Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul Part 5 of 9: Being Comfortable with Your Body
December 30, 2009 by dr. lam · 7 Comments
Coming toward the end of his section on “Reinventing the Body”, Chopra challenges the reader to ask how comfortable the reader is with certain activities: looking at himself/herself naked, changing clothes at the gym, wearing a form fitting bathing suit, dancing in front of others, hugging, etc. What he is driving at is two things: how is your mind’s perception of your body and how comfortable are you with your own body.
He talks constantly throughout the book of “stuck energy”, where we have mind blocks on our behaviors and perceptions. Our body composition can be a source of frustration and fear for many of us. Honestly, until I started doing yoga about 10 months ago, I was extremely uncomfortable with my body. I now have a new relationship with my body both in terms of how I carry myself and how I work with my body. I am much more comfortable today because yoga not only has transformed my body physically but changed my relationship with my body at the same time.
Chopra encourages us to get in tune with our body and play through scenarios that compel us into a stuck position. For example, if you are uncomfortable changing at the gym, perhaps imagine how other people do not look at you and do not care about how you look. Start becoming more comfortable in your own skin, and start to see yourself differently, embracing your body however it looks. And if you are not happy with what you see, first accept yourself the way you are and then change your body to fit your new mental image of it.
Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul Part 4 of 9: Turning on Genes
December 29, 2009 by dr. lam · 7 Comments
We have always been taught that our genes are fixed. We have blue eyes and brown hair. That’s all she wrote. However, think of two identical twins, one of whom plies his hands as a bricklayer and another who determines to become a concert pianist. Each one has manipulated his DNA in profound but subtle ways: their neural pathways, hand shapes, and movements differ from each other despite being identical twins.
Blind individuals are known to have a much greater sense of touch than sighted people. A study in which electrical impulses were sent to the tongues of blind people to recreate a visual image showed up on an imaging scan in the visual cortex of these individuals. These neural pathways for sight were being rerouted in these blind people.
A new field of study today focuses on so-called epigenes, the complex proteins that circumscribe our DNA. This protein cloud is our trigger to turn a gene on or off. How do you explain cancers that without any treatment just disappear? Yes, miracles happen. However, also our mind to body connection is very powerful. We can influence our genes by our thoughts and emotions. We can continue to mature our neural networks differently depending on how we think and behave.
Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul Part 3 of 9: Ending Craving
December 25, 2009 by dr. lam · 10 Comments
As a follow up to yesterday’s blog on flexibilty, Chopra talks about a study of middle-aged Finnish men who were high risk for heart attacks. One group had the patients casually reinforced with techniques for better living to minimize risk, encountering the physician a few times a year for this lifestyle counseling, which they had hitherto ignored (and perhaps would continue to do so). Another group met regularly with their physicians, checking constantly their cholesterol, weight, and other factors, so as to make proper recommendations for lifestyle changes. The second group had an overwhelming greater percentage of heart attacks than the first. Perhaps the stress of these regular meetings led to their demise.
Our body is not separate from our minds. When we are living in a state of struggle with our bodies, we tend to live exasperated lives. For example, when we climb out of our beds to the kitchen to sneak a bite of chocolate ice cream, what are we doing really? We are living a cycle of “Should I or Shouldn’t I” that is unrelenting and unenlightened. We have very little self awareness for our actions, as we are forced into a never-ending cycle of struggle. Through reflection and meditation on what we are doing, we can elevate ourselves beyond the struggle and to see that we can rise above these limitations that drive us unconsciously. For most of my life, I have looked at food with craving until I went to France, which literally changed my paradigm. I am now seeing food for its social and healthful purposes rather than for it being part of an escapism that I no longer need.
We must begin to be aware so that we can change our energy so that we can change our body. Through reflection of why we are struggling and to expose that struggle for what it is, we can begin to let go of it. We can then change our energy, which ultimately changes our body. As Chopra has frequently said, “The issue is in the tissue.” We can end craving by allowing our mind to meditate beyond it and enter a state of peace.
Chopra recommends three types of meditation: focus on breathing, focus on the heart (just focusing and centering yourself on tranquility of your heart), and focus on the light (see yourself moving toward light and enlightenment). End your struggle with craving by seeing the foolish association of how ice cream has anything to do with your stress levels. Or how your hatred for your father should drive your current energy. Or whatever your situation might be. Free yourself from your own prison.
(Merry Xmas Everyone!)
Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul Part 2 of 9: Flexibility
December 24, 2009 by dr. lam · 4 Comments
When we look at our body for a fix of the mind, then we can have problems. Let me explain. Do we just grab an antidepressant pill when we are just sugar coating the problem and not really investigating why we are feeling the way we are feeling? Is there a deeper rooted, older feeling that is lingering around until today that is manifesting in the way that we respond to the world? When the stock market crashes, do we?
Chopra talks about how the people who live into their 90s may have the benefit of genetics, lifestyle, and well luck. But it goes much deeper than that. It goes into how they adapted their living much earlier and how they respond to life crises. In a word, it relates to their flexibility. When they encounter problems, do they freak out? Or, do they calmly respond to crises because they can go with the flow?
People that have heart attacks in their 40s oftentimes have issues that remain unresolved emotionally in their twenties. Their hardened emotions may be now manifesting as hardened arteries. (Not always. I am a physician, but I am much more than that. I see the mind-body-spiritual connection.) It is a known fact that widowers soon die after losing their spouse or at least are more susceptible to dying. A huge reason is how they enter depression or how they view life after their spouse’s death.
Chopra encourages all of us not just to pop a pill but to investigate how flexible are we in our life to life circumstances and further to find better ways to change our energy flow so that we can truly avert disaster by living in a state of freedom.
Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul Part 1 of 9: Energy and Change
December 23, 2009 by dr. lam · 10 Comments
Deepak Chopra’s book, Reinventing The Body, Resurrecting the Soul, was a joy to read and to digest. As I have stated often, these blogs are as much therapy for me to write as hopefully they are for you to read. Chopra’s book is chock full of anecdotes, witticisms, and insight, and I encourage my readers of this blog to get it and to read it in its entirety. I have only chosen a few select passages from the book that have had resonance with me personally. You may find other parts of the book more enlightening or more tailored for you.
He starts the book with the idea that our body is a fiction, i.e., our conventional knowledge that our body is a fixed physical entity is a falsehood. Instead, our body is a product of our energy. When we hate others, we become a product of that hate, as disease enters our spirit and ultimately affects our body. When we are in a destructive relationship, that not only eats into our soul but it then robs us of our bodily health and vitality.
Looking at our body as a pure source of energy then, we can see that we are mutable creatures that can be influenced by our thoughts and our emotions. If we perceive the static nature of our body, so there shall we reside. However, if we work to focus on the flowing energy (rather than the stuck, negative energy), we can begin to free ourselves into wondrous creatures that we potentially can be, as this blog series will explore in depth.