Is laughter really the best medicine?

"Laugh and your life will be lengthened for this is the great secret of long life."
Og Mandino

It was a pleasant morning in spring 2005, I was having breakfast with some friends, this scene was nothing unusual except that the location was a remote village, a little over an hour from Brasilia by car (the capital of Brazil) in the resident city of healing by the famed John of GOD (more about him in another blogpost).

We had started some random conversations and being silly as each person was offering sharing their experiences. Our conversations were punctuated by smiles that would in end in loud laughter, within twenty minutes, our lungs and diaphragmatic muscles were sufficiently warmed up to work out we were going to give it the next hour.



We were all telling jokes and there was a particular joke by yours truly on which the whole group laughed for an hour. The joy of the laughter like the swine flu had spread to other tables and had people grinning, nodding, laughing though not a single one of them was privy to our joke. I realized, in laughter there is oneness of hearts


I can be funny on occasions but never have elicited laughter of this magnitude. Never in my adult life have I had such a contrast of emotions while simultaneously laughing my head off. In the midst of the laughter, my mind had taken a pause to take in the atmosphere to ask where was I?


I was choked with emotion, a sudden realization came, I became aware that, most of these wonderful people around me were terminally ill patients, some had only days to live while others a few months. I myself had accompanied my dear friend (now deceased) for a last attempt to save him from the cruel clutches of death through the benevolence of this great healer. It became clear that, I was no comic genius, but these were people wanting to live, experience, soak in the beauty of life until the last moment. I had just provided the initial kinetic energy for their joy to pour out.

Even now as I write these lines, I feel the same emotions, grateful to have been part of a very beautiful experience.

I experienced for the first time the healing power of laughter. Is laughter really the best medicine? Two people have been healing masses through laughter and ironically both of them are doctors A. Patch Adams: B. Madan Kataria.

Patch Adams

There was a phenomenal movie made on Patch Adams portrayed brilliantly by Robin Williams which I highly recommend.




Laughter Yoga



Dr. Madan Kataria started laughter yoga with five people and it has become an international organization with hundreds of clubs across the world. The concept is simple, a bunch of people get together and just laugh for an hour or so. It is extremely therapeutic and has known to heal some very deep psychological issues including potentially incurable diseases.




Healing through laughter

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
- King Solomon (Proverbs 17:22)

Perhaps the most insightful recording of the benefits of laughter and humour healing came from Dr. Norman Cousins in his book, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient. Dr.Cousins was himself afflicted with extremely painful inflammation of his body. He constantly watched funny videos and read funny books to put him in a positive emotional state.

He later wrote "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep." He recovered from this condition and spent the next 20 years teaching about the merits of laughter and humour in healing.




I recently read an article about a lady who discovered that she had cancer. She would lock herself in a room and keep watching funny videos for hours and she has stated on record that her cancer has disappeared because of that.


According to the author of Humour Your Tumour Dr. Paul McKee “Watching humorous videos that produce mirthful laughter increase the activity of natural killer cells in the blood stream. A key role of the natural killer cell is to seek out and destroy tumour cells in the body.”




It is important to understand at the root of humour is joy. Healing will be greatly enhanced if we can put ourselves in a positive environment which can include an atmosphere of laughter. So let us take time out everyday to laugh and laugh well and until our ears, cheeks and backs hurt. Trust me the pay off is amazing for the pain it takes to laugh for an hour or so. All you have to do is invite your friends over and imitate the sessions from the videos in this blogpost.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

I remember once as a student at the university, one of my professors had discussed the difference between being efficient and being effective, I was intrigued! He elaborated that being efficient is doing everything well and on time and being effective is doing what is important well. The definition had stuck to me like glue.

As I sit to write this month’s blogpost, I am reminded of a small incident that took place when I first thought about this topic of effectiveness. I had noticed several times a certain book peering at me during my routine visits to the bookstore; I would catch a passing glance & rudely ignore it. This book magically found its way into my garage, determined to get my attention, insulted maybe, by my cold shoulder as one would feel having spurned by a lover.

