiety, he had to be seen to have confidence in what he was doing.

 A sense of self-worth is termed as ‘self-esteem’. People who feel anxiety in the company of others may have a low self-esteem. They may talk a lot and are considered ‘life and soul’ of the party. On the other hand, someone who has a high self-worth may not talk a lot in a party situation. This person could be termed ‘unsociable’ by others. They would talk less but whatever they say carries weight. They may not look for attention and so they may come across someone who does not have confidence. In crisis situations, they will be the ones who you can depend upon.

 Confidence can be internal- what a person feels inside them. Self worth is the measure of ‘internal confidence’. Confidence can also be external- which is based on how confident one looks. The more the person engages in activities to seek attention, the lower is the self-worth or self-esteem. So anyone who looks confident in a particular situation, may not necessarily have a lot of self-worth . And someone who does not talk much may be having a high self-esteem and would be more grounded than others.

 With experience, you will be able to distinguish between the two.

THE UNCONSCIOUS- HOW IT OPERATES?

A lot has been written about the Unconscious in psychology literature. During my own training, I found it hard to understand the intricacies of the Unconscious. But over the years, I have learnt something more than what the books taught me. This article is about my own experiences and  the understanding of the Unconscious.

 The part of the nervous system that controls our internal organs and is affected by and regulates our emotional state is the Unconscious. Initially made popular in the Western world by Freud, the Unconscious has been an accepted phenomenon in Eastern cultures for a long time. References to the Unconscious  have been made in Bhagvatgita, a holy book for the Hindus. Arjuna, the protagonist, in Bhagvatgita, is advised by Krishna, to rise over the emotions and anxiety that he is experiencing in the battle-field. Through cognitive therapy, Arjuna is advised to deal with his physical and emotional state first, before  he fires the first arrow at his enemies.

 Recently, it has been scientifically shown that a part of the nervous system called the ‘limbic system’ is responsible for controlling emotions in the humans. The limbic system is located in the center of the skull. It gets its input from the sensory organs. It is connected to the ‘logical’ cerebrum on one side and on the other it is connected to the nerves that control the functioning of internal organs like heart, lungs, stomach, liver and the kidneys. It is also connected to the master gland of the endocrine system- the hypothalamus.

 The limbic system gets its information from the senses, the logical part of the brain and also the internal organs. As soon as we think of an event, or become aware of an event in our environment that causes emotional arousal, the limbic system stimulates the endocrine system. We  feel emotional due to the production of particular hormones in particular quantities. The impact of these emotions depends on what the limbic system has observed (by preconditioning) of how the event is perceived- threatening or non- threatening.

 The Unconscious determines our behavioral responses to the environmental cues. To change our behaviour, it is the Unconscious that needs to be trained to respond in a different manner. This can be done either by using reason or by dealing with the emotions that are experienced in a particular situation. The interesting part of the change process is that once the emotions, relating to a particular event are experienced fully, the nervous system becomes tired of it and changes the behavioral response of the person.

This is the reason why counseling, hypnotherapy, emotive therapy and cognitive therapy work. If someone does not get well with these therapies, it is not that the particular therapy does not work, but because the emotional experiences have not been concluded.

The Effects of Traumatic Stress 

In the early hours of the morning, after a quiet night, John was looking forward to a day off.  The skyline was turning blue.  The stars had started to fade away.  A car stopped outside the police station where John was on call.  John went out to find out how he could help the occupants of the car.  A dishevelled young man came out of the car.  As John approached him, suddenly without provocation, the dishevelled young man lunged at him.  In a split second John realised there was a knife in this young man's hand.  Reflexively he stepped aside, got hold of the young man's arm, making an attempt to dislodge the knife out of his hand.  A scuffle followed.  His colleagues inside the police station heard the noise and came running out to assist him.  The young man was soon overpowered.  During this time the young man's parents got out of the car.  They later told them that the young man was suffering from a psychiatric condition.  That morning their son had become so unwell that, they were taking him to a psychiatric hospital.  As they were passing by the police station, their son asked them to stop near the police station.  He wanted to get a glass of water.  When he got out of the car and went towards the police station, they were unaware that their ill son was carrying a knife in his pocket.  The situation was subsequently managed by the young man being admitted in the hospital.  But for John, life had changed.

