HALIFAX(Canada): I remember a few years ago, the Hong Kong flu hit Nova
Scotia, a province of Canada. Every teacher in our school was
getting the Hong Kong flu and here I had made up my mind that I was
not going to get the Hong Kong flu. I was not expecting to get it. I
was determined that the Hong Kong flu virus was not going to
land on my immune system. I did not want to get the Hong Kong flu. I
did not get the Hong Kong flu.
A New Home:
Why did I
decide to give such a cold welcome to Hong Kong flu? I had left India
thirty-five years ago. I left India because I got married. When I got
married, my last name changed to my husband’s last name, Sodhi.
From Suchdeva I became Sodhi. When I came to Canada, nobody could
pronounce properly my first name or my middle name. My real name is
Satpal Kaur. I became Polly because it was easier for everybody to
say. From Satpal Kaur Suchdeva I became Polly Sodhi.
In India when they give you your first name, there is always a meaning to that name. My first name meant somebody who told the truth all the time and my last name meant the goddess of truth. My whole identity, my original name, became reduced to Polly Sodhi. And then this person, Satpal Kaur Suchdeva, loved cooking. My children did not want me to make Indian food very often as cooking Indian food would stink up the whole house.
Well, we think differently now. I was cooking
Greek donairs, Mexican chili, Italian pizza and Chinese egg rolls.
You name it. I was doing all kinds of international cooking. Here I
was: living with the name Polly Sodhi, in Canada, and doing all kinds
of non-Indian cooking; it felt that I had been living with a false
identity for such a long time. Then here comes Hong Kong flu. I
thought to myself that I have not come all the way from India to live
here in Canada, to do all the international cooking, live under the
name of Polly Sodhi and then get this Hong Kong flu. If I wanted to
get the Hong Kong flu, I would have stayed back in India and gotten
it there; it was even closer geographically. In fact, if it
were not the Hong Kong flu, if it had been a Canadian flu, perhaps I
would not have resisted much, but I was determined not to get the
Hong Kong flu.
Fear of Sickness:
The people who do get
the Hong Kong flu or another kind of flu get it because we get
whatever we expect to get or we are afraid to get. Even when we think
quietly: “I get whatever goes around”, our immune system hears
it, programs it and executes the belief or the expectation. I did not
wait for it and I did not get the Hong Kong flu.
Positive
Attitude:
Attitudes are more important than facts. We act on
the basis of our worldview, our philosophy and our belief system.
Life is not what happens to us; it is what we do with what happens to
us. Life is only %10 outside events, people and
circumstances, and %90 how we respond to them. Our
response to those events, people and circumstances and Hong Kong
flu’s, will depend on our attitude, as different people respond
differently in the same situation. What we need is to study the
attitude of those people who have not succumbed to outside
expectations of them. If one person can do it, it can be done by
anybody else. The attitudes, the belief system and the expectations
based upon those belief systems, are all learned; hence, they can be
unlearned, especially if they are not serving our interest. If we
want to change the outcomes, we would have to change our expectations
accordingly. We have to reprogram our minds with empowering thoughts,
attitudes, and expectations. Our thoughts and our belief system are
the software, and the body is the print out. If we do not like the
print out, the software needs to be.
Be Optimistic:
Our
beliefs create our biology. We need to empower our belief system with
a “can-do” attitude. Those who say they can, they can; and those
who say they cannot, they cannot. Individuals, who are optimistic,
have a “can-do” philosophy and expect the best in their life are
happier, healthier and live longer. Research indicates that on days
when we experience an optimistic and upbeat attitude, the hormones
and the chemicals, indicative of a stronger immune system, are in a
higher quantity in our saliva.
How can we program our mind
with a “can-do” philosophy, a positive attitude and belief in
ourselves? Firstly, have the intention of living a very long,
healthy, alert, smart, joyous, compassionate, calm, peaceful, and
centered life. Our body is capable of producing any bio-chemical
response once the mind receives the appropriate suggestion. The
suggestion converts into the body’s intention to work for the
intended outcome. We all know that sometimes just calling the doctor
for whatever is ailing us triggers the body’s intention to heal and
we start getting better even before we get to see the doctor. If such
is the power of positive intention, why cannot we directly trigger
the body’s intention to live a very long life and to stay healthy,
without seeking the advice of the medical doctors and the
professionals?
We can insert direct suggestions into our mind
for the optimum functioning of our mind, body and soul. These
suggestions must be positive. We cannot insert negative suggestions,
because we do not only get whatever we expect to get, but we also get
what we are afraid to get. Avoid making negative suggestions to your
mind: “I do not want to get a migraine headache on the weekend.”
Or “I do not want to get arthritis at age sixty.” Or “I do not
want to be depressed when I hit my menopause.” Or “I do not want
to have a heart attack like my father in my forties or fifties.” Or
“I do not want to be bent over with osteoporosis in my late
sixties.” Or “I do not want to feel weak and low in energy at the
age of forty.”
Positive Visualizations:
Since
expectations determine outcomes, have the positive visualizations for
those intended outcomes. Anticipate, expect and visualize the best
and those visualizations will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Sometimes it is a good idea to have a role model in your mind. Think
about one person that you know who is still, at very old age, a very
calm, focused, functional, and fully anchored person. Suggest to the
mind that if this one person can do it, then anybody else can learn
to do it too and teach it to others. Visualize that at age sixty, you
are still looking very young and you are full of vitality and youth.
