Rather than feeling gloomy, my focus has been on getting the individual to take charge of their own wellness. This can be a considerable challenge, since we are each unique in our bodies but also unique in our pattern of bad habits and poor lifestyle choices. More than 40% of American adults make a resolution to live a better life each year, and fewer than half keep their promise to themselves for longer than 6 months. Conditioning is hard to break, but the key is that the power to break a habit belongs to the same person who made it – the turnaround amounts to giving up unconscious behavior and adopting conscious new patterns.

Once your mind begins to pay attention, your brain can build new neural pathways to reinforce what you learn. Much is made of the brain’s ability to change and adapt – the general term is neuroplasticity – but I think science has been slow to catch up with wise experience. It has always been true that applying awareness in any form, through such things as resolve, discipline, good intentions, and mindfulness, has the power to create change. The practical dilemma is how to use your strengths and motivation to help yourself remain committed to wellness as a lifetime pattern.

Step 1: Set Goals by Baselining Your Health

The first step in taking control of your well-being is to set goals, and a sensible way to do this is to “baseline” your health. Gather some basic facts that realistically inform you about your body: weight, height, family history, exercise habits, general diet, and a self-assessment of your stress levels at work and in your home life.

Some experts would add medical measures that only a doctor can fully determine, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and other lipids levels, and bone density. My difficulty with these tests is that they encourage worry. Being in an anxious state is a bad motivator for most people. It can motivate you for as long as you remember to be afraid, but after that, people tend to give in to impulses, make erratic choices, and increase their own stress levels. With that in mind, I go against the grain of standard medical advice, at least partially, by saying that heeding these medical markers should come second, after you have already set yourself on a good wellness program for at least six months. Give consciousness a chance before you undermine it with potential anxiety.

How do you actually set your goals? Start thinking about the big picture. Changing poor lifestyle habits is rarely easy, especially if they comfort you, as smoking or overeating do for many people. You need a strong vision of what you want to achieve in order to succeed. I’d say the strongest vision comes from knowing about a simple trend: the latest research shows that more and more disorders, including most cancers, are preventable through a good wellness program. The benefits are increasing with every new study.

Step 2: Set Priorities

Making lists of your hot spots and your sweet spots will help you to set your personal priorities. The hot spots are weaknesses, the sweet spots strengths that crop up during an ordinary day. You can’t attack every bad pattern all at once; it’s good to achieve a series of small victories at first.

Hot spots: List the times you feel unhappy or most agitated—fighting a futile battle to get a good night’s sleep, perhaps, or recriminating yourself for ordering dessert when you were already full. Identify with clear sights your biggest challenges, such as getting to bed on time, reducing food portions, resisting sweets, choosing the couch over the treadmill, and so on. Doing this will help your mission take shape and direction.

Sweet spots: List the things that give you joy and satisfaction, for instance, spending time with your family or enjoying a favorite hobby. Recapture in your mind what it feels like to resist ordering dessert or to spend half an hour walking outdoors. Appreciating the sweet spots in your life is a source of strength as you embark on your habit-changing mission.

Step 3: Identify Harmful Patterns

To change your negative habits, you have to know what they are. Some bad habits, like smoking and excessive drinking, are obvious, but others may be less so. Sitting all day is damaging to your health, even if you get half an hour of exercise or more before or after work. Depriving yourself of eight hours’ sleep for even a short period is also hard on the body in ways that sleep researchers are just beginning to fully recognize.

Forming a new habit takes repetition and focus, and if your attention is elsewhere you may have a harder time adjusting to new behaviors. For that reason, some experts advise against planning big changes if you are going through a particularly stressful period. I think that reasoning is wrong. Although it’s true that you are likely to have more setbacks at such times, it’s just as true that people change as a result of meeting challenges and crises: “Aha” moments occur quite often when somebody hits bottom.

Visualizing your desired outcome is a useful tool in your journey. “Seeing” yourself as you wish to be has helped smokers quit, obese people lose weight, and sports champions achieve their goals. In order to change the printout of the body, you must learn to rewrite the software of the mind. This truism is reinforced by brain scans that show a decrease in certain higher functions (making good decisions, following reason over impulse, resisting temptation) when a person falls into a pattern of giving in to a wide range of lower impulses, such as fear, anger, or simply physical hunger. You need to implement a healing regimen that encourages and rewards your good choices if you want brain pathways to follow suit.

 Step 4: Make Steady Changes

Even though you are working on the big picture, for psychological reasons a series of small victories is desirable. In essence, you are training your brain to succeed. Most of us, having been defeated by old conditioning, take the course of least resistance, not realizing that we are training our brains into pathways that rob us of free will over time.

So begin with a victory you can define and which means something to you. Skip red meat for a week. Take the stairs, not the elevator. If you’re very out of shape, walk 10 minutes every day and gradually build up your time. Put down your fork halfway through your meal, take a few deep breaths, and ask yourself if you’re still hungry. If you work at a desk, make it a rule to always stand or pace when you’re on the phone. Over time, what seem like baby steps produce new physiological changes in every cell of the body. Trillions of cells are eavesdropping on your every thought and action. Instead of pretending that your body doesn’t know what you’re doing, make yourself the gift of delivering good news to your cells.

In my view, the most important victories occur in awareness, however. If you tend to procrastinate, be aware of the reasons you do it. We get comfortable in our warm, fuzzy old routines, and making changes, even small ones, feels threatening psychologically, as if even a positive change is a risk. Predict when you will procrastinate and invent a strategy to outmaneuver your future self. For example, if you know you’ll be tempted to hit the snooze button instead of getting up for an early morning jog, put your exercise clothes across the room from your bed—with your alarm clock on top.

Step 5: Reinforce Good Decisions

Sometimes brain research underlines the obvious, but it is a breakthrough to observe MRI scans and see for yourself that good decisions “light up the brain in ways that are different from bad decisions. In the larger scheme, when you undertake a wellness program, you will be faced every day with the choice to stay the course or abandon your mission. How does your brain make choices, then?

Executive control, which means choosing a thought or action to meet an internal goal, is managed by the brain’s prefrontal cortex. The orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala play roles in regulating decision-making based on the memory of feelings. Regions of the midbrain in which the neurotransmitter dopamine is predominant also influence decision-making. Some of the choices that trigger dopamine’s release: eating sweet foods, taking drugs, having sex.

We may overindulge in chocolate cake because we tend to value the short-term outcome we know (deliciousness) over the long-term outcome we have never experienced (weight loss and increased energy from better nutrition). One way to break that cycle is to reward ourselves in a different way. Instead of eating cake, we can go play a game or listen to music.

How long does it take to form a new habit? An average of 66 days, according to a 2009 study from University College, London. Repetition and giving yourself time to adjust are the main factors in forming a new behavior pattern.

About the Author
Deepak Chopra, M.D. is a best-selling author and the co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California. The Chopra Center offers a variety of signature programs and events, including the Seduction of Spirit meditation and yoga retreat, the Perfect Health program, and the Journey into Healing workshop. Coming this August 22–25, 2013, the special theme of Journey into Healing will be Superbrain: Unleashing the Explosive Power of Your Mind to Maximize Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Well-being. To learn more, please visit www.chopra.com or call 888.736.6895.

While stress is considered an epidemic problem, I’ve never believed that it exists in the environment or in external situations. At the Chopra Center, we define stress as our response to what is happening. It’s not the overdue payment, traffic jam, or fight with our spouse that causes stress – it’s our thoughts and the story we tell ourselves about an event or circumstance that create the emotional upset, racing heart rate, shallow breathing, surging adrenalin,  and other symptoms of the stress response.

The analogy of a surfer is useful here: If you’re a skillful surfer, every wave is an exhilarating adventure or at least an opportunity to learn something new. If you’ve never learned how to surf, on the other hand, every wave is a terrifying potential disaster.

Surfing the Waves of Change

Fortunately, learning how to deal effectively with stress doesn’t require any athletic ability – it’s a skill that anyone can learn. With a little practice, instead of continually being triggered into a stress response by outside situations and thoughts in your mind, you can learn to spend more  time in your own natural state of well-being.

Here are a few of the most effective tools we teach at the Chopra Center for navigating life’s ongoing waves of change.

1.)  Meditate

Meditation is a simple yet powerful tool that takes us to a state of profound relaxation that dissolves fatigue and the accumulated stress that accelerates the aging process. During meditation, our breathing slows, our blood pressure and heart rate decrease, and stress hormone levels fall. By its very nature, meditation calms the mind, and when the mind is in a state of restful awareness, the body relaxes too. Research shows that people who meditate regularly develop less hypertension, heart disease, insomnia, anxiety, and other stress-related illnesses.