 Within a few hours of this experience, John went back home.  He felt snappy and irritable.  He felt angry with this young man and his parents.  He also felt angry with his senior colleagues, thinking that they were unhelpful in this situation.  That night he could not sleep.  If he fell asleep, he would be woken up by nightmares.  He became irritable with his wife and his children.  John was a very soft person, so it was difficult for his family to appreciate what had happened.  The children were too young to understand the significance of this event that had happened in John's life.  Next day John decided he was unable to go back to work.  He informed his colleagues that he was ill and he could not come to work.  Hoping that things would fall into place in a couple of days, John decided to take some rest from work.  Things, however, did not improve over the next week.  He then contacted his family physician, who advised him to take medication to help him sleep.  John decided to follow the advice.  Medication helped him sleep a little, but nothing else changed.  Weeks started turning into months and John felt fearful of going back to work.  When his general practitioner saw that he was not improving, he asked John if he would be interested in taking antidepressants or to go in for therapy.  John decided to go in for psychotherapy and has not looked back since. 

 Stress following a trauma is a natural physiological response of the body.  Every traumatic experience arouses emotions and creates physiological changes within the body.  These physiological changes may help the body to fight or run away from the source of danger or trauma.  When neither of these possibilities is accomplished, the arousal in the body persists.  This arousal results from hormonal changes in the body.  A disturbance in the hormonal system starts disturbing our day to day activities.  From the body's perspective, the experience of trauma is frozen.  The freezing of the experience, results in sleep disturbances, irritability, hypervigilance, being startled by even slight noise readily and affects many other areas of life. 

 A young woman was raped at the age of eighteen years.  She did not talk about the experience to anyone, and did not seek any form of therapy at any time.  Many years later, after being treated for alcohol abuse many times in psychiatric hospitals, as an in-patient, she eventually received psychotherapy to treat the effects of the experience of rape.  After the treatment, her life changed completely.  She stopped drinking in excess, became happier in herself, became self-confident and went on to do better things in life. 

 Traumatic stress can affect a person in many forms.  Addictions are the commonest manifestations of traumatic stress.  Drug addiction, alcohol addictions and even sex addiction result from experiencing stress, following traumatic events in life.  The harder a person tries to fight the addictions or the memories of the event, the more difficult it becomes.  With an increase in difficulty to deal with the effects of the trauma, more stress is generated in the body and the mind.  As stress grows, it affects our social and family relationships and work performance.  Unreasonable fears may also develop as a result of traumatic stress.

 A middle-aged lady was afraid to go out on the streets.  As soon as she would see any young people around, playing amongst themselves, she would become scared.  During her teenage years, this lady had the experience of having her bag snatched from her, as she was walking down the street with her mother.  This event had remained frozen in her mind for many years. 

 A young mother of three children was involved in a car accident.  When the accident occurred, she was driving her own car.  Although she was physically unhurt, the shock of the experience left her so traumatised, that she stopped driving the car after that.

 The effects of trauma can be stressful, even if someone has not suffered with the classical symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  From a medical perspective, a person has to have a set of symptoms to be having the condition of PTSD.  Yet many cases of PTSD remain undiagnosed and subsequently untreated, because they do not fit into the typical clinical picture of PTSD. 

 A young woman was sent for therapy after suffering for seven years.  She was involved in a road traffic accident, following which, her sleep had become disturbed.  She was getting up from her bed, in her sleep and acting out strangely.  Typically, a person suffering with PTSD has nightmares.  This young woman was instead having night terrors.  A night terror occurs in deeper sleep as compared to a nightmare.  A person may not be woken up by a night terror.  However, a few sessions of therapy resolved the issues associated with the accident.  Her sleep pattern returned to normal.

 Sleep disturbance is a very common feature of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  A person may have difficulty falling asleep, or be unable to go into a deep sleep and be woken up intermittently at night-time or, in extreme cases, being woken up earlier in the morning than the usual time of waking up.  Sleep disturbance is one of the earliest signs of mental disturbance.  It does not mean, however, that a person having sleep disturbances has a mental illness.  Sleep can be disturbed for a short while, when we are going through stressful situations in life.  On resolution of the situation, sleep usually comes back to normal.

