Good morning friends
Some days ago, a friend sent me the YouTube link for an interesting Ted talk by Dr Mohit Gupta. Dr Gupta is a cardiologist and he was speaking on “Unleashing your inner potential: the power of the mind, body and spirit “
Dr Gupta, a busy cardiologist suffered from brain tuberculosis, resistant brain tuberculosis, a few years ago. While continuing medical therapy, he also made use of positive suggestions and positive thoughts to the body to cure his illness. He strongly advocates utilising these methods as an additional therapy to overcome major illnesses.
Another interesting point that came up during his talk was his study of effects on the genes in young adults who are severely stressed out. A scientific study that he carried out has shown that severe stress can have a deleterious effect on our genes. The chronological age of the young adults was not very high; but their genetic age , as seen by the breakages in their genes during genetic studies, was much higher, almost 30 to 40 years more than the chronological age. This is an alarming piece of information, isn’t it ?
I have heard BK Shivani didi talk about stress in our daily lives. She says that these days everybody says stress is normal if you want to live in this world. But this was not the case 20- 30 years ago. At that time, stress was not considered something normal. Unfortunately, in the modern times, the thinking has changed, basically because stress seems to be ruling ( and ruining ) our lives. People seem to think that stress is normal and something that you have to live with. As can be seen from Dr Gupta‘s studies, long-standing stress has long-term negative implications on our health. ( Most of the doctors have experienced this in their medical practice: the incidence of hypertension, diabetes and heart disease is increasingly seen in younger and younger patients. )
So, it is imperative that everyone understands this reality of the association of stress and ill health and takes steps to reduce or eliminate stress from our lives. This sounds impossible, doesn’t it? But when we see the positive results on our health when stress is reduced, we can be motivated to work harder on reducing our stress levels.
When we take up any spiritual practice like meditation, in addition to medical treatment, we find a positive change in our health. Our immunity improves, our predisposition to viral illnesses reduces, our blood pressure is under control, our sugar levels remain stable and in general, we can enjoy a healthier and therefore happier life. Spirituality also has wonderful effects on our skin; the texture of our skin improves, and we look much younger than our chronological age. ( I have personally experienced this myself. ) Obviously the effects on the skin are just an outward manifestation of the inner peace and joy, which we can cultivate with regular meditation practices.
I do hope that these messages about healing our own bodies or being a part of the healing process by changing our thoughts and practising mindfulness can reach wider audiences so that the overall health of humankind can be improved.
Love,
Anjali Bhatawdekar