How Does Meditation Work?
We are all engaged in a continuous internal dialogue in which the meaning and emotional associations of one thought trigger the next, usually without our being consciously aware of the process. Buddhist psychology describes this process as samskaras, which can be seen as grooves in the mind that makes flow thoughts in the same direction. Your personal samskaras are created from the memories of your past and can force you to react in the same limited way over and over again. Most people build up their identity on the basis of samskara without even realizing they are doing this.

In meditation we disrupt the unconscious progression of thoughts and emotions by focusing on a new object of attention. In the practice of Primordial Sound Meditation taught at the Chopra Center, the “object of attention” is a mantra that you repeat silently to yourself. A mantra is pure sound, with no meaning or emotional charge to trigger associations. It allows the mind to detach from its usual preoccupations and experience the spaciousness and calm within.

The more you practice meditation, the more you are able to experience expanded states of pure awareness. In the silence of awareness, the mind lets go of old patterns of thinking and feeling and learns to heal itself. If you’re interested in learning Primordial Sound Meditation, I encourage you to visit www.chopra.com to find a certified teacher in your area.

2.) Resolve the Stressful Situation If Possible

You may not have much control over many of the sources of stress in your life, but if there is action you can take to resolve a stressful situation, do it! Talk to friends about what you can do to change a situation or gain a new perspective on it. Consider getting help from a conflict resolution expert if necessary.

Conscious Communication
One skill that is extremely helpful in preventing and eliminating stress is conscious communication, also known as nonviolent communication. It’s a way to clearly communicate your needs in a way that improves the likelihood that they will be met.  With practice, you can learn to express your needs, ask for what you want, and create more fulfilling, stress-free relationships. At the Chopra Center, conscious communication is part of the core curriculum for our staff members and is also taught at several of the workshops and programs we offer. To learn more, the book Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, is an excellent place to start.

3.) Practice Mindful Awareness of Your Body

While the mind is constantly flitting to thoughts of the future and memories of the past, the body lives in the only moment that truly exists: the present. One of the best ways to relieve stress is to tune into your body.  Your first and most reliable guide to balance, harmony, and happiness is your body. When choosing a certain behavior, ask your body, “How do you feel about this?” If your body sends a signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out. If your body sends a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed.

What can you do to start listening to your body? The most basic elements are as follows:

Feel what you feel. Don’t talk yourself into denial.

Accept what you feel. Don’t judge what’s actually there.

Be open to your body. It’s always speaking. Be willing to listen.

Trust your body. Every cell is on your side, which means you have hundreds of billions of allies.

Value spontaneity. Emotions change, cells change, the brain changes. Don’t be the policeman who stops the river of change by blocking it with frozen, fixed beliefs.

Enjoy what your body wants to do.Bodies like to rest, but they also like to be active. Bodies like different kinds of food that are eaten with enjoyment. Bodies like pleasure in general.

One of the most basic ways to be aware is by grounding yourself in the body. There is no mystery to it. Simply feel your body whenever you’ve been distracted. Let’s say you’re driving a car, and somebody cuts you off. Your normal reaction is to be agitated or angry; you jump out of the calm, relaxed focus that connects you to the mind-body field. Instead of being overshadowed by this disruption, just go within and feel the sensations of your body. Take a deep breath, since that is an easy way to come back to body awareness.

Keep your attention on these sensations until they disappear. What you’ve done is cut off the stimulus response with a gap. A gap is an interval of non-reaction. It stops the reaction from fueling itself. It reminds the body of its natural state of harmonious, coordinated self-regulation.

4.)  Understand Your Unique Stress Response

Your mind-body constitution (known as your dosha in Ayurveda) plays a great role in how stress affects you. Ayurveda offers specific recommendations for each mind-body type, including the most effective ways to cope with stress.

Here are the stress patterns of the three  doshas:

Vata: Those with predominantly Vata constitutions have the greatest tendency toward anxiety and worry. Normally creative and enthusiastic, in the face of stress, Vatas tend to blame themselves for their problems and become extremely nervous and scattered.

Pitta:  Pitta types are usually warm and loving, but if they’re out of balance, typically react to stress by finding fault with other people and becoming angry.

Kapha: The most even-tempered dosha is Kapha. Those whose mind-body type is predominantly Kapha are usually easygoing and gentle, but when faced with overwhelming conflict or stress, they may withdraw and refuse to deal with the situation.

If you don’t know your dosha, you can take the Chopra Center’s online Dosha Quiz to identify your mind-body type and get more information about how to stay in balance and manage stress.

5.)  Get Plenty of Sleep

Restful sleep is an essential key to staying healthy and vital. When you’re well-rested, you can approach stressful situations more calmly, yet sleep is so often neglected or underemphasized. There is even a tendency for people to boast about how little sleep they can get by on. In reality, a lack of restful sleep disrupts the body’s innate balance, weakens our immune system, and speeds up the aging process.

Human beings generally need between six and eight hours of restful sleep each night. Restful sleep means that you’re not using pharmaceuticals or alcohol to get to sleep but that you’re drifting off easily once you turn off the light and are sleeping soundly through the night.
You can get the highest quality sleep by keeping your sleep cycles in tune with the rhythms of the universe, known as circadian rhythms. Ayurveda teaches that the optimal sleep routine is to rise with the sun and go to sleep when it’s dark out, or at least by 10 p.m.

Ideally, eat only a light meal in the evening, before 7:30 if possible, and then go for a leisurely walk. The body’s digestive powers are strongest between the hours governed by the Pitta dosha (10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.). By eating a light dinner, instead of focusing all its energy on digesting a heavy meal, your body can use the Pitta cycle to detoxify the body and get the deep rest it needs.  You can go for a leisurely walk after dinner and then be in bed by 10 p.m.
It’s also very helpful to download your thoughts from the day in a journal before going to bed so that your mind doesn’t keep you awake.

6.)  Practice Yoga

Yoga is another timeless healing practice for releasing stress and the damaging effects of the fight-or-flight response. Not only is yoga an excellent physical exercise that increases your flexibility and strength, but it also balances the mind and body, calming the nervous system, increasing the production of stress-relieving hormones, and releasing stored toxins.

You don’t need a lot of expensive equipment or to be in tiptop shape to start practicing yoga. All it takes is loose clothing, a mat (some classes will provide mats) and the desire to learn.

There are many different styles of yoga. Most use a series of postures designed to stretch and strengthen muscles and also use focused breathing to quiet the mind. One of the most popular styles in the U.S. is hatha yoga, a relatively slow-moving, gentle style. Other styles such as Ashtanga and power yoga are more vigorous. The Chopra Center teaches a unique style of yoga known as the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, which focuses on body-centered restful awareness.

The intention of the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga is to integrate and balance all the layers of our life so that our body, mind, heart, intellect, and spirit flow in harmony. As we expand our awareness through the practice of yoga, we become more capable of perceiving the richness that life offers.

Getting Started with Yoga
Find out about the different kinds of yoga that are offered at classes in your area. Choose the style that fits your goals and level of fitness. You can also get started by using a good instructional book or DVD at home, although it’s usually better for beginners to start with a class.

Whichever style of yoga you choose, take it slowly at first. Don’t try to force yourself into difficult poses at the beginning. After a while, you will develop more flexibility, strength and stamina. Your teacher shouldn’t push you to do poses that aren’t comfortable. If your teacher is going too fast, talk to him or her, or look for a class that is a better fit.

With a regular practice, you will begin to experience a sense of calm and wellbeing that extends beyond the yoga mat into your daily life.

  7.)  Do Activities You Enjoy

Part of being stressed out is feeling that you never have enough time, so adding more activities to your schedule might seem like the last thing you need. But if you make even a little bit of time for an activity you really enjoy, the payoff can be huge: You feel calmer and happier and can deal with work and other demands better. Whether it’s playing music, doing a craft, or working on your car, do something that absorbs and relaxes you.

The goal in all of these practices isn’t to try to control the flow of life so that you’ll never experience stress or frustration again; the secret is to be patient and offer yourself compassion as you learn to respond to challenges from a place of peace and calm.

 About the Author

Deepak Chopra, M.D. is a best-selling author and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California. His newest book is Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You (available this October). To learn more about the Chopra Center’s upcoming programs, retreats, teacher trainings, and workshops, please visit www.chopra.com or call 888.736.6895.

Meditation takes us from activity into silence, giving our body a very deep level of rest. Rest is how the body heals itself, which it does by throwing off the stress, fatigue, and toxins accumulated during our daily life. The silence of pure awareness is extremely refreshing to the mind, which finds it increasingly easy not to cling to old thought-patterns; rigid habits of thinking and feeling begin to fall away of their own accord. When this happens, the mind is actually learning to heal itself.

