The Health Q
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) 1715 6165 | Library & Archives Canada Entry
Contents:
Permanence of impermanence;
Do you feel insecure?;
Decision-making—What is your style?; Five mental faculties meditation develops;
How an old hobby helped me in grieving process?;
Mantra repetition helps to relax; Revitalise your body
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Editorial: Permanence of Impermanence
by Parmjit Singh, PhD
How many times are we haunted by a sense of insecurity or uncertainty? Questions such as ‘what would happen if such and such happened’ and ‘how am I going to deal with it’ rattle us no end. Often these feelings strike us when chips are down and they suck us into an unending vortex of catastrophic imagery and thinking. The ifs and buts sometimes keep people sleepless during nights. Whether you like it or not, that is modern life—full of uncertainties and fears. Or at least, that is what we believe in.
On the flip side, if you look closely at life, you will realize it is neither positive nor negative, neither certain nor uncertain. It has its own flow, own mystery and it is our mental labeling or desires that make it positive or negative. Mind loves comparative ambience; it likes to categorize things into positive and negative experiences.
We live in a self-created mental bubble, a mental space populated by thought-pollution, emotional predispositions, delusions, greed, anger, hatred and love. Mind draws upon this material while steering our life and finding solutions for our daily and existential pains. Therefore, whatever we tend to believe, all these negative perceptions and emotions keep on bleeding into our daily actions and behaviors. We never seem to find a permanent solution to our existential dilemmas. It happens because we keep on recycling the same mental junk in our life—sometimes in the form of problems and other times in the form of solutions. That is how our life goes, shuttling from one fear to another.
The real solution is to look into the real nature of mind and how the problems and fears are formed. If we try to touch the ground state of consciousness on which mind appears as the encrustation or specks of worldliness, you will be able to access the permanent state of security—that impermanence is the only constant in real life, and all the insecurities and fears are like mental noise flitting in and out of the ground state of our consciousness.
And the more mental noise you have in your mind, the less you will be in touch with that permanence and consequently more insecure and fearful you will be. [HQ]
Do You Feel Insecure?
by Parmjit Singh, PhD
The feeling of insecurity is much more pervasive for humans, because we identify with material objects and they, by nature, are subject to change, decay and death. The only way to deal with this psychological sense of powerlessness and constant insecurity is to remember the permanence of impermanence. Every time, you are hit with a sense of insecurity, remember the following:
• Step outside and look at a tree: how leaves are about to sprout again after going through the phase of turning yellow, falling to the ground, disappearing into soil and becoming the nutrients to feed the same tree which bore them earlier.
• Look at the waves of an ocean, their rising and falling: they form, disappear and then rise again. The cycle continues.
• Look at your own body; today it is here and someday it won’t be. Physical bodies change & die. Meditate on the fate of your physical body everyday. Thinking about death is not morbid; it is one way of understanding life. Life is not separate from death. Embracing death can open new vistas of living afresh with passion and zeal. Spend few moments of remembering your own death everyday; it will refocus your life in the priorities.
• Think of your thoughts and emotions; how they have changed, grown, or shriveled with years—to give rise to the wisdom you have today.
Though sense of insecurity is frightening, yet it also ensures growth, renewal and progression. It is the one which gives us hope and cause for optimism because it shows that life is full of infinite possibilities. So, embrace this uncertainty and insecurity and run with it. A life without insecurity would be just like a stone—predictable but dead. [HQ]
Decision-Making: What is Your Style?
by Gurdarshan Jyot, PhD
How many decisions do we make every day? It is something most of us rarely think about. But in fact, life is a collection of all the small and big decisions we ever made.
How well you make your decisions can greatly affect your life. It is the ability to make good decisions at appropriate times that make you a successful person. Good decision-making helps you to avoid mistakes and achieve your goals. You can also live out your dreams when you are able to make sound decisions and act upon them.
Experts believe that each of us tend to have a certain style of decision-making. These are:
• Impulsive- Go for the first choice presented to you.
• Fatalistic –It is fate, whatsoever is meant to happen will happen.
• Compliant -Go along with someone’s opinion.
• Delaying – You need more time to think.
• Agonizing – you feel overwhelmed so you can’t make up your mind.
• Balancing – You weigh all the factors, and then go ahead.
Of course, the ideal method is the last choice—balancing. You can apply this method of decision-making with a very simple tool. Simply take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side, put all the pros and on the other, put the cons. You can then refine it and assign each entry a “weight” according to importance of +0 to +10 points for the pro side and -0 to -10 points for the cons, and add them up. You’ll quickly see the benefits of either side, and your decision will then almost make itself.
Once you have added all the likely combinations and permutations and made a provisional decision, keep it aside for a night; sleep on your decision. Recent research shows that it is always better to let your unconscious mind and gut feeling influence the decision, because our rational mind does not know everything and in the end, you might miss the big picture. Your gut feeling and the unconscious mind can compensate for this.[HQ]
How An Old Hobby Helped me in Grieving Process?
by Angela Thomas, R.N. (MBA student)
Just recently, I pulled out my father’s telescope which had been packed away in the basement for eight years. When my father was alive, he spent a good deal of time engrossed in his lifelong hobby of astronomy. I grew up spending many nights stargazing with my father, learning about the treasures that exist in space.