 A young man in his late teens, was at one stage a victim of a robbery incident.  After the initial activity in the family for a few days, things seemed to settle down.  The parents, however, noticed that the boy was not the same as before.  Events took a nasty turn, when one afternoon, many months later, this harmless young man assaulted another boy in such a way that the assault could have been fatal.  He believed, at the time of the assault, that this boy meant to harm him.  His perception had changed completely.  In his case, the experience of the robbery was still frozen in his mind.  He perceived every event as a prospective life-threatening event.  After he did therapy work, he returned to his normal self.

 A middle-aged asylum seeker, behaved as if he was in danger all the time on Dublin streets.  He carried a knife in his pocket, fearing for his life.  He was also scared of policemen.  Thousands of miles away, he had experienced torture at the hands of the police that had occupied his country.  A few sessions of work resolved the stress, which was due to the trauma he had experienced.  He stopped carrying the knife in his pocket.

 Depending on our background and the environment in which we have been brought up, our responses to trauma are different.  Research has shown that about 40% of people having gone through the same experience of trauma suffer with PTSD.  Clinical experience shows that people coming from backgrounds of secure up-bringing do very well in therapy.  However, emotional sensitiveness can also make it difficult to resolve the traumatic issues.  This sometimes results in physical manifestations of traumatic stress.  Many people experience skin disorders like psoriasis and eczema, after undergoing traumatic stress experiences.  Others may experience physical illnesses as a result of traumatic stress.

 A young woman, involved in a car accident, had initial complaints of nausea and vomiting all the time.  This feeling started soon after the accident.  Needless to say, the symptoms disappeared as therapy proceeded.  Another young woman lost the use of her legs after experiencing a robbery incident.  She was initially seen in therapy when she was able to walk only with the aid of crutches.  Subsequent to treatment, she was able to run even without crutches. 

 Many people suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress are on antidepressant medication.  Post-Traumatic Stress can be masked by depression.  Research shows that symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can be treated to a limit with antidepressants and anxiolytic medication.  Experience shows that once the underlying traumatic stress is resolved, medication becomes unnecessary.  Research also shows that at any given moment in time, about 1% of the population suffers with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  This is equal to the number of people suffering with schizophrenia.  The effects of PTSD spread far and wide if it remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrecognised.  It is like an unseen enemy that destroys us from within.  It affects many areas of our life.

People who are involved in stressful life situations like the police, the fire fighters, the armed forces personnel, nursing and medical professionals and paramedics have a far more prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress as compared to the general population.  Men who like to project a macho image are the ones most likely to suffer and make others suffer as a result of unrecognised Post-Traumatic Stress.

 Other than medication, which can help control the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, psychotherapy using desensitisation techniques is the most effective and longer lasting in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress.

                    ALTERNATIVES IN MENTAL HEALTH

"Health" and "illness" are contrasting terms.  They can be used in physical or in mental context.  We know that physical exercise done on a regular basis keeps us healthy.  Mental exercise also keeps us mentally healthy.  Just like after doing physical exercise we need rest, after mental exercise the mind also needs rest.  But we hear the term "physical rest" frequently.  The term "mental rest" is rarely used.  No doubt then that as mental activities have increased with industrialisation, stress has increased.  This stress results from our inability to allow our mind to become inactive or relaxed for even a short time.

  Some people believe that our brain becomes inactive when we sleep.  If that were so then we should not have any dreams.  Dreams are evidence that our mind remains active, even when we are asleep.  This simply means that our mind is active 24 hours a day without any rest at all.  Just imagine how our bodies would behave if we were to go through 24 hours of physical activity.

Although research may show that 30% of mental illness may occur without a trigger of stress, it also shows that a majority - 70% - of mental illnesses occur with stress.  The research may have failed to look at the other 30%, mentally ill who may not be 'acknowledging' stress at a given moment.  This gives us a pessimistic view of mental illnesses.  We are made to believe that we can do nothing about them.  We are also told that mental illnesses occur because of our genes, our upbringing, our personality, our temperament, our lifestyle and we can do nothing about them.  Stress or no stress, we are told, if we have all these factors loaded in our personal history, we are prone to have a mental illness.  Some psychiatrists adhere to this belief strongly.  This belief is then put across authoritatively as the "gospel truth" of science.  Naturally, this brings up a sense of low self-esteem and helplessness in the person who is suffering with the illness.  We are then made to believe that medications are man-made answers to mental illness, which is a curse of nature. 