The most significant health benefits of meditation are stress reduction, better sleep, lower blood pressure, improved cardiovascular function, improved immunity, and the ability to stay centered in the midst of all the turmoil that’s going on around you. Meditation helps you do less and accomplish more.

During meditation, you aren’t forcing your mind to be quiet; you are experiencing the silence and stillness that lies beyond the background static of worry, resentment, wishful thinking, fantasy, unfulfilled hopes, and vague dreams in your head. Meditation brings us home to the peace of present-moment awareness. It gives us a direct experience of our Spirit and in the process dissolves the impurities which are preventing Spirit from shining forth in our lives.

In meditation we disrupt the unconscious progression of thoughts and emotions by focusing on a new object of attention. In the meditation technique we teach at the Chopra Center – Primordial Sound Meditation – the “object of attention” is a mantra that we repeat silently to ourselves. A mantra is pure sound, with no meaning or emotional charge to trigger associations. It allows the mind to detach from its usual preoccupations and experience the spaciousness and peace within.

Even more important than what we experience during our meditation sessions is the effect they have on the remaining hours of our day. With a regular meditation practice, life’s inevitable stresses no longer have the power to throw us into chaotic mind-states, and all of our thoughts, actions, and reactions are infused with greater love, calm, and joy.

About the Author

DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D.
Co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing

Recognized as one of the world’s foremost leaders in the field of mind-body medicine, Deepak Chopra, M.D. is a best-selling author, teacher, and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. Nestled in the beautiful coastal setting of Carlsbad, California, the Chopra Center offers a wide variety of retreats and workshops that fuse the healing arts of the East with the best in modern Western medicine.

Whether you are seeking to heal from an illness, find relief from stress and burnout, create more loving relationships, find your life’s purpose, or explore your spiritual nature, the Chopra Center offers have a depth and variety of programs, workshops, and retreats to meet your needs. For more information, please visit www.chopra.com or call 888.736.6895.

More than 5,000 years ago, the Vedic sages of India understood what quantum physicists are just beginning to recognize: we are all part of an infinite field of intelligence that orchestrates all of the activities in the universe. With every breath, we exchange our personal energy with the energy of the universe, and we are constantly taking in impressions via the five sense organs – the ears, skin, eyes, tongue, and nose.

In Ayurveda, sensory impressions are considered crucial to health. Just as the food we eat creates our bodily tissues, our sensory impressions determine the quality of our thoughts and emotions. If we want greater physical and emotional well-being, we can use sounds, feelings, sights, tastes, and smells to balance and heal our selves. At the Chopra Center’s Perfect Health program, patients learn how to awaken their inner pharmacy using the tools of the five senses. Here are a few suggestions that you can use in your own daily routine.

Sound Therapy

Every sound has a physiological effect. When you listen to a beautiful piece of music or inspirational words, a cascade of pleasure-producing chemicals course through your body, supporting health and wholeness. In contrast, studies of urban environments show that people subjected to ongoing noise pollution are more likely to suffer from stress and lowered immune function.

Ayurveda recognizes that music is a valuable therapeutic tool for balance and healing. The specific sounds that will benefit you most depend a great deal on your mind-body type, known as your dosha in Ayurveda. If you don’t know your dosha, there is a complete dosha questionnaire at www.chopra.com/doshaquiz. It is also important to simply tune in to your body and discover which sounds are healing and inspiring for you. If you feel refreshed, joyful, and alert, the music is working.

Healing Sights

The visual impressions you take in have a surprisingly profound effect on your mind, body, and emotions. Watching violent movies or television shows triggers your body’s stress response, creating jittery cells and suppressing the immune system. In contrast, looking at peaceful or beautiful images creates a cascade of soothing neurochemicals in the body.

Surrounding yourself with images that uplift your spirit is as important for your health as nutritious food. Spending time in nature is healing for your mind, body, and soul. When you view a gorgeous sunset, look into the eyes of your beloved, or see a magnificent painting, you cultivate the power of your inner pharmacy.

Aromatherapy

The most primitive of the senses, smell connects us directly with our memories, emotions, and instincts. When we smell something, we are actually absorbing some of its molecules, making aromatherapy a form of natural medicine. Here are some specific suggestions for balancing fragrances:

Invigorating            Cooling            Calming

Lemon                  Jasmine            Lavender

Orange                  Mint                  Vanilla

Clove                  Lime                  Sandalwood

Cinnamon            Rose                  Neroli

You can also use a process known as neuroassociative conditioning to consciously link a healing response to a given smell. First choose a favorite aroma and inhale it whenever you are feeling relaxed, calm or happy. Your body will begin to associate pleasurable feelings with the smell. Before long, just a hint of the fragrance will invoke your inner healing response.

The Sense of Taste

Ayurveda categorizes food into six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. Each of the tastes has a unique effect on our mind-body physiology and provides the flavor that makes eating a pleasure. If you include the six tastes in a meal, you will get the nutrients you need and will feel completely satisfied and energized. If one or more of the tastes are missing from a meal, however, you may feel full but unsatisfied and find yourself snacking two hours later. You can find more in-depth information on the six tastes here.

 Therapeutic Touch

Touch is fundamental to health and well-being. When your skin is stimulated by loving touch or massage, it releases many healing chemicals that enhance immune function, improve circulation, and promote restful sleep.

You can give yourself the healing benefits of touch every day with an Ayurvedic self-massage or abhyanga. For those who are feeling excessively stressed and ungrounded, use heavy, warm oils such as sesame or almond. If you are feeling irritated or overheated, try cooling oils such as coconut, sunflower or olive. Finally, if you are feeling sluggish or lethargic, massaging yourself vigorously with oils such as safflower, sunflower or mustard will help invigorate you.

• Being by pouring a tablespoon of warm oil onto your scalp, vigorously working in the oil. Use small circular strokes to massage your entire scalp, as if you were shampooing your hair.
• Now move to your face and ears, massaging more gently. Put a bit more oil in your palms and massage your neck, front, and back, moving out to your shoulders.
• Vigorously massage your arms, using a circular motion at the shoulders, and back-and-forth motions on the arms. Then massage your chest, stomach, and lower abdomen using gentle circular motions. Use a straight up-and-down motion over the breastbone. Reach around to your back and spine and massage them as well as you can.
• Energetically massage your legs, using circular motions at the ankles and knees, and back-and-forth motions on the long parts. With the remaining oil, thoroughly massage your feet, giving your toes extra attention. Massage your body with love and tenderness – your state of mind is as important as your technique in creating a healing experience for yourself.
• Leaving a thin, almost imperceptible layer of oil on the body is extremely beneficial, toning the skin and warming the muscles throughout the day. It’s therefore recommended that you use very mild soap and lukewarm water to rinse your body after the massage.

_____________________________________________________

Deepak Chopra, M.D. is a best-selling author and the co-founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing located in Carlsbad, California. The Chopra Center offers a wide variety of programs in stress management, mind-body medicine, emotional healing, and personal development. For more information, visit chopra.com or call 760.494.1639.

Today scientific research is arriving at a radically different understanding: While the body appears to be material, it is really a field of energy and intelligence that is inextricably connected to the mind. We now know that what used to be considered the “normal” experience of aging – a progressive descent into physical and mental incapacity – is in large part a conditioned response. The mind influences every cell in the body and therefore human aging is fluid and changeable. It can speed up, slow down, and even reverse itself.

There are many studies demonstrating the profound influence of the mind and beliefs on aging. For example, a landmark study by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, Ph.D., showed that the so-called irreversible signs of aging, including deterioration in hearing, vision, manual dexterity, muscle strength, and memory, could be reversed through psychological shifts in awareness and increases in physical and mental activity.

Even though we all have genetic predispositions, our health and aging aren’t predetermined. By making conscious choices in our behavior and where we focus our attention, we can transform our experience of our body to decrease our biological age.

The seven steps outlined below are practical ways to tap into your inner reservoir of unlimited energy, creativity, vitality, and love.

1.) Change Your Perceptions of Your Body and Aging

Perception is a selective act of attention and interpretation. What you experience as “reality,” including your physical body and aging, is shaped by your habits of perception. While most people are conditioned to see the body as a static, biological machine, you can begin to view it as a field of energy, transformation, and intelligence that is constantly renewing itself.

Begin to notice both your internal dialogue and how you speak about your body and aging. If you find yourself saying things like, “I’m hitting the age where I’ll need reading glasses,” “I’m too old to try yoga (or some other activity),” “I inherited my dad’s bad back,” or other such statements, make a conscious choice to shift your perspective and what you tell yourself about your body and age.

