Forget signing grand declarations and ambitious goals. If you want to ring in the new year right, get more sleep and practice your breathing more often.
These are simple and effective tips recommended by Deepak Chopra for those seeking a healthier lifestyle.
An Indian-American author and a leading voice in the self-help movement, he says New Year’s Eve resolutions often focus on grand goals and ignore small but important ones. increase.
Many seem simple on the surface, but all of these gradual steps will help you expand your sense of self-awareness, the catalyst for self-growth.
Chopra takes this idea even further. mindful momenta new book dedicated to the younger generation.
“Mindfulness is an old term, and it’s basically about being aware of the choices and decisions we’re making rather than just reacting to our reptilian brain,” he says. The National.
“This is an important concept that we need to learn because many people experience between fight and flight responses throughout their lives, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be.”
While the book offers a deeper analysis, Chopra offers five steps to launch your own awareness campaign.
1. sleep soundly
It may be old advice, but it’s more important than ever.
When it comes to a healthy night’s sleep duration, Chopra is practical.
Without it, we are faced with the beginning of the day.
“Lack of or disturbed sleep is the number one cause of premature death, and can be attributed to a variety of cardiovascular diseases,” he says.
“It also causes inflammation and fatigue in the body and a lack of creativity.”
2. Manage your stress levels
After the pandemic, many people are feeling more anxious than usual.
Luckily, you can learn skills to reduce these tensions.
“Regarding stress management, what we’re really trying to do is quiet the mind, and that doesn’t mean replacing it with positive thinking. If you can’t feel it, it makes you .more stressed,” he says.
“Meditation is one of the most reliable ways to relieve stress, but there are other options, such as watching comedy, because humor is a comfortable way to exploit the paradox of ambiguity, uncertainty and contradiction. “
Chopra also regularly encourages gentle introspection to reorient the mind.
“This can be done by asking questions such as: ‘Who am I? What do I want? What is my purpose? What am I grateful for?’ ?” he says.
3. Prepare your mind and body
Practice mindfulness with yoga and tai chi exercises.
“I also incorporate breathing techniques that help me tune my mind and body,” says Chopra.
“Such activity stimulates parts of the nervous system, including the vagus nerve. Derived from the Latin word for wanderer, this nerve is found throughout the body and is known as the ‘healing nerve.’ are often regarded. “
4. Develop interpersonal skills
With many industries adopting a hybrid work-from-home/office model, building the skills to adapt is paramount.
“Your professional relationships mirror how you handle your personal relationships, and you can’t separate the two,” Chopra says.
A key step in merging the two is understanding what drives you emotionally.
“You need to get in touch with your emotions and feel with your body what you are going through. Ask yourself if you are feeling anger, hostility, shame, distrust, fear, or depression. , is the dysfunctional emotion that separates us from others,” he says.
“To build compassion and empathy to connect with others, you need to consciously communicate your own needs. This way we limit the conflict because it stems from the idea that we need to feel .
“All conflict is ideological, and the inability to consciously communicate or ask for forgiveness creates an emotional belligerence.”
5. Understand what true love is
Chopra disagrees with the depiction of love in the media, explaining that many of the relationships seen on screen are rooted in insecurity.
“People think of love as just feelings, emotions, melodrama,” he says. “It’s not true love. It’s self-importance and self-pity and self-concern and insecurity, often following the idea of ’I love you, so do you love me? ‘”
Chopra says a more accurate description of love can be found in ancient traditions, in that it often follows several stages of emotional growth.
“The source of everything is consciousness,” he says. “The more we understand, the more our consciousness expands, the more compassion and empathy, the less judgmental we become.
“True genuine love is achieved when you grow together and go through these stages. No, you can’t skip the queue.”
Updated: Jan 4, 2023, 2:59 AM