  Prayer, which was until recently considered unscientific, has now been shown to have beneficial effects on patients.¹  Similarly, the current belief in psychiatry is that mental illnesses can be treated by medical professionals only and the person who is mentally ill has no control over their lives.  The medical system works in a way in which the doctors themselves have limited choices other than prescribing drugs.  The patient has no choices worth mentioning.  From the legal perspective, a person who is mentally ill is considered not capable of taking any responsibility for their actions.  This is one of the most unfortunate aspects of mental illnesses.  People who are mentally ill also have a sense of responsibility in many areas of their lives.

  The role of emotions in mental illnesses has been totally ignored by scientists.  Yet researches do show that separation from mother,² losses³ - including deaths,⁴ traumatic events, especially when they occur over the previous three months⁵ can trigger mental illnesses.  What has been looked at is the history of such events in a person's life.  What is ignored is the emotional upheaval it causes in a person's body and mind.  Emotional expression ameliorates the effects of trauma.⁶  Repetitive upheavals in the body are simply not forgotten.  Release of emotions by emotional expression explains the role of counselling and confession.  We tend to believe, erroneously, that everything will settle with time.  Things do settle with time - but not everything.  It is these issues and their emotional effects, that cause mental illnesses and psychosomatic illnesses.  It is obvious that whenever we undergo any emotional experience, our nervous and hormonal systems are shaken-up. The nervous system and the hormones together control the activities of various parts of the body.  If the neurohormonal expression is allowed to go through completion, a physiological calmness occurs in the body.  This has a scientific basis.⁷

For people who attend church regularly, a common experience is the sense of calmness on entering a church.  Coupled with music, incense and sermons spoken in a low, soft tone, a sense of calmness dwells on the person.  There is scientific evidence to suggest that going to church helps a person remain healthy.⁸  More interesting is the fact that there is little research to state that music or aromatherapy help to bring about mental health.  Yet experience shows that they have a calming effect.  Only recently have papers started to be published in scientific journals bridging the gap between spirituality and science.⁹  It has now been researched that people who are religious in orientation have a lower rate of strokes than those who are not religious.¹⁰  

The whole area of mental illness is about losing a sense of freedom.  When we find ourselves bound to emotional issues of our life, that we cannot rid ourselves of, we lose our freedom of thinking.  This creates stress in our mind and our body bears the brunt of it.  This loss of freedom brings up a sense of fear or a sense of helplessness.  Both such feelings bring up a sense of insecurity.  A person loses confidence in their own worth.  Self-esteem becomes low.  With lack of confidence and low self-esteem, comes poor decision-making.  A person suffers with all these conditions when suffering with a mental illness.  This changes the behaviour of the person.  The behaviour is affected by the way the person feels and thinks.  If the person feels fear for a long time, the chances of becoming phobic and paranoid increase.  Withdrawal from social situations occurs.  The family members observe the person to be unwell.  Such a person is then asked to see a doctor.  With the person's self-esteem low, vulnerability increases.  This does not mean however, that the person becomes totally irresponsible towards their own well-being.  Many times the person wants to do 'something' to get better, but the health system has limited resources to offer much in terms of growth of the person, except medication.  When a mentally ill person goes to seek help - confidence, self-esteem and sense of freedom are already lost.  Instead of helping the person become independent, there is a tendency to make the person dependent on medication. 

 Medication plays its role in controlling the condition or state of illness.  It does nothing to improve the quality of life permanently.  To improve their quality of life, the person needs to take responsibility for their own well-being.  This is encouraged in some of the organisations, which are being run by the sufferers themselves.  GROW is an example of such an organisation.  Are there any alternatives to medication in mental conditions?  A doctor can only prescribe drugs to "control" the mental condition.  The current trend in some other parts of the world is to encourage people suffering with mental illnesses to take responsibility for their own well-being, along with medication.  Psychotherapy¹¹ and self-help is encouraged.  The usage of medication in such situations is minimised or eliminated.

            In psychiatry, we know that the suicide rate among physicians is higher than in the general population and psychiatrists are at a greater risk among physicians, than other specialists.¹²  Research shows that psychotherapy is more economical than medication alone in treating mental illness.¹³  Conditions like schizophrenia are also being treated without medication in some parts of the world.¹⁴  It is also a known fact that the more positive the attitude we have, the more balanced are the chemicals in our body.¹⁵  This would be more acceptable for those who see the positive role of religion on mental health.  Some authors have suggested that the medicine of the future is going to be "prayer and Prozac."¹⁶  Mental health is a preventative activity.  Do we need to suffer first before we take steps to deal with it?  If we could only assume responsibility for our own mental health, we may not have to suffer.  The best medicine in this case is certainly prevention.