Keep in mind that your cells are eavesdropping on what you say, so unless you want to have your father’s bad back or anything else that “runs in the family,” don’t nurture that seed of intention in your awareness.

A powerful affirmation you can use is Every day in every way, I am increasing my mental and physical capacity.

2.) Stress Reduction and Meditation
Meditation is a simple yet powerful tool that takes us to a state of profound relaxation that dissolves fatigue and the accumulated stress that accelerates the aging process. During meditation, our breathing slows, our blood pressure and heart rate decrease, and stress hormone levels fall. By its very nature, meditation calms the mind, and when the mind is in a state of restful awareness, the body relaxes too.

Research shows that people who meditate regularly develop less hypertension, heart disease, anxiety, and other stress-related illnesses that speed up aging. Furthermore, new studies are finding that meditation literally restores the brain. A recent groundbreaking study conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital has made headlines by showing that as little as eight weeks of meditation not only helped people feel calmer but also produced changes in various areas of the brain, including growth in the areas associated with memory, empathy, sense of self, and stress regulation.

This study adds to the expanding body of research about the brain’s amazing plasticity and capacity to grow and change at any stage of life. We can nurture our brain’s power and maintain a youthful mind by developing a regular meditation practice.

Getting Started with Meditation
I usually recommend that people learn a traditional meditation practice from a qualified instructor. That way, you know exactly what to do at any point in meditation and with any experience that comes along. Often when people try to learn on their own or from a book, they learn incorrectly and soon give up in frustration because they aren’t experiencing the expected benefits. For those who are interested, the Chopra Center offers instruction in Primordial Sound Meditation, a natural, easy practice that dates back thousands of years to India’s Vedic tradition. Another way to get started with meditation is by participating in the Chopra Center’s 21-Day Meditation Challenge.

3.) Restful Sleep

Getting regular restful sleep is an essential key to staying healthy and vital, yet it is so often neglected or underemphasized. There is even a tendency for people to boast about how little sleep they can get by on. In reality, a lack of restful sleep disrupts the body’s innate balance, weakens our immune system, and speeds up the aging process.

Human beings generally need between six and eight hours of restful sleep each night. Restful sleep means that you’re not using pharmaceuticals or alcohol to get to sleep but that you’re drifting off easily once you turn off the light and are sleeping soundly through the night. If you feel energetic and vibrant when you wake up, you had a night of restful sleep. If you feel tired and unenthusiastic, you haven’t had restful sleep.

You can get the highest quality sleep by keeping your sleep cycles in tune with the rhythms of the universe, known as circadian rhythms. This means going to bed by about 10 p.m. and waking at 6 a.m.

Ideally, eat only a light meal in the evening, before 7:30 if possible, so that your sleep isn’t hampered by the digestive processes. You can go for a leisurely walk after dinner and then be in bed by 10 p.m.

It’s also very helpful to download your thoughts from the day in a journal before going to bed so that your mind doesn’t keep you awake.

You can find a more detailed sleep routine here.

4.) Nurture Your Body with Healthy Food

There are “dead” foods that accelerate aging and entropy and others that renew and revitalize the body. Foods to eliminate or minimize include items that are canned, frozen, microwaved, or highly processed. Focus on eating a variety of fresh and freshly prepared food.

A simple way to make sure that you are getting a balanced diet is to include the six tastes (sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and astringent) in each meal. The typical American diet tends to be dominated by the sweet, sour, and salty tastes (the main flavors of a hamburger). We do need these tastes, but they can lower metabolism especially if eaten in excess.

The pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes, on the other hand, are anti-inflammatory and increase metabolism. These tastes are found in food such as radishes, ginger, mustard, peppers, spinach, mushrooms, tea, lentils lettuce, and so on.
You can find more information on the six tastes here.

Along with the six tastes, filling your plate with the colors of the rainbow

promotes a long and healthy life. We can literally ingest the information of the universe into our biology. Foods that are deep blue, purple, red, green, or orange are leaders in antioxidants and contain many nutrients that boost immunity and enhance health.

Examples of foods of the rainbow:

• Red: Red tomatoes (particularly cooked), red peppers, red/pink grapefruit, watermelon, red grapes, beets, red cabbage, apples, strawberries, cherries, raspberries,

cranberries

• Orange/yellow: Squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, pumpkin, cantaloupe, mangoes, oranges, papaya, nectarines

• Green: Broccoli, kale, spinach, cabbage, peas, avocado, collard greens

• Deep blue/purple: Plums, blueberries, black raspberries, blackberries, purple grapes, eggplant (with skin)

5) Exercise

One of the most important ways to grow younger and live longer is regular exercise. Drs. William Evans and Irwin Rosenberg from Tufts University have documented the powerful effect of exercise on many of the biomarkers of aging, including muscle mass, strength, aerobic capacity, bone density, cholesterol. Not only does exercise keep the body young, but it also keeps the mind vital and promotes emotional well-being. In his recent book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, Harvard University professor John Ratey, M.D. describes research showing how “physical activity sparks biological changes that encourage brain cells to bind to one another.” This spark, as he calls it, increases the brain’s ability to learn, adapt, and perform other cognitive tasks.

A complete fitness program includes exercises to develop flexibility, cardiovascular conditioning, and strength training. Find an aerobic activity that you can do regularly – three to four sessions each week for twenty to thirty minutes is usually enough to give you substantial benefits. After your body is warmed up, spend five to ten minutes stretching. You will also want to include strength training in your program to systematically exercise the major muscle groups of your body.

The important thing is to start off slowly, find physical activities you enjoy, and do them regularly. If the most you can do right now is walk around the block, do that, and you will be surprised how quickly you increase your endurance and enthusiasm for moving and breathing.

6) Love and Friendship

Isolation and loneliness create the conditions for rapid aging. Heart attack and death rates are known to increase among the recently widowed and among men who have been suddenly terminated from their jobs without warning and against their will. The emotional value of social bonding is immense, yet in some countries, including the U.S., we have moved in the opposite direction for decades. With high divorce rates, single-parent families, and a population constantly on the move, social bonding keeps declining. The trend will be exacerbated as the fastest-growing population, those eighty and over, move into retirement homes. It’s becoming increasingly rare for older people to be cared for at home, and there is still a stigma about seniors being a burden to the young and a drag on society.

The key here is to stay connected and open to new relationships throughout your life. Resist the impulse to go quietly into semi-isolation because you assume that society expects that of you. Losing friends and spouses is an inevitable part of aging, and many people can’t find replacements or lack the motivation to. By “replacement,” I don’t mean a new spouse and family (though that is certainly a possibility), but emotional bonds that mean something to you and offer continued meaning to your existence. No amount of reading and television substitutes for human contact that nourishes on the level of love and caring. One of the most effective steps is for older people to become involved with mentoring programs, education, and youth programs.

7.) Maintain a Youthful Mind

An ancient Vedic aphorism says, “Infinite flexibility is the secret to immortality.” When we cultivate flexibility in or consciousness, we renew ourselves in every moment and reverse the aging process. Children offer the finest expressions of openness and flexibility. They play and laugh freely, and find wonder in the smallest things. They are infinitely creative because they haven’t yet built up the layers of conditioning that create limitations and restrictions.

To maintain a youthful mind, write down two or three things you can do that are totally childlike. Think of something that evokes childhood for you – eating an ice cream cone, going to a playground to swing, coloring a picture, jumping rope, building a sand castle. Find something that brings back the sense of fun you had as a child, even if you think you’ve outgrown it, and choose one of these activities to do today.

As you carry out your childlike activity, let yourself embody the archetypal carefree and innocent child. The feeling you’re aiming for isn’t a return to childhood, but something more profound, as expressed by the brilliant therapist A.H. Almaas: “When we look at a child, we see that the sense of fullness, of intrinsic aliveness, of joy in being, is not the result of something else. There is value in just being oneself; it is not because of something one does or doesn’t do. It is there in the beginning, when we were children but slowly it gets lost.” By re-experiencing our childlike nature, we not only cultivate a youthful mind, but we also connect to the part of us that is never born and never dies – our eternal spiritual essence.

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Deepak Chopra, M.D. is a best-selling author and the co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad in Southern California. For more information on meditation, mind-body healing, and Ayurveda, or to sign up for the Center’s free online newsletter, please visit www.chopra.com or call 888.736.6895.

Over the past three decades, hundreds of studies have shown that nothing holds more power over the body than the beliefs of the mind. This is the quantum worldview, which teaches that we are all part of an infinite field of intelligence – the source of our thoughts, mind, body, and everything else in the cosmos.