Last summer, while packing to go on a camping trip, I made my usual journey around the house collecting books that I intended to read during the trip. My eyes skimmed over this book, a part of me as usual said, heck, ignore it, the other side protested wait, what if it had something of value which might help you? I responded, there, you got me!
While these two warring monarchs (my two sides) were engaged in one upmanship, my truant hand had already reached for it & I was surprised to find myself, book in hand and well into the fifth page.



If you already have a hunch about the book I am talking about?

Yes you guessed right, the book was the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The book has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and made Dr. Stephen Covey a world renowned self help author.

Subsequently I have always questioned myself about why had I ignored this book like a plague for so long? Was it possible that I might feel burdened by the wisdom in the book and feel obliged to follow it? Whatever the reason, I realized the very title had had a powerful impact on my psyche.

What are the Seven Habits of highly effective people?



Habit1:Be Proactive
Habit2:Begin with the end in mind
Habit3:Put first things first
Habit4:Think Win /Win
Habit5:Seek first to understand then to be understood
Habit6:Synergize
Habit7:Sharpen the saw

stephen covey
Uploaded by sunsetnow

I take few of the habits to discuss more in detail

Habit 1 (Be Proactive): Dr. Covey begins by saying “The first habit of highly effective people is Proactivity. Proactive people are driven by values that are independent of external circumstances or how people treat them”

Being proactive means making things happen. Proactive people do not stand around waiting for things to happen. They go and create what they want when they want. Proactive people work within the sphere of their influence and know the difference between situations within their control and those without.

Interestingly, management Guru Peter Drucker in his landmark paper “Effective Executive” (a Harvard Business Review classic) also says effective people always first ask what needs to be done now?

Having the choice to react is another quality of proactive people Dr.Covey explains the gap between stimulus and response has infinite possibilities. Animals do not have the privilege of choice, they are reactive not proactive.

One of the greatest examples of a proactive person history has ever seen was Gandhi. The mighty British Empire could throw anything at him; he retaliated by conquering the hearts of men which in the end became the most formidable foe of the British.



Habit 5 (Seek first to understand then to be understood)

The following videos by Dr. Covey brilliantly summarizes habit5



Dr.Covey talks about the native Indian way of communication

http://www.betterdaystv.net/play.php?vid=167


The lighthouse example

http://www.betterdaystv.net/play.php?vid=129

Habit 7 (Sharpening the saw)

Sharpening the saw means self renewal. What do we do to be centered, to replenish, to be calm & focused? Some people take retreats, cut off from the world for several days to come back with renewed vigor.

The wealthiest man in the world, Bill Gates of Microsoft, took his retreats seriously. He called his retreats think week which he religiously pursued twice a year. During his retreats, he saw no one, took no calls and would not disclose the location of his retreat. He had a caretaker who would supply him with food twice a day.



According to Microsoft, one think week in 1995 inspired Gates' paper, "The Internet Tidal Wave," which led Microsoft to develop its Internet browser and crush Netscape. Plans to create Microsoft's Tablet PC, build more-secure software and start an online video-game business were also catalyzed during Think Weeks.


Conclusion

Since reading Dr. Covey I had wondered why he never included time management as one of the key habits of a highly effective person? I went back to the definition of being effective and realized being effective is atemporal or not a function of time (though we are all time bound as part of creation).
If we acquire the seven habits we automatically prioritize and do things at the right time with maximum effect. Think of all the great works we have had throughout history like a Milton’s Paradise Lost or a Will Durant’s Story of Civilization or a Thirumoolar’s Thirumandiram they were hardly created on a deadline. It is not for nothing that we call them timeless classics, they are not bound by time while, during or after creation.

So if we want to be highly effective or create something of value let us be unaffected by time first but work on fine tuning in acquiring the seven habits!