We live in a free society.  The freedom to suffer is also one kind of freedom.  We also have the freedom to look for answers to minimise our suffering. 

REFERENCES

(Available on request)

GRIEF-HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

Grief is an integral part of almost everyone’s life. Whenever you go through the loss of a near and dear one, you go through a grief process. Grief is experienced physically and psychologically. Crying is an integral part of grief process. In cultures where crying is acceptable, loss is borne more readily than in those in which crying is discouraged.

When we have lost a near and dear one, it is initially difficult to accept the loss. This is natural. As time passes, the loss becomes easier to bear from a psychological perspective. But emotional expression is still an integral part of grieving. If the person is not allowed to grieve due to societal or family pressures, other problems like depression or anxiety may arise. From Nature’s perspective, once someone has died, it is important that the(unconscious)  mind accepts the loss. Once the unconscious mind accepts the loss after going through crying and sadness , life becomes easier.

A simple exercise will bring benefit to all those who want to deal with grief of a loved one.

 Exercise: Close your eyes and imagine seeing the lost loved one in front of you. Talk to the person in your mind as if the person was standing in front of you. Treat the image as a real person. Having finished saying what you would like to say, bid the person GOODBYE and see the person go. You will notice feeling like crying or feeling sad.

Do this exercise everyday at least once, preferably before sleeping, till you start to feel comfortable seeing the person go. By that time your sadness will have reduced to a remarkable extent. This exercise can save you many months of counseling and a lot of money if done as advised.

IMAGERY PRACTICE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

 John was a police officer. He was on duty one evening when a car stopped outside the police station. An elderly man came out of the car and came over to him to request him for help. He wanted John to go over to the car and convince his son, who was a passenger, to take psychiatric help. A simple family matter, John thought, as he approached the car. As soon as he approached the car, the son opened the door of the car and came out. As John approached him, out of nowhere came a knife in his hand. The man lunged at John. Only for his police training, John could have died. But he  escaped with small injuries. The man was overpowered and taken to the psychiatric hospital under police escort. For John, life had changed. He started to have flashbacks of the incident. Two years later, he was still suffering with the images of the incident. Doctors said he had post-traumatic stress.

 This is a negative example of imagery.  Our mind appreciates the language of images and no other language. When we remember anything good or bad, the sounds, the smells, the colours, the feelings are remembered too. As long as the image and the emotions remain in our memory, the incident remains alive in our mind and our body. If there are many incidents from our past that are negative in feeling, we tend to live in the present carrying their ‘emotional weight’ with the images of the incidents. This is the how we suffer with most of the psychiatric conditions.

 On the other hand, we can also use imagery to our advantage. If you want to achieve anything in life and this means anything, you have to do very little work. Just make an image in your mind having achieved what you want to achieve. It is important to consider that what you want to achieve has already been achieved. Then add on the feelings, the sounds, the colours, the smells to this image.Treat this image as if it has become reality. Simply imagine whatever you want to achieve, every day. If you can visualise this goal many times a day, it is all the more better. Trust and have faith in the visualisation. Be patient with this exercise. Sometimes one has to do this exercise for upto two years. Sooner or later, whatever you wanted to achieve will become reality.

 Do this exercise, focussing on only one goal at a time.

 This is one simple exercise that can change your life. The secret behind its success is that for Nature at large, what you imagine or visualise is reality for you. Nature tends to reinforce our imagination by creating reality out of our images. In order to trust the process, you need to experiment with it. You can change your life and take it in the direction you want to go.

HOW TO DEAL WITH YOUR ANGER IN TWO MINUTES

 How many times have you felt the need to bash up someone and found yourself helpless? How many times haveyou felt like screaming at your boss but had to restrain yourself? How many times you wanted to punch a bullybut could not?

Not any more if you follow this little advice.

When you are angry with someone, do not fight or confront the person. As soon as you feel the anger, take yourself in a quiet place. Preferably sit down on a chair. Take a few deep breaths. Imagine that the person you want to give out to or thrash up, is standing in front of you. Then deal with the person in the same manner as your feelings dictate. If you want to bash them up, do so. If you want to scream at them, do so. If you want to punch that person, do so. Carry on doing the activity in your mind, till you notice your anger calming down. When you are satisfied, you can stop and then open the eyes.