With each thought we have, we are practicing brain chemistry. Our thoughts are actually biochemical events in our brain and are called neuropeptides. Wherever a neuropeptide travels in the body, receptors are waiting for it to plug into. Our immune cells are all constantly eavesdropping on the body’s internal dialogue. Both negative and positive thoughts, along with our deepest desires, have corresponding physical reactions in the body.

One part of the body cannot keep secrets from other parts — this is one of the basic laws of physics. What the foot feels, the mind knows; what the mind desires, the body aches for. At every moment, an infinite symphony of interactions and information transmits between each cell in the body.

Our Thinking Immune System

Immune cells are certainly no exception to this incredible biological conversation; they also are thinking cells. And as our immune system thinks, it has the power to be mired in weakness or strength, bliss or anger, struggle or relaxation, stress or acceptance—all emotions and feelings based on our current modes of perception. We often struggle against the acceptance of what has occurred in nature or what will occur, and in that process, we stir up weaknesses, embrace resentment, and focus on regret. Illness begins the moment negative mental influences weaken the immune system.

If we remain present in each moment of awareness and welcome that awareness, we transcend the problems of living and the internal dialogue that weakens the immune system. Strength returns, and a different world arises: It is the healing and holy world of nature in which strong immunity and quick recovery are a natural state of being.

The heart expands at the possibility of health, happiness, and love. When we begin to create health and a strong immune system, our mind transforms itself into a higher reality — the world of the heart. At that level of our being, we have all the power we could possibly need to create a new reality — a reality of healing and nurturing.

The Ayurvedic Perspective on Healing

In ayurveda, a level of total, deep relaxation is the most important precondition for curing any disorder. The underlying concept is that the body knows how to maintain balance unless thrown off by disease; therefore, if one wants to restore the body’s own healing ability, everything should be done to bring it back into balance. It is a very simple notion that has profound consequences. Ayurveda is commonly classified as a system of medicine, but you could also call it a system for curing delusions, for stripping away the convincing quality of disease and letting a healthier reality take its place.

The first and most important step in healing is trying not to be so convinced by disease. As long as you are convinced by your symptoms, you are caught up in a reality where “being sick” is the dominant input. The reason why meditation is so important is that it leads the mind to a “free zone” that is not touched by disease. Meditation takes the mind out of its boundaries and exposes it to an unbounded state of consciousness. Until you know that such a place exists, your disease will seem to be taking over completely. This is the principal delusion that needs to be shattered.

When you “pay attention” to something, you shift from passive to active awareness. In ayurveda, each and every symptom of disease, from a minor neck pain to a full-blown cancer, is under the control of attention. At first the symptoms may be as subtle as a slight uneasiness or discomfort, but if we ignore them, the body may try to get our attention by speaking more loudly. For example, if we have been feeling tired but push through our fatigue, perhaps with the help of caffeine or other stimulants, we block our body’s innate healing abilities.

Ayurveda teaches us to become aware of the subtle signs of imbalance: a digestive problem that comes and goes, a slight muscle ache that persists, a lack of restful sleep. The goal is to listen carefully to what our bodies are trying to tell us and take appropriate action to restore balance and reestablish the healthy flow of energy and information throughout the body. We have only to point ourselves back to our being, and nature will heal us. This paradigm, which is gaining increasing acceptance in the world of modern Western medicine, is based on the following ten assumptions:

1. The physical world, including our body, is a reflection of our perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. There is no objective reality “out there” that is independent of the observer. Instead, we create our bodies as we create our experience of the world.
2. Although the physical body seems to be solid matter, it actually is composed of energy and information. Quantum physics tells us that every atom is 99.9999 percent empty space, and the subatomic particles speeding at lightning speed through this space are bundles of vibrating energy. These vibrations aren’t random or chaotic, but are carrying information along specific patterns.
3. The mind and body are inseparable. There is one single creative intelligence that can express itself as our thoughts – as well as the molecules of our cells, tissues, and organs.
4. Our consciousness creates the biochemistry of the body. Our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions direct the chemical reactions that take place in every single cell.
5. Perception is a learned phenomenon. The way we experience the world and our body is learned behavior. By changing our perceptions, we can change our experience of the body and world.
6. In every moment, impulses of intelligence are creating our body. By changing the patterns of these impulses, we can change ourselves.
7. Although to the ego-mind, we seem separate and independent, we are all part of a universal intelligence that governs the cosmos.
8. Time is not absolute. What we call linear time is simply a reflection of how we perceive change. In fact, time is eternal and changeless. If we can begin to perceive the changeless, time as we know it will cease to exist and we will experience immortality.
9. Our essential nature is pure being. Although we are used to seeing ourselves as personality, ego, and body, our true Self is eternal and unbounded.
10. Since our essence is immortal and changeless, we do not have to become victims of aging, sickness, and death. These are caused by gaps in our self-knowledge and the centuries-old delusion that our bodies are material. As ayurveda teaches, any disorder can be prevented if we can maintain balance in the body, mind, and spirit.

These may seem like vast assumptions, but they are rooted in the findings of modern quantum physics. I want to encourage you to see that you are much more than your limited body, ego and personality. At the deepest level, your body is ageless and your mind is timeless. Once you identify with this reality, you have unlimited freedom to create greater health, joy, and whatever else you wish to bring into the world.

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About the Author

Deepak Chopra, M.D. is a best-selling author and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California. His newest book is Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You (available this October). To learn more about the Chopra Center’s upcoming programs, retreats, teacher trainings, and workshops, please visit www.chopra.com or call 888.736.6895.

Consider that in this very moment, your body is changing as it reshuffles and exchanges its atoms and molecules with the rest of the universe – and you’re doing it faster than you can change your clothes. In fact, the body you’re using right now as you read this article is not the same body you woke up with or even the same body that you had a few minutes ago.

The fifty trillion cells in your body are constantly talking to each other as they keep your heart beating, digest your food, eliminate toxins, protect you from infection and disease, and carry out the countless other functions that keep you alive. While these processes may seem out of your conscious control, hundreds of studies have shown that nothing holds more power over the body than the mind.

To think is to practice brain chemistry. Every thought, feeling, and emotion creates a molecule known as a neuropeptide. Neuropeptides travel throughout your body and hook onto receptor sites of cells and neurons. Your brain takes in the information, converts it into chemicals, and lets your whole body know if there’s trouble in the world or cause for celebration. Your body is directly influenced as these molecules course through the bloodstream, delivering the energetic effect of whatever your brain is thinking and feeling.

When you say, “I have a sad heart,” then you literally have a sad heart. If we looked inside your heart, we would find it affected by molecules that cause stress and damage, such as excessive amounts of adrenaline and cortisol. If you say, “I’m bursting with joy,” a scientist could analyze your skin and find it loaded with neuropeptides that may have antidepressant effects and that may modulate the immune system. If you say, “I feel exhilarated, unbounded, and joyful,” and I were to examine your blood, I would find high levels of interleukin and interferon, which are powerful anticancer drugs.

Expanding Self-Awareness

One of the keys to harnessing this potentially unlimited power of the mind is to expand your level of self-awareness. When your awareness is contracted, the flow of energy and information throughout your bodymind is hampered. You tend to stay stuck in toxic emotions such as regret, resentment, and self-pity. Non-nurturing habits such as overeating and not exercising take hold. The feedback loop between your mind and your body turns negative, and stress can hit you instantaneously or grind away at you day after day.

On the other hand, when you expand your awareness, your energy flows freely. You’re more flexible, balanced, and creative. You view yourself and the world with more compassion and understanding. You have more energy and are open to new possibilities. At this level of awareness, you have all the power you could possibly need to create a new reality — a reality of vibrant health and wellbeing.

There are many practical tools that can help you expand your awareness, including meditation and mindfulness. In addition, a self-aware approach to life would include the following prescriptions, which I developed with Dr. Rudy Tanzi when we co-wrote our new book, Super Brain:

• Be passionate about your life and the experiences you fill it with.
• Remain open to as much input as possible.
• Don’t shut down the feedback loop with judgment, rigid beliefs, and prejudices.
• Don’t censor incoming data through denial.
• Examine other points of view as if they were your own.
• Take responsibility for making conscious choices
• Work on psychological blocks like shame and guilt – they falsely color your reality.
• Free yourself emotionally – to be emotionally resilient is the best defense against growing rigid.
• Harbor no secrets – they create dark places in the psyche.
• Be willing to redefine yourself every day.
• Don’t regret the past or fear the future. Both bring misery through self-doubt.