Love: A Mystical Experience & A Series of Chemical Reactions

“All year round the lover is mad,
unkempt, lovesick and in disgrace.
Without love there is nothing but grief.
In love.. what else matters?”- Rumi

I was going to write about the seven habits of highly effective people (which will be the next blogpost) this time.At the behest of my wife, who chastised my insensitivity on Valentine's day, suggested that I write about the most powerful emotion in the world: Love. Wow! I thought to myself I must either be totally crazy or a very brave soul to dare venture into the sanctum of the finest of human emotions, love.

Before beginning, I chuckled to myself thinking Rumi, Shakespeare, Tagore and the likes must be turning in their graves to see a rookie attempt an arduous task. To write about love, I thought, one must have the sensitivity of a poet, the nobility of a samurai, the precision of an Eagle and a mighty heart of a Lion. As I was dwelling on my insufficiencies, a quote from Plato gave me hope “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet”.

What is Love? The dictionary definition is a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.

This insatiable seeking towards underlying oneness is probably the true goal of all lovers where a lover longs to unite with his beloved.

Love, culturally, in common parlance has been predominantly assumed to be romantic love between man and woman. Most people are not even aware of the difference between selfish and unselfish love.




The best examples of love offered to us are the tragic love stories of Antony & Cleopatra, Laila & Majnu, Romeo & Juliet. These stories though inspiring at a certain level by no means are the standard.

Digging a little deeper, we find that, throughout history the engines of love from generation to generation have been mystics with a romantic heart. The great ones love all equally, as Swami Vivekananda once said: “I will come again and again, for I have fallen in love with humanity”

The towering monuments of love have been Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Rumi etc. Their definition of love is a mystical experience, infinitely expanding, and all inclusive feeling of ever deepening ecstatic exhilaration.

Can everybody feel this love or is it exclusive to only a privileged few? Is it possible to have a scientific basis to this?

I thought of presenting love from both a biological & mystical point of view and ending with an inspirational love story that would probably give us a holistic view.

What happens biologically when you are in love?



There has been extensive study on neuronal reactions and how our brain responds when and during love. Some scientists have likened it to a concoction of chemical reactions.

According to Helen Fisher, anthropologist and well-known love researcher from Rutgers University, “when you are in love, two chemicals are released in the brain, dopamine (pleasure chemical) & nor epinephrine

Together these two chemicals produce elation, intense energy, sleeplessness, craving, loss of appetite and focused attention”.

She also says, "The human body releases the cocktail of love rapture only when certain conditions are met”


Is Love a mystical experience?

Dr. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School began to research the intersection between the brain and religious and spiritual experiences.

In this work, also sometimes referred to as “neurotheology”, Newberg described the possible neurophysiological mechanisms associated with religious and spiritual experiences.

Some of the questions that intrigued Dr.Newberg were “Is divine love related to human love, and if so how? Can studying human love perhaps provide useful clues about the neuroscience of divine love?”
After all, Sister Diane, one of the Carmelite nuns whose “unio mystica” state was neuroimaged by Mario Beauregard. As reported below, it compares her love for God to the way two people love each other.

When they fall in love, they feel a physical rush. They blush. They feel tingly. That, she says, is the kind of love young nuns feel for God when they experience unio mystica. But over time, the love deepens and matures.



Inspirational Story

http://www.anvari.org/shortjoke/Jokes_from_Emails/7025_valentine-s-day-story-john-blanchard-stood-up-from-the-bench.html


At its core, love is an individualistic mystical experience which happens within one’s own self either stimulated by a significant other or humanity or an idea.

Love has been important enough to cause wars & take lives. So let us spread this precious gift which is the only commodity which multiplies when shared.

I end with a beautiful quote from Bertrand Russell

“Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.”

How to set New Year resolutions & stick to them?

A very happy and prosperous new year to you all! Let the year 2009 be full of result oriented actions which take you ever closer towards your ultimate purpose in life.

On the way back from the UK last week, I sheepishly mentioned to my brother in law Niku that my next blogpost was about “How to lose holiday fat-gain?” He characteristically, in his stoic way replied “Why don’t you write about new year resolutions?” Duh!!! Of course, he was bang on right! Of course it is the New Year, hello? I could only conclude that I had sort of lost my “bearings” after having spent a week in the Swiss Alps; these mountains can do funny things to your head with their enchanting beauty.

