As we grow up, many factors contribute to our believing that we are “ordinary”. The conditioned mind keeps telling us this all the time. But the longing of our Being to unfold our beauty in all its glory does not go away.
One of the more obvious ways of addressing this issue is the quest for superficial beauty. So we focus our attentions on our skin, hair, nails, clothes, footwear, body shape, face, teeth and so on. When this is not enough we cling to beautiful friends, the latest gizmos, jewellery, but the frustration grows because the true inner beauty is still struggling to reveal itself.
No one can dispute that everyone wants to “look better”, but it is also equally true that even more people want to “feel better”. Few things are as striking as a child, adult or old person who radiates health, energy and wears a big smile on his or her face. Most of us identify this as “inner” beauty manifesting as “outer” beauty. Hence we find that wellness and beauty are intimately connected.
Assessing Yourself for Wellness
A simple self-administered wellness test ( Figure 1) will show you which way you need to go.
Figure 1. Wellness Self-TestMark the above table, using 1 and 0. For example, if your answer is Yes, mark “1” in the “Yes” column and “0” in the “No” column. Write down the total in the last row. If your total in the “Yes” is above 2, you need to start preventive practice to neutralize health problems while they are minimal. If your total in the “No” column is above 7, then you should spend less time in building energy and more time in learning how to effectively manage and maintain your health.
Understanding Cause and Effect
The very basic principle of computers, that most of us may have heard of, states:
“Garbage IN – Garbage OUT”.
If you feed bad data into your computer, you get erroneous results. Yoga says exactly the same about human beings. If we put into our system negative thoughts, unhealthy food, destructive emotions such as anger and jealousy, we reap bad relationships, excess weight, poor health and low beauty.
The two-pronged antidote that I would suggest is drawn from qi gong and yoga.
1. Make the Three Intentful Corrections : a. Adjust your posture
b. Adjust your breath
c. Adjust your thoughts
2. Improve integration of Head, Heart and Hand.
The method of the three corrections is something we do naturally every day whenever we are uncomfortable. If we are sitting for a long time and our back starts to hurt, we adjust our posture in the chair. If we are tense or we run up a flight of stairs, we stop to take a few deep breaths. If we are faced with an impossible situation, after a while our thoughts move towards acceptance rather than confrontation.
All these reactions are corrective, energizing, but unconscious. If we do the same things intentfully before we experience discomfort, then the energy levels in our system will go on rising, thus improving performance, immunity, and a sense of peace.
Similarly, some of us are in situations where we over stress our minds, emotions, or body. Sometimes it is a combination of all the above, especially if we are in a stressful job, bringing up little children and having relationship issues with our spouse or parents. We are constantly trying to manage on the mind, heart and physical fronts.
These responses of our mind, heart and physical being are again unconscious and constantly trigger the stress hormones in the body. Strengthening and integrating Head (mental), Heart (emotional) and Hand (physical/practical) aspects of ourselves with a regular practice keeps us better focused and calm in the face of the pressures of life.
Practices for the Three Intentful Corrections
This is a practice which you try to make your second nature. Whenever you have a few seconds spare, maybe just before a meal or a meeting, just before you take a call and just after you disconnect, just before you start the car or just after you park it, first thing in the morning or just before you climb into bed, do the following:
Straighten your spine and purposefully relax. Imagine the crown of your skull being gently pulled towards the sky and the base of your spine towards the earth. Visualise your spine lengthening due to this.
As your body cavity increases due to posture correction, feel the body and especially the abdominal cavity fill with breath. Feel the extra oxygen entering your system and traveling to the furthest corners of your body. Hold your breath while reciting in your mind:
“One,one thousand; Two, two thousand; Three, three thousand”
Allow the exhalation to be deep and visualize it taking away all toxic debris from body and mind.When you breathe in, feel stomach move outwards
Purposefully, bring your thoughts to the present. Make a note of how your thoughts are flowing at the present moment. Clear from your mind for the moment all those thoughts that appear in Figure 1 under points 3,4,5,9.
Then continue with whatever you need to do next.
Practices for Integrating Head, Heart and Hand
Before we integrate we need to connect at a deeper level with these three aspects of ourselves.
a) Head : Just like we clean and feed the body everyday, cleanse and nourish the mind. How do we do this? Yoga exercises which focus on balance and inversion are a great way of quickly achieve a mind which is active but calm. Inversion is great for skin and hair.
“Internally active but externally still”
is the principle of these exercises. The balance postures in Figure 2 also dramatically affect your core muscles and hence your body shape.
Figure 2. Balance and Inverted posturesb) Heart : Allow the stagnant emotions to drain away and ingest fresh energy. This is cleansing and nourishing for the heart. Do forward bending exercises to effect release and reverse bending with an open chest for absorbing new energy. Twisting exercises balance the tensions of the left and right sides and allow the spine to settle into a more relaxed position.
“Empty your jug if you want to fill fresh water”
is the common sense principle of these exercises, illustrated in Figure 3. The release of toxins is triggered and emotions, appetite and immunity are improved.
Figure 3. Move along the arrows in any direction your body and mind feels like.
c) Hand: Circulate the energies generated by the above exercises by working multiple muscle groups simultaneously and in concert with your breathing and your awareness. This movement therapy aspect of yoga is grouped together under the various forms of sun salutations. In this case, we focus on
“Incessant action outside but complete stillness inside”
as the guiding principle. Scientific weight training can also be beneficial, provided they maintain the suppleness of the body and cardiovascular capacity. All the above prepare us for the past paced activity of the chaotic external world.
The word yoga essentially means “union” at a spiritual level. At a practical level, it may be interpreted as “integration”. The integration of Head, Heart and Hand is the next step, for which we train ourselves to be observers and “directors”, using sitting and moving meditation.
Sitting meditation is best achieved by progressive training in “Dhyana” (one example is sitting with eyes closed 5 minutes at a time, focusing on a recent event and watching your response to it at the head, heart and hand levels). Moving meditation is best begun with an introduction to Tai chi forms. These forms should be done slowly enough so that your awareness keeps in step with the graceful, relaxed movements, and your breath stays deep and full.
“If any exercise or activity is difficult for you,
Know that patiently mastering it is what is good for you”.
With this mindset, we overcome the blocks to good health in mind, body and spirit.
Once you have engaged in regular practice for about 6 months, revisit the table in Figure 1 once more and prepare to be amazed. This is a good time to choose what next to do with your hair, skin, nails, clothes, etc. which we call the outer aspects of beauty, because your body will be toned and more graceful. You will also make a balanced choice because the mind is peaceful. Your skin may clear up enough for you to avoid harsh chemicals.
Science is uncovering many things about wellness which we have always suspected to be true. The most dramatic find based on studies at Stanford University and University of Utrecht in the Netherlands is that the human body has a capacity to store light in its cells. The capacity to store light is a measure of vitality and can be measured from the light emissions of the skin and breath. Finally, there is direct evidence that inner vitality results in the sparkle in the eyes, the glow on the face and the lustre in the hair and nails.
( Disclaimer: It is advisable to do all the exercises mentioned above under the supervision of an experienced teacher. Consult your doctor before starting any exercise program in case you have a medical condition).
References:
2. Jahnke,R., "The Healing promise of Qi: Creating extraordinary wellness through qigong and tai chi", Contemporary Books, 2002.
3. Tiller, W.A., “The Real World of Modern science, Medicine and Qigong”, Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, 22(5), 2002, 352.
4. “Introduction: Biophoton emission, stress and disease”, Journal of Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, December, 1992, vol. 48. www.springerlink.com
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