Awareness isn’t passive. It directly leads to action (or inaction).  As you take steps to expand your awareness, you will naturally find yourself harnessing your mind’s infinite power to create greater health, happiness, and love in your life.

About the Author
Deepak Chopra, M.D. is a best-selling author and the co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California. The Chopra Center offers a variety of signature programs and events, including the Seduction of Spirit meditation and yoga retreat, the Perfect Health program, and the Journey into Healing workshop. Coming this August 22–25, 2013, the special theme of Journey into Healing will be Superbrain: Unleashing the Explosive Power of Your Mind to Maximize Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Well-being. To learn more, please visit www.chopra.com or call 888.736.6895.

Whether you react with anger, anxiety, or avoidance, the thoughts in your mind create stress in your body. Your brain perceives a threat and triggers  an instantaneous fight-or-flight response in which the following changes occur in the body:

•   The heart beats faster.
•   Blood pressure increases.
•   The breath becomes shallow and rapid.
•   Blood sugar rises.
•   Adrenalin and cortisol production surge.
•   The immune system weakens.
•   The production of sex hormones decreases.
•   Digestion is halted.

The fight-or-flight response evolved thousands of years ago and helped our ancient ancestors survive in the hard-scrabble landscape of large predators such as saber-toothed tigers. We needed our body to react immediately to either flee imminent danger or fight. But today, the stress in most people’s lives doesn’t come from life-threatening situations but from the seemingly endless pressures of modern life. Daily challenges like a long commute or a difficult boss can activate stress hormones – and because these conditions don’t go away, the hormones don’t shut off. Instead of helping you survive, this kind of stress response can actually make you sick

Numerous studies have shown that chronic stress exacts an enormous toll on our mental and physical health. The stress hormone cortisol, for instance, has been linked to an increase in fat around organs, known as visceral fat. The accumulation of visceral fat is dangerous, since these fat cells actively secrete hormones that can disrupt the functioning of the liver, pancreas, and brain, causing problems such as insulin resistance, inflammation and metabolic syndrome. Chronic exposure to other stress hormones can also weaken the immune system and even change the structure of chromosomes. Prolonged stress accelerates aging and makes the human body more vulnerable to illness, including, heart disease, stomach ulcers, cancer, insomnia, depression, panic attacks, migraine headaches,  and autoimmune disease.

Our Thoughts Are the True Source of Stress

Yet while stress is considered an epidemic problem, it doesn’t actually exist in the environment or in external situations. At the Chopra Center, we define stress as our response to what is happening. It’s not the overdue bill, traffic jam, or fight with our spouse that causes stress – it’s our thoughts and the story we tell ourselves about an event or circumstance that create the emotional upset, racing heart rate, shallow breathing, and other symptoms of the stress response. The analogy of a surfer is useful here: If you’re a skillful surfer, every wave is an exhilarating adventure or at least an opportunity to learn something new. If you’ve never learned how to surf, on the other hand, every wave is a terrifying potential disaster.

Fortunately, learning how to transform your response to life’s inevitable challenges doesn’t require any athletic ability. It’s a skill that anyone can learn, and there are many valuable practices that can help you go beyond the fight-or-flight response. You can learn to experience a restful response – a mind-body state that is as natural as the stress response, but infinitely more peaceful and healing. Let’s look at two of the effective tools and techniques for cultivating a state of calm, restful awareness: meditation and yoga.

Meditation for Stress Relief

Meditation is a simple yet powerful practice gives you access to the inner silence and calm that lies beneath the mind’s noisy internal dialogue. Meditation allows you to experience profound relaxation that dissolves fatigue and long-standing stresses. Contrary to a common misconception, meditation is not about forcing your mind to be quiet; it is finding the quiet that is already there. The silence of pure awareness is extremely refreshing to the mind, which finds it increasingly easy to let go of conditioned habits of thought and behavior that no longer are serving your highest interest.

In the state of restful awareness you experience during meditation, the bodily reactions are exactly the opposite of those created by the stress response: the breathing slows, blood pressure decreases, and stress hormone levels fall. Even as your  body is resting deeply in meditation, the mind is awake, though quiet. The term restful awareness captures the unique combination of physical relaxation and an alert yet quiet mind.

As numerous scientific studies have shown, a regular meditation practice produces tangible benefits for mental and physical health, including:

• Lowered blood pressure and hypertension

• Slower heart rate

• Decreased cholesterol levels

• Reduced production of stress hormones, including cortisol and  adrenaline

• More efficient oxygen use by the body

• Increased production of the anti-aging hormone DHEA

• Improved immune function

When you emerge from your meditation session, you take some of the stillness and peace with you as you move through your day. All of your thoughts, actions, and reactions are infused with a little more calm and mindful attention.

How does meditation work?

We are all engaged in a continuous internal dialogue in which the meaning and emotional associations of one thought trigger the next, usually without our being consciously aware of the process. In meditation we disrupt the unconscious progression of thoughts and emotions by focusing on a new object of attention. In the practice of Primordial Sound Meditation taught at the Chopra Center,  the “object of attention” is a mantra that we repeat silently to ourselves. A mantra is pure sound, with no meaning or emotional charge to trigger associations. It allows the mind to detach from its usual preoccupations and experience the spaciousness and calm within.

The more you practice meditation, the more you are able to experience expanded states of pure awareness. In the silence of awareness, the mind lets go of old patterns of thinking and feeling and learns to heal itself.

Learning to Meditate

At the Chopra Center we believe that to receive the full benefits of meditation, it’s best to learn from a qualified teacher. That way, you know exactly what to do at any point in meditation and with any experience that comes along. Often when people try to learn on their own or from a book, they learn incorrectly and soon give up in frustration because they aren’t experiencing the expected benefits. For those who are interested, the Chopra Center offers instruction in Primordial Sound Meditation, a natural, easy practice that dates back thousands of years to India’s Vedic tradition. You can look for a certified teacher in your area at www.choprateachers.com. Another way to get started is by participating in the Center’s 21-Day Meditation Challenge™, which you can also learn about at www.chopracentermeditation.com.

Yoga’s Healing Benefits
Yoga offers another powerful healing practice for releasing stress and the damaging effects of the fight-or-flight response. This ancient practice, which originated in India more than 4,000 years ago, connects mind and body through a series of postures, breathing exercises, and meditation. By stretching and toning the muscles, flexing the spine, and focusing the mind inward, yoga calms the nervous system and reduces stress.

The Medical Perspective
Yoga is quickly becoming popular in the West as people experience its many healing benefits. The latest figures show that approximately 16 million America are taking yoga classes or practicing yoga at home. Many physicians recommend yoga to their patients as a complementary treatment for a variety of conditions ranging from osteoarthritis to high blood pressure. While the medical research of yoga is still in its infancy, there is a growing body of studies showing its benefits for health and wellbeing. Here some of the ways in which yoga can improve physical and mental health:

• Lower blood pressure and heart rate, which in turn reduces the risk of heart disease
• Decreased cholesterol
• Improved circulation
  
•  Relief from specific kinds of pain, including migraine headaches, lower back issues, arthritis, and pain during childbirth
• Improved digestive health
• Less insomnia, particularly for pregnant women
  
• Reduced anxiety and depression
  

Getting Started with Yoga

You don’t need a lot of expensive equipment or to be in tiptop shape to start practicing yoga. All it takes is loose clothing, a mat (some classes will provide mats) and the desire to learn.

There are many different styles of yoga. Most use a series of postures designed to stretch and strengthen muscles and also use focused breathing to quiet the mind. One of the most popular styles in the U.S. is hatha yoga, a relatively slow-moving, gentle style. Other styles such as Ashtanga and power yoga are more vigorous. The Chopra Center teaches a unique style of yoga known as the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, which focuses on body-centered restful awareness.

The intention of the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga is to integrate and balance all the layers of our life so that our body, mind, heart, spirit flow in harmony. As we expand our awareness through the practice of yoga, we become more capable of perceiving the richness that life offers.

I suggest that you start by researching the different kinds of yoga classes that are offered in your area. Choose the style that fits your goals and level of fitness. You can also get started by using a good instructional book or DVD at home, although it’s usually better for beginners to start with a class. If you are pregnant or have any serious health conditions, talk to your doctor before you begin. Once you start a class, let your teacher know about any injuries or health issues.

Whichever style of yoga you choose, take it slowly at first. Don’t try to force yourself into difficult poses at the beginning. After a while, you will develop more flexibility, strength and stamina. Your teacher shouldn’t push you to do poses that aren’t comfortable. If your teacher is going too fast, talk to him or her, or look for a class that is a better fit.

