A
good physician never stresses on medicine alone. In fact, medicine comes at
second place after correcting the faults in the lifestyle of the patient. And
if one wishes to have speedy recovery and lasting results, the auxiliary line
of treatment suggested by the doctor is of utmost importance.
The
auxiliary regime includes various dietary corrections, corrections on the plane
of physical fitness and most importantly, dealing with the mental and emotional
faculty of human existence. Of course the homeopathic medicine given on the
basis of constitution of the patient does cater this faculty very well;
however, as said, maintaining cause has to be nullified as much as possible for
the medicine to act favorably. If a person is being treated for common cold and
if he does not refrain from drenching himself in rains frequently, the medicine
will not help. Similarly, if a physician is treating, for example, migraine,
the triggers for migraine like mental and emotional disturbances have to be
taken into account. Even if your medicine will eventually help him or her feel
at ease on mental plane, little persuasion by the doctor and counseling can
help him deal with the various situations more proactively and minimize his
stress levels to great extent.
I
often tend to give more attention to this aspect while I treat my cases
homeopathically. Being a homeopath in itself makes us more aware of people’s psychological
tendencies, attitudes and reactions. Rather, it is the base upon which we treat
most of the cases. Therefore, I often give certain goals for the patients to
look into and study themselves over a period of time. It is a worth exercise; that’s
what most patients’ feedback is. As we homeopaths earnestly feel that our
science and art of healing should help more and more people to rise above the
so called rat race of the world and focus on uplifting oneself with many
others, here are the certain aspects one can study and introspect upon in order
to maintain the mind- body equilibrium –
(1) How optimistic I am? – Under this category, there are 2
sub-categories --
Do I count my blessings? – This is one of the most loved and helpful tips for my patients. The patients are supposed to write down daily the smallest possible positive things in their life on paper and read it every day before retiring to bed. They can keep on adding the things till the mind becomes vacant of negative aspects. Slowly but surely it helps us immensely to value the smallest things bestowed upon us by the Higher Power / nature / whatever you want to call it. Isn’t just the power to breathe supreme blessing?
How often I complain? – Under this category, patient needs to keep aside just a day and with mindful attention on that day, he / she is supposed to write the smallest instances when we utter complaining words. Right from “Still the sweeper has not arrived!! L” to “Why doesn’t the government take appropriate action?”… there are literally n number of instances when all of us create hormonal imbalances in our body by complaining about the things that are either not in our hand or without working to do something about it. We do not realize that these small instances of disapproval / disharmony / disgust are the pioneers of our future hypertensions, diabetes, strokes, heart diseases, so on and so forth. Therefore, this exercise done at regular intervals helps us realize the futility of such complaints and the way we should overcome this habit, at least for health purpose, if not for higher good.
Do I count my blessings? – This is one of the most loved and helpful tips for my patients. The patients are supposed to write down daily the smallest possible positive things in their life on paper and read it every day before retiring to bed. They can keep on adding the things till the mind becomes vacant of negative aspects. Slowly but surely it helps us immensely to value the smallest things bestowed upon us by the Higher Power / nature / whatever you want to call it. Isn’t just the power to breathe supreme blessing?
How often I complain? – Under this category, patient needs to keep aside just a day and with mindful attention on that day, he / she is supposed to write the smallest instances when we utter complaining words. Right from “Still the sweeper has not arrived!! L” to “Why doesn’t the government take appropriate action?”… there are literally n number of instances when all of us create hormonal imbalances in our body by complaining about the things that are either not in our hand or without working to do something about it. We do not realize that these small instances of disapproval / disharmony / disgust are the pioneers of our future hypertensions, diabetes, strokes, heart diseases, so on and so forth. Therefore, this exercise done at regular intervals helps us realize the futility of such complaints and the way we should overcome this habit, at least for health purpose, if not for higher good.
(2) How do I handle stressful situations? – This is one of the most important
exercises to study and introspect. One doesn’t need to have some serious
situation. Just think about times when because of traffic signal, you had to
wait for 2 whole minutes and your mind and heart started racing about the
delay. One of the worst things in today’s world is that everyone talks about
nullifying stress but everyone thinks that stress is going to be part of our
lifestyle. Rather, if someone is not stressed, the people around feel sorry for
him that he is not stressed because he is not doing something worthwhile in his
life. How pitiful!
“Letting
go” and “Acting proactively” are the two basic aspects that work wonders in
stress management, provided one knows when to let go and when to act proactively.
Firstly kick out the thought that stress is going to be part of our life. Then
think about the instances when you went off balance and created disharmony in
your body and mind. Many psychologists suggest not to think of the negative
instances when we lost our balance and instead we should focus on positive. But
in my opinion, the negative instances should be remembered to remedy such instances
in future; only then we can focus on positive. The negative instances should be
made stepping stones for positive future. That gives us another big lesson that
nothing in life was futile ever!
(3) What do I do for relaxation? – You know how huge our world’s
population is and that creates those many ideas for relaxation and recreation.
Every person has his or her own idea of relaxation. Some may find it in
friends, some in pubs, some in books, and a few in spiritual quests. Even if as
a liberal, we say that no idea is void, everyone will agree to one thing that
whatever path we choose, the result obtained should not prove short term but
should have lasting result. That itself cuts off many options from the list. As
a person wanting to have body – mind balance, we should always think of this
while we engage our heart and soul in such pursuits of relaxation. This is the
third exercise. With awareness of the mind, one can easily start assessing his
ways of dealing with stress, handling it better and relaxing in the core
without being disturbed.
There
are many other aspects that can be discussed as per everyone’s problems and
situations but the above three are the basic exercises every person has to
undertake in order to review the precious life bestowed upon us.
The
world is getting more and more aware of the psychosomatic illnesses, the
diseases arising from psychological imbalances. Earlier we focus on this aspect
of our personality and find lasting solution, better it is for our body, mind
and spirit to be used for higher purposes of human existence!