Over time, my father’s hobby became my hobby. My father’s dedication and love, in addition to my new found passion for astronomy, led to the construction of my own telescope, built by my father using a lens from an old overhead projector. My father labeled this telescope ‘Angela’s Eye’. When I was eighteen, my father passed away. With that I put away the telescopes and my hobby.
After many years of going through the grieving process and building acceptance for loss of my father, I recently felt an urge to resurrect my hobby of astronomy and see the night sky through my ‘father’s eye’. I dug out his telescope and refurbished it. I bought various books related to astronomy and also recently joined a club in which I can go out, stargaze and learn from various amateur astronomers.
Do you also have an old hobby that you have put away? Was it your own hobby or the one you shared with a loved one? Although I have reconnected with a hobby, I feel that reintroducing my love for astronomy has not only facilitated healthy closure to the loss of my father, but also allowed me to value and appreciate what I learnt from my father while he existed in the first half of my life’s journey. Every time I use his telescope, I feel a close and healthy connection to my dad.
Aside from my reflection on reintroducing a very meaningful hobby, I have recently engaged myself in another new hobby. I had always had a love for learning through reading but presently, between full-time work, part-time school and marathon training, reading had taken the back seat.
Due to the time constraint, I took up listening to books on tape. I purchased an MP3 player and joined an internet place, Audible.com, where I can download various books. On my three hours training runs, I can listen to a book. On my bi-weekly commute to Toronto for school, again, I can listen to my book. Now I do not feel as if I have lost my hobby for learning through reading, rather I have discovered a new manner of pursuing the old hobby. Whatever your hobby be, sometimes it is good to reflect on what makes that hobby special and meaningful to you.
Personally, my hobbies have helped me to achieve a psychological closure to my father’s death eight years ago. Rather than shying away from facing the loss, these hobbies initiated the healing process and empowered me to take the loss in my stride.
If you have any interest in these sorts of hobbies, the following websites can get you started on this journey: www.audible.com & www.khanscope.com [HQ]
Five Mental Faculties Meditations Develop
by Parmjit Singh, PhD
In their book Tibetan Wisdom for Western Life, Arpaia & Bapgay (1999) contend that persistent practice of meditation develops five primary mental qualities: steadiness & pliancy, clarity & warmth & spaciousness. If you look closely at these five qualities, first four exist in pairs and each quality in each pair is diametrically opposite to each other. E.g. steadiness stands for firmness while pliancy is for flexibility. Clarity is about pure mental reasoning using rational thinking while warmth is for openness and acceptance.
This is the beauty of the meditative practice; it helps us develop a broad spectrum of mental faculties making us ready for the myriad challenges thrown by life. The fifth quality comes as an offshoot to all these four qualities; it unclutters our mental and emotional space so that we have more legroom to look for creative solutions to life’s problems. Even half-an-hour spent a day can help you develop these faculties. Instructions for meditation can be found at our website, www.TheHQ.ca. [HQ]
Arpaia, J. & Bapgay, L. (1999). Tibetan wisdom for western life. Hillsboro, OR: Beyond Words Publishing, Inc.
Mantra Recitation Helps Elicit Relaxation Response
by Parmjit Singh, PhD
Mantra recitation (a repetitive silent or vocal recitation of a particular word or a string of words) is an important tradition in contemplative practices. Not only has this practice shown to be effective in clearing sinuses during the winter months, but also is found to be useful in a variety of physical and psychological circumstances. A recent study published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing attests to this old wisdom that mantra repetition is helpful in eliciting relaxation response and disrupts the seamless chatter of thoughts. Participants were put under a 5 week ‘mind-body-spiritual’ technique of silently repeating the mantra. At the end of the experiment, scientists reported that majority of the participants found this program of mantra repetition to be helpful in a variety of situations.
On a more personal note, ‘OM’ recitation in our groups being run at YWCA, reports similar anecdotal feedback to mantra repetition. As a part of our program ‘The Healing Voyage’, participants are instructed to recite ‘OM’ for 10-15 minutes in a group setting. At the end of the session, most of the participants report relaxation and slowed-down thought process, in addition to pleasant sense of wakeful alertness. [HQ]
Re-vitalize Your Body
by Parmjit Singh, PhD
Yoga is known for vitalizing body and eliminating various ailments. The Locust posture can help do you so.
This posture can be practiced in two forms: Half-Locust and Full Locust. (Click on the image to enlarge it)
Half-Locust: Lie down with your nose and forehead touching the floor (a). Place your fists beside your thighs. Make a full inhalation. Retain the breath and while pushing the fists into ground, raise your left outstretched leg up (b). Hold it for few moments and exhale while bringing it brings it back to the floor. On the next inhalation (c) repeat the same thing with your right leg. The awareness is held in the pelvis and lower vertebrae. Do it slowly.
Full-Locust: In full locust (d), we raise both our outstretched legs simultaneously off the ground and hold it in that position for few moments. Counting in your mind may also help in holding to the posture. Inhale a full breath, retain and while digging your fists into floor, push both your legs in the air as high as possible. Full-locust requires great exertion in comparison to the half-locust. Therefore, it will be advisable that you practice Half-Locust first and switch to Full-Locust only when confident.
Benefits: This posture is a powerful antidote to constipation. Regular practice, it is claimed, can even eliminate the most stubborn case of constipation. It should be noted that constipation can lead to physical and emotional disturbances. In addition to this benefit, Locust posture has powerful salutary effects on back muscles and massages internal glands and cleanses and rejuvenates the kidneys.[HQ]