When you practice yoga or meditation (or ideally, both) regularly, you will begin to experience a sense of calm and wellbeing that extends beyond the yoga mat into your daily life. You will gradually stop dwelling on stressful thoughts and feel more lighthearted and joyful, even in the face of life’s upsets and disappointments. _______________________________________________________________

About the Chopra Center for Wellbeing
Deepak Chopra, M.D. and David Simon, M.D. founded the Chopra Center on three pillars of timeless wisdom – meditation, yoga, and Ayurveda. For more than a decade, thousands of seekers from around the world have come to the Chopra Center to meditate, practice yoga, create greater health, find emotional freedom, and connect to their essential self and life’s purpose.

The Chopra Center has a variety of signature programs, retreats, workshops, and teacher trainings. In our beautiful setting in Carlsbad, California, participants experience healing, rejuvenating treatments and learn the practical tools and principles of Ayurveda and mind-body balance. They return home feeling renewed and joyful.

Whether your intention is to get into the best mind-body shape of your life, or to become a certified teacher and share this light with others – the Chopra Center offers a program path for all levels of experience and desire. To learn about special offers and upcoming events, please visit www.chopra.com or call 888.736.6895.

While depression receives a lot of publicity, its causes remain mysterious, and those who suffer from it tend to hide their condition. Although the medical community now approaches depression as a disease, many depressed people still feel a sense of shame and judge themselves as weak or self-indulgent for not being able to “will” themselves out of their sadness. When you’re in the throes of depression, it’s hard to escape the feeling that you are a failure and that the future is hopeless.

What Depression Isn’t
The word depression has become commonplace in our everyday conversations, with people using it to describe everything from a passing funk to deep disappointment. You might hear someone say, “I feel depressed about our football team losing,” or “I’m so depressed about not getting to see my daughter over the holidays.”

In fact, becoming sad or blue isn’t a sure sign of depression. Life brings difficulties that we respond to with a wide range of “normal emotions: sadness, anxiety, resignation, confusion, grief, and frustration. Moods are cyclical, and if these feelings are your response to a tough event, they will subside on their own in time. If they linger, however, and there seems to be no definite cause or trigger, such as losing your job or the death of a loved one, depression is accepted as the conventional diagnosis.

Diagnosing Depression
Depression isn’t one single disorder; there are actually several types of depression. For a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, a person must experience at least five of the following symptoms during the same two-week period:

• Depressed mood (feeling sad or empty; being tearful)
• Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities
• Significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain; or decrease or increase in appetite
• Insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping too little or too much)
• Slowing of thoughts and physical movements
• Fatigue or loss of energy
• Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt
• Diminished ability to think or concentrate; or indecisiveness
• Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or specific plan for committing suicide

If you can count five or more of these as being present, know that your list must contain “depressed mood” or “diminished interest or pleasure” before you would be considered medically depressed. The DSM-IV, a manual doctors use to diagnose mental disorders, also recognizes other types of depression:

• Dysthymia is mild, chronic depression. It must present for at least two years for a diagnosis of dysthymia.
• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that generally arises as the days grow shorter in the autumn and winter.
• Postpartum depression begins after a woman has given birth and may get worse as time goes on.|
• Atypical depression is characterized by moods that worsen or improve in direct response to events. It is also characterized by overeating, oversleeping, and fatigue.
• Bipolar disorder (sometimes referred to as manic depression) is a complex disorder in which one cycles between periods of major depression and extreme elation or mania.

The factors that make it more likely you will become depressed form a long list: genetic predisposition, being female, death or loss of loved one, major life events (even happy ones, like a graduation), other mental illnesses, substance abuse, childhood trauma, certain medications, serious illness, and personal problems such as financial troubles or the loss of a job. What all of these things have in common is that they disrupt the normal balancing mechanisms of mind and body.

Even though no one knows exactly what causes depression, it is clearly a state of internal imbalance. Balance is essential for the healthy functioning of both your body and your mind, so a treatment that aims to restore balance to your mind-body physiology can help you return to a natural state of well-being.

Beginning the Healing Journey
There are many things you can do to rebalance yourself. The first step is recognizing that you’re feeling depressed and seeking help. People sometimes experience depression as a result of an underlying medical condition such as thyroid dysfunction, vitamin deficiencies, or other health issues. Get a thorough medical check-up and let your health care practitioner know your concerns about depression.

The Power of Being Heard
Psychotherapy, or talk therapy works as well as medication for many people. It may be used alone or in combination with other approaches, including exercise and optimal nutrition. Studies have shown that psychotherapy can cause changes in brain function similar to those produced by medications. Focused, goal-oriented forms of therapy such as cognitive-behavior therapy appear to be the most effective in treating depression. At www.psychologytoday.com, you can find an extensive listing of therapists, psychiatrists, and therapy groups in the U.S. and Canada. 

Meditation: Connect to the Part of You that Isn’t Depressed
Meditation has been shown to be a powerful treatment for relieving both stress and mild-to-moderate depression. Numerous studies have examined the effects of mindfulness meditation, designed to focus the meditator’s attention on the present moment. One study measured electrical activity in the brain and found increased activity in the left frontal lobe during mindfulness meditation. Activity in this area of the brain is associated with lower anxiety and a more positive emotional state.

Meditation trains your mind to become aware of the silent witness within you that is independent of the universe you are observing.  This core self is not a philosophical or theological concept; it is an experience of your authentic existence. With an established sense of the silent witness, it will be easier to not become identified with the darkness of your depressed days. For many years, the Chopra Center has offered instruction in Primordial Sound Meditation, a mantra-based practice that cultivates awareness of the silent observer and expands your experience of inner calm.  Please visit www.chopra.com/meditation if you’d like to learn more about Primordial Sound Meditation or find a certified instructor in your area.

If you have major or severe depression, it’s important to proceed with caution. To be of real value, meditation must take you inward; but the deeper you go, the more hidden material will be brought to the surface, including old wounds, difficult memories, and perhaps the contributing emotions that are linked to depression. It’s tempting to use meditation as an escape, but the results can easily backfire. For those coping with major depression, I suggest meditating in a group for only a few minutes a day; or if that is inconvenient, do a simple breathing meditation for about ten minutes, twice a day.

You may also benefit from participating in one of the Chopra Center’s 21-Day Meditation Challenges™, offering you 21 days of instruction in a variety of meditation types, including visualizations, breath work, and mantra meditation.  There is a growing Facebook community for Meditation Challenge participants, which will help relieve the isolation and loneliness associated with depression. The Chopra Center is offering several free meditation challenges this year, and you can also download previous challenges at www.chopracentermeditation.com.

Exercise
Aerobic exercise is extremely effective for depression.  Research has found that moderate aerobic exercise done just thirty minutes a day, three times a week, can reduce or eliminate symptoms of mild-to-moderate depression and can help with severe depression.

It’s well known that exercise stimulates the release of endorphins, the “feel good” chemicals that function as neurotransmitters. Less well known is the startling effect of exercise on the structure of your brain. Exercise stimulates the creation of new nerve cells in the hippocampus, your brain’s center of learning and memory, so that it actually increases in size. This is especially relevant because depression, unless countered with effective therapy, causes the hippocampus to shrink. Exercise has also been shown to raise levels of serotonin and norepinephrine and to multiply the number of dendrite connections in neurons.

Restore Balance Through Yoga
When we’re coping with emotional pain, a purely mental or intellectual approach usually isn’t enough. Although our mind may try to think its way out of pain, it can quickly become confused or trapped in repetitive thought-patterns that actually intensify our emotional turmoil. When we invite our body and spirit to be part of the healing process, however, transformation can unfold. 

The ancient wisdom tradition of yoga offers practices that unite the mind, body, and spirit, allowing us to experience deep emotional well-being and restful awareness.

When your physical, intellectual, and spiritual selves are working in union, our life becomes more balanced and we become more flexible – both physically and emotionally.

How Yoga Releases Emotional Blockages
Every experience in the mind is accompanied by shifts in the body’s chemistry. When you say, “I feel depressed,” you’re acknowledging that your body is generating disturbing sensations. Feelings are so named because we feel them in our body. These sensations result from changes in hormone levels and in the pattern of nerve firings within your nervous system. These physiological shifts can persist long after the emotionally upsetting experience that first triggered them. Over time, you mind-body system reflects your emotional history.

Through yoga, you can release the emotional toxicity stored in the body. Just as changing thought patterns can influence the body, changing the position of the body can influence the mind and facilitate emotional release. As you stretch your muscles and expand your range of motion, you shift the bodily patterns that trap emotional pain. Yoga poses, breathing practices, and meditation release the constriction and free the flow of the vital life-force energy known as prana. For instance, slow, deep, conscious breathing is very effective in prompting the relaxation response to counter elevated levels of stress hormones.