Have you made your new year resolution yet?

According to statistics, over 70 % of all Americans have some sort of a New Year resolution. A whopping 45% fall off by the second month. Only 8 % stick to their resolutions through the year. Do you know which category you belong to? If you belong to the former categories or even if you are one of those who sets too many resolutions, do not panic. Now is the time to change, how? Just have at least one resolution. At the risk of stating the obvious, it has been proven that, people with at least one resolution are 10 times likely to succeed than those without.

Some of the more common resolutions are spending more time with family, getting fit, and quitting smoking or drinking, getting out of debt, getting organized blah blah blah

The million dollar question is how can we get into the top 8%? Simple, it starts with being aware of the obstacles and having the right tools to overcome those obstacles.

What are the main obstacles to sticking to your resolutions? According to Alan Marlatt of the University of Washington’s addictive behavior research center, “one of the main obstacles is not having a serious commitment to change”. The reason people lack commitment is because they have not thought deeply enough about why they want to change? For example, if you consider yourself a little over weight, you might want to start asking yourself, “Why do I want to lose weight? How would it impact other areas of my life? Purpose? To feel good? Fit into clothes which I have not been able to in years?”

Mr.Marlatt continues: “The next obstacle is not having a good feedback system in place to track your progress.” A feedback system can range from a nagging significant other to committed friends to progress charts.

How to set a resolution?

Step 1: Identify an issue/habit which is bothering you the most in your life
Be specific, the more detailed the better. While identifying a bad habit, it is important to know why overcoming that habit is important for you (so make sure it is something close to your heart) for eg; instead of saying I want to lose weight, it is more powerful to say I want to lose 15 pounds by this date.

Step 2: Declare war on it (Repeat everyday: I have declared war on …….)
I love this aspect, it is all about mental aggression. Win over the quality mentally with constant reminders by putting stickies in your bathroom mirror or/and on your computers as having already achieved it. For eg; I have declared war on weight gain


Step 3: Focus only on acquiring the positive aspect of the negative quality you want to overcome (forget the negative). For eg: If you want to get rid of fat, focus on acquiring lean muscle

Step 4: Commit to winning no matter what (simple, if you refuse to give up, the positive quality has to manifest)

Tools for implementation

I came across two great tools to help you stick to your resolutions. I have personally not used these tools yet but have used similar tools to great effect

A. Don’t break the chain technique

This technique made famous by Jerry Seinfeld of the famous Seinfeld series has an interesting story attached to it. Please click below for full story

http://lifehacker.com/software/motivation/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-281626.php

As you can see from the chart below, I purposely left out 20th, 21st, 22nd Jan for exercise and the chain looks horrible. So make sure not to break the chain!!! Double click on the chart below to make it bigger





Please click below to download the tool

http://dontbreakthechain.com/

B. Benjamin Franklin’s virtue chart

Franklin one of the founding fathers of the US, a key person in the signing of the declaration of independence, a great scientist, diplomat, politician needs no introduction, had used this tool to develop his character since he was 20 years old. Double click on the chart below to make it bigger



Franklin wanted to acquire 13 virtues and he practiced one virtue per week and completed the cycle every thirteen weeks only to restart. The calendar helped him keep track of how he performed vis a vis that quality. The chart above shows a sample of one virtue (Industry), for a detailed explanation of how papa Franklin used the chart to great effect please click below

http://www.flamebright.com/PTPages/Benjamin.asp

To download the tool please click below

http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official/hpda/addons/franklin

Conclusion:

It is interesting to note that some of the greatest successes in history have not been because they were just outrageously talented but they have had the discipline to consistently take small steps towards their resolutions. It is all about how consistently we do the everyday tasks. So good luck, make a resolution and monitor it everyday! As Lao Tzu once said: “a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step’”

Please feel free to post your resolutions in the comments section, and probably our community can cheer you on.