I have been using this exercise for last many years with my patients. It does not require confronting the person. You get the tension and anger out of your system. The other party never needs to know how angry you felt about them. It does not spoil your relationship with the person.

WHY DOES COGNITIVE THERAPY NOT WORK IN EVERY PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITION?

A lady was once referred for treatment for emotional distress. This distress had resulted from unpleasant memories of having undergone sexual abuse. In her case cognitive therapy had been unhelpful, Her own opinion was that cognitive therapy did not address the anger and fear that she was feeling strongly .There are many approaches in therapy that are available for anyone who wants this service. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)is the most well known, because it is the most researched form of therapy. CBT is the product of the West, where people are encouraged to think and discouraged to feel emotions. CBT is based on the premise that our thinking can change our feelings.

This is not always true. When people undergo abuse or torture, no amount of thinking is going to sort out the feeling of rage that underlies such experiences. The rage that one feels about such experiences overwhelms the thinking ability of an individual and the person still ends up acting out the emotion. In all such cases CBT fails to get any results. Yet because it has been written about widely, mental health practitioners erroneously believe that it is the only suitable form of therapy in almost all forms of psychological conditions.

A middle aged man, enraged by an ex-employee’s deception wanted to harm the ex-employee physically. Overwhelmed by anger, he felt that the only way the person would realize how they felt was by conferring physical pain. No amount of reason or logic was useful. According to him, ‘action had to be taken’. The best solution in this case was to reduce the anger by releasing it. When it was done in a few minutes, he thanked me for helping him out of the situation. The perception had changed. The thoughts were non-aggressive. Needless to say, he did not act out the rage.

When our inner drives are strong, they overwhelm our thinking. At such times reason or logic is governed by the drives. Anger is one such emotion. When it takes the form of rage, the person may lash out physically. The solution does not lie in reasoning with the person, but to help the person reduce the drive. In other situations when the anger is in the form of annoyance, reason can still be used to ‘distract’ the person away from the issue. But the feeling stays. To distinguish between times when behaviour can be changed by thinking and when it cannot be changed by thinking requires wisdom.

HOW TO MEDITATE BY DOING NOTHING

In modern times, stress is becoming an epidemic. Pick up any publication, be it a newspaper or a woman’s magazine or a business publication or a health magazine-stress is the omnipresent word. What is also noticeable is the kind of illnesses that are becoming common. Stress is now being looked at as the cause for many illnesses that were earlier considered to have only physical causes. Cancers, diabetes and obesity are some examples of physical conditions that fall into this category. No doubt health services have to bear the brunt of increased demands put on them.

Meditation is one activity that costs nothing to do but can reduce stress on a daily basis. If you can afford to go on holidays two or three times a year, you are indeed blessed with prosperity. But if you want, you can still reduce your stress levels everyday with a little meditation.

That meditation is only a religious activity-is one of the myths of the western world. But some form of meditation has been propounded by every religion without saying so. Yet practitioners of meditation know that there is nothing religious about it. In reality when we are doing nothing, physically and mentally, we are meditating.

There is scientific evidence to suggest that when we meditate, our brain becomes more active than when we are not meditating. For people who are uncomfortable with the word ‘meditation’, Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard University coined the term ‘Relaxation Response’. In his book with the same name, he has acknowledged the fact that relaxation practices have been encouraged and practised by people of all faiths at all times in the world.

In our daily lives, we are mentally and physically active throughout our waking state. At night when we fall asleep, we get physical rest. But our brain is still active. The fact that we dream when we sleep is evidence that our brain does not rest even when we are sleeping. If our brain is active 24 hours of the day, when does it get relax? It does not. So it gets into the habit of working all the time-24 hours a day. If we do not let our brain rest, it makes our body follow it.  So we become physically hyperactive. A typical example will be of someone who wakes up early in the morning to go to work. Till evening the person is engaged in mental or physical activity. On returning home, television or reading or computer occupy the person’s mind. This carries on every weekday .At the weekend, the person is busy in physical activities( that also engages the mind). So when does the brain get any rest?