An important component of yoga is paying close attention to what’s going on in the body at all times and locating and releasing any areas of tension. Although you can feel the healing effects of yoga after just one session, a regular practice is required if you want to experience the full benefits yoga offers. In addition, yoga should ideally be practiced with the guidance of an experienced teacher.

There are many yoga styles and traditions to choose from. Some have a greater focus on physical fitness, while others are more meditative and spiritually-based. It’s important to explore and find a practice and teacher that resonate with you.  The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga program offered at the Chopra Center is rooted in India’s ancient Vedic tradition. It is designed to raise your level of physical vitality, clear emotional blockages from your heart, and awaken your happiness and enthusiasm for life. If this approach appeals to you, you can learn more and find a listing of certified Chopra Yoga teachers at www.choprateachers.com.

Examine Your Reactions to Difficult Situations
You will often find that reacting with helplessness, retreating inside, and turning passive lie at the root of your depressed state. We all have self-defeating responses, but we rarely take the time or effort to replace them with better alternatives. Here are some alternatives to the thoughts that automatically come to mind when you feel depressed:

Example 1:  I’m not good enough.

You can replace this response by telling yourself I am good enough. My essential nature is whole, perfect, and complete. I am completely lovable as I am. I let go of the need to compare myself to others. 
Example 2: Nothing will work out.

Instead, you can repeat to yourself Life always leads me in the right direction. The universe is conspiring in my favor. The perfect solution is unfolding for me right now.

Example 3: I can’t do anything to improve my situation. 

Instead of getting stuck in feelings of helplessness, start to affirm I always have choices and opportunities. My life is constantly improving. I see new possibilities in every moment.
Start to recognize your depressed responses and learn new healing responses to replace them. Be patient with yourself and know that at first, you may not believe what you’re telling yourself. Do the affirmations anyway and you will notice a shift. Refuse to believe the dire messages your mind is generating; they are simply conditioned thought patterns that you have created – and you have the power to create new, more nurturing beliefs. This takes time and effort, but the rewards are well worth it.  

Eat a Mood-Boosting Diet
Diet may play a part in protecting against depression. Mediterranean countries have low rates of depression compared to countries farther to the north — and it isn’t just because they get more sunlight or have a more relaxed way of life. One large-scale study tracked almost 3,500 people living in London for five years and found that those who ate a Mediterranean diet were thirty percent less likely to develop depression.

Researchers speculate that the foods in the Mediterranean diet may act synergistically to enhance mood. Olive oil, nuts, and fatty fish are rich in omega-3 and other unsaturated fatty acids that can help restore balance to the body. Fresh fruits and vegetables contain flavonoids and phytochemicals that are full of antioxidants and folates (B vitamins).

Cultivate Self-Love and Acceptance
Depression is sometimes described as “anger turned inward.”  Many people were taught growing up that it isn’t polite to express anger and other emotions. They push their “unacceptable” feelings down for many years, but ultimately these disowned feelings may manifest as depression. If you have been suppressing or judging certain of your feelings as “bad” or dangerous, you may feel a sense of numbness and disconnection from yourself and others. If you can learn to remove that wall and accept, acknowledge and love yourself completely, you may find that depression natural dissipates.

Reestablishing this connection inside you is not difficult, but if you have developed a habit of avoiding yourself or your feelings, it will require some discipline and commitment to overcome the old patterns and establish new patterns. Here is a practice that can help:

―  Begin by writing all your feelings, judgments, and sensations in a journal at the end of the day. Pour it all out on the page without worrying about organization or whether it is worth writing down or not. Do this for nine days with the intention of being as complete as you can be each day. At the end of this period, you will have noted certain themes that have developed.  For example, you might find yourself writing about how often you feel bored by people.

―  Now during the day, when you notice one of these themes, such as boredom, be aware of what you are feeling. Enter into the experience without judgment and allow yourself to feel how your body responds to it. Notice your breathing, your body language, your tone of voice, muscle tension, where you mind moves to distract you – notice everything you can with loving indifference. You are neither approving nor disapproving of your behavior, neither trying to change it nor keeping it the same.

― Maintain this gentle self-awareness of those behaviors that are walling you off from yourself for two weeks. Without trying to change your habits, you will find that just by being fully present and aware, the grip of the old habits will fade and new fresh and spontaneous responses will take their place. Listen and notice the new growth of what is starting to emerge in you.

― You will start to release a lot of physical and emotional tension at this point, so you will need channels to release it. You may want to try yoga asanas, swimming, massage, dancing, and singing. Let your heart guide you to any music, movies or natural surroundings that can also support your release process. When you feel you are ready and if you feel you have a friend who can understand what you are doing, tell them that you are working on opening up and feeling life more completely. Ask for their support and understanding during this transition. If you don’t already have a therapist, you may want to find one to help you with the release process.

―  When you wake up parts of you that have been anesthetized for years, the first things that you feel again are not usually pleasant and happy, but these difficult sensations are  what you need to go through to reclaim your full feeling and functioning. So if you go through periods of dark despair and self-loathing, know that it is the toxicity of the repression that is being cleared out and that after that is released, the genuine expression of yourself will shine through.

Many people have also benefitted from the Healing the Heart emotional healing workshop created by my colleague, Dr. David Simon, and offered at the Chopra Center.  In a supportive, nurturing environment, you will be guided to release the pain of the past and open space in your life for happiness and fulfillment. If this interests you, please visit www.chopra.com/freetolove. 

What about Antidepressants?
For more than twenty years, the conventional medical model has held that low levels of neurotransmitters in the brain, such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, lead to depression. According to this model, antidepressants increase the levels of various neurotransmitters, thereby improving mood. However, researchers have yet to find a causal relationship between low levels of neurotransmitters and depression.

In fact, recent studies suggest that depression starts higher up than chemicals. It starts with the formation and function of neurons. In other words, the brain cells in depressed people are adapted to express their depression. This takes the form of neural pathways that carry a message of sadness and hopelessness instead of those pathways that carry a message of happiness and optimism. Some important research studies have found that antidepressants are only marginally more effective than the placebos (sugar pills or saline solution) to which they were compared. Other researchers have found that talk therapy is just as effective in changing the brain responses associated with depression.

Important note: I want to emphasize here that severe depression requires medical treatment of the most intensive kind. Millions of people testify that antidepressants have relieved their suffering when nothing else helped. On the other hand, many people who don’t truly need them are being prescribed antidepressants. Instead of undertaking cognitive therapy, looking at the underlying issues of their depression, or trying other approaches, they are taking pills because it’s easier to do that than to look long-standing emotional patterns or difficult relationships.  This trend is particularly prevalent in the U.S., whose population makes up approximately 4 percent of people on the planet yet consumes two-thirds of the world’s supply of antidepressants.

Seriously consider whether you need antidepressants and ask your health care provider about other options. In general, antidepressants should be used as a short-term aide.  They work best in removing the top layer of sadness so that you have a clear space to address the real underlying issues. The real goal should be to rebalance your life, gain control over the disorder, understand who you are, and elevate your vision of possibilities for yourself.

Further Support for the Journey
Since all of the suggestions above require a choice, bringing yourself back into balance means that you are aware enough to make decisions and have the ability to put them into practice. Be patient with yourself and don’t expect any single practice or technique to completely end the depression. What you are looking for is support for your inner healing intelligence to correct the imbalance, and that usually doesn’t happen instantly, especially if you’ve been suffering from depression for some time. Quite often, depressed people feel too helpless and hopeless to make the most healing choices, in which case outside help is needed, meaning a therapist or counselor who specializes in depression. Remember that the rewards of freedom and joy are worth the effort.

As you continue your healing journey, know that the real you isn’t depressed and never has been. Your essential nature is pure love, pure spirit, and pure potentiality. By setting out on the path to uncover the real you, you will accomplish more than healing your depression: You will emerge into the light and see life in a completely new way.
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DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D.
Co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing

Recognized as one of the world’s foremost leaders in the field of mind-body medicine, Deepak Chopra, M.D. is a best-selling author, teacher, and co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. Nestled in the beautiful coastal setting of Carlsbad, California, the Chopra Center offers a wide variety of retreats and workshops that fuse the healing arts of the East with the best in modern Western medicine.

Whether you are seeking to heal from an illness, find relief from stress and burnout, create more loving relationships, find your life’s purpose, or explore your spiritual nature, the Chopra Center offers have a depth and variety of programs, workshops, and retreats to meet your needs. For more information, please visit www.chopra.com or call 888.736.6895.