Humans are animals of habit. With all this going on in our lives, our brain gets into the habit of being active all the time. At such times our brain tends to undo the stress we experience, by engaging in repetitive mental and physical activities. We consider  such habits as ‘relaxing’. These include activities like smoking, using drugs, alcohol or even excessive eating. By these activities, we tend to compensate for our overdriven brain activity, so that the brain is distracted from work or problems. Unfortunately, these ‘relaxing’ habits can easily become problems that start damaging our physical, social and economic well-being. These habits may also harm our career and family life.

In order to meditate, one needs to sit comfortably in a quiet environment. The silence in the environment rests the parts of the brain that are stimulated by sound. When you sit still, the parts of the brain associated with movement of various parts of the body get rested. When  you close your eyes, the parts of the brain associated with vision become restful. But with all the senses silent and brain not being stimulated, there is still another problem. The thoughts that keep on intruding the mind do not let the brain rest. Once they are kept at bay, the brain becomes relaxed. At this stage, one is sitting comfortably with eyes closed in a silent environment without any thoughts in the mind. Now the challenge is for how long can one stay in this state. This is meditation. There are many forms of relaxation and meditation, they all follow the same principles.

When the mind is still, the body starts to loosen up and clear away tension that is stored in the body. As the tension eases off, there is clarity in perception. Thinking and creativity blossom. When transformed into action, life becomes fulfilled as goals become easier to achieve. Investment required: less than 25 minutes a day. Outcome: Awesome.

WHAT HAS STRESS TO DO WITH EMOTIONS?

John had recently lost his brother in a road traffic accident. He was himself working as an executive and had a busy life. But he found that the more he did not want to feel sad , the more he felt stressed out. As a result he could not hold himself back. One evening on returning home from work, he cried and cried and cried. After sleeping that night, he woke up in the morning to feel much better than he had felt over previous days.

 Emotions produce stress in the body and stress produces emotions. A paradox. Yet it is true. The reason mother Nature gave us emotions was to’ cleanse’ ourselves by feeling and expressing ourselves. As long as emotions and feelings are held back, they are carried as ‘burdens’ by the body. The word ‘baggage’ is appropriately used for such experience.

 When too much stress is experienced, we become emotional. Our body wants to get rid of what it is holding on to. If we consider this experience as negative, we start fighting it. The moment we start fighting emotions, we start getting emotionally blocked. The emotional block then increases the nervous drive in our body. Again it has to be let out or it affects our thinking. It is not coincidental that most of the people who are emotionally blocked have an aggressive streak in them. They usually are physically stressed out but may present to the world at large as active, ‘practical’ , on-the-go people. These people do not allow themselves to cry or to feel any emotions. The resulting pressure on the  human body then results in illnesses that are physical or psychological in nature.

 So the more stressed out we are, the more emotional we could feel. The more emotional we feel, the more stressed out we are. So the solution is to let the steam out regularly and not to hold back any emotions, to the extent possible.

TWO FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HEALTH

 Health is defined as a condition of physical, mental and social well- being and the absence of disease or other abnormal condition. According to some forms of traditional medicine practices, an ill condition develops because the individual has violated a course that Nature wants them to follow. Whenever, the body’s natural rhythm is disturbed in some form, the body responds to undo the disturbance. The response of the body is in the form of symptoms that causes an illness.

 One example of the symptoms appearing in response to a disturbance is when we have an infection. Fever is a typical response of the body when any part of it suffers with an infection. In reality, the body is trying to kill the infecting bacteria by raising the body’s temperature. From a medical standpoint, fever is a symptom of infection.

 The two facts that you need to know about health and illness are related to our emotions. How the emotions affect our body and mind is a not well-known area in modern medicine. However, in traditional medical practices all over the world, the role of emotions in illness and health is well known.

 Fact one-When we undergo any negative or traumatic emotional experience, the body tends to ‘absorb’ or ‘lock up’ the effects in a mild way. The more the person goes through traumatic experiences, the more the body becomes tense or stressed out. This weakens the immune system. The body’s abilities to deal with any invasion by disease causing organisms is compromised. So when the illness strikes, the medicines and drugs affect the body in proportion to how much the body can help them in being effective. Some people need more medicines than others because of this reason.

 Fact two- The more relaxed your body becomes, the better is the immune system. The body’s healing system tackles the problem on its own. One does not need much medication in such a case. The relaxed body aids in the healing process. This is the reason why  people who practice meditation, yoga or tai-chi do not suffer with many illnesses.