Visualize that at age seventy you are walking tall with a straight
spine and a glow on your face. Visualize that at the age of ninety,
you are still a very strong, energetic, focused, alert, and smart
person. Visualize that you are one hundred ten years old and you are
skipping rope on the top of Mount Everest. Visualize that you are one
hundred fifteen years old and you are telling the history of the
twentieth century to your children, grandchildren, great
grandchildren and great, great grandchildren. Perhaps right now, you
might like to close your eyes and make one very powerful and positive
visualization for when you are sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety and one
hundred. Write those visualizations on some index cards and place
them on your fridge.
Focus on the Positives:
Another
strategy for developing a positive belief system and a “can-do”
philosophy and empowering attitudes is to condition our mind to look
at life positively. We all know that attitudes are learned and hence
they can be unlearned and relearned. In order to program our mind
with the empowering belief system and positive attitude, we need to
be aware and cognizant of our negative thinking and our negative
attitudes. We have a tendency in life to focus on what is not working
instead of what is working. To replace our selective focusing on what
is broken, we must re-program our mind with an awareness of what is
positive and what is working in the same situation Whenever we get a
headache, we announce it to our family members, colleagues and
anybody else that we meet: “I have a bad headache.” How often do
we announce it to the whole world that, “Today my head is feeling
well and pain free?” Whenever we have a sore throat, we make the
declaration: “I have a sore and scratchy throat”; but how often
do we say that, “Today, my throat is silky smooth and whatever I
eat I can swallow it just like butter?”
When we have a bad
cold and our nose is all stuffed, we will say, “I cannot even
breathe.” First of all, this is a big lie. If we could not breathe,
even for a few minutes, we will be well on our way to dying; and
dying bodies are not interested in talking about their stuffed up
nose! How often do we say, when our nose is not stuffed up, “Today
the air in my nostrils is flowing in the right volume and at the
right rate?” We get stomach flu and we announce, “In the last
twenty-four hours whatever I have been eating, I cannot keep it down
and I keep on throwing up.” Most of the time, we do not have
stomach flu, but do we tell everybody, ” whatever I have been
eating for the last one week has been exiting through the proper
channels?” We focus on our sinuses when they are acting up, but do
we ever try to report it to the world, “Today my sinuses are in a
perfect state of balance?” At any given moment, there is always
more that is working for us than what is not, but how we look at it
will depend upon what we are focusing on. It is true that whatever we
focus on, that expands.
What Is Your Date of Birth,
Doctor?
On December 25, 2000, I had a minor stroke. I am going
to call it minor and then I will perceive its effects as minor, too.
The stroke affected my speech totally, and I could not speak. I was
in the hospital in the emergency unit and the doctor on call was
trying to determine the extent of the damage. He was asking me
questions and I had to answer them either by nodding my head or by
pointing at things with my fingers. He was asking me questions like,
“Is today Monday?” and I had to nod my head in “yes” or
“no”.
He was trying to determine if I had lost my ability
to recall the days of the week, and my sense of space and time. Then
the good doctor asked me if he had two apples, and somebody gave him
two more apples, how many apples he would have. I had to show my
understanding by raising that many fingers. (As this was lunch time,
I wish he had given me both the apples to eat; I was starving). At
that time, something clicked inside me: the neurologist was trying to
test whether I had lost my ability to add and subtract. I knew the
answer, even though I could not speak.
However, I just wanted
to make sure that whatever math ability I had before the stroke was
still there or not. I did not raise four fingers, but just pointed
out for the neurologist to give me a piece of paper and a pencil. I
wrote, “What is your date of birth?” He gave me his date of birth
and I wrote it back on the paper, “You were born on
Wednesday.” He was somewhat surprised. He did not ask me any more
mathematical questions after that. He asked me some other questions,
and then he left for lunch. About a couple of hours later when the
neurologist returned to check me again, he told me that he confirmed
with his mother and I was right that he was born on Wednesday. I
was very pleased that even though I could not speak, I still had my
mathematical ability.
That night while I was in the hospital,
after my family had gone home, I tried to see if I could walk or not.
I walked around the room. I did three miles of walking in one hour
and my energy level was fine. I tried to do my yoga and I could still
do it; I did my tai chi and I still remembered the sequence of the
Simplified Form. I wrote in my journal and my writing was fine. My
daughter had given me a book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I
read the first couple of pages, closed my eyes and I could recall it;
my reading comprehension was not lost. I had so much left. The only
thing I could not do, and that was only one little thing, was that I
could not speak. I knew that if I had to make any recovery, I would
have to focus on what was still there; this would give me a good
feeling about myself that I still had a lot left and, then, work from
there.
‘Gratitude Journal': God be praised!
In order
to train our mind to focus more on what is positive and working, it
is helpful to keep a gratitude journal. In that gratitude journal we
should write on a very regular basis about all that is working in our
body, mind, and soul. It is called a gratitude journal because we
should feel grateful for all that is working, for all that is
positive in our life at any given moment. We do not have to write
about big stuff in that gratitude journal. Write about the
day-to-day, everyday stuff that is working in our life and be aware
of it. Be grateful that it is working because if those things were
not working we will not be able to call ourselves a living soul.
Write in the gratitude journal what we are grateful for: that we can
see, that we can hear, that we can walk, that we can talk, that we
can swallow, that we can open our mouth, and that we can breathe
whether the nose is stuffy or not.
After the stroke, I
developed a condition known as urinary hesitancy. Before the stroke,
I used to complain about experiencing a bit of urinary incontinence
every time I sneezed, laughed or coughed, but urinary hesitancy is
exactly the opposite of that. Some kind of muscular weakness had
settled into my bladder where, sometimes, I would not be able to
“go.” I realized that all my life for the last sixty-one years, I
had been just “going” whenever I wanted to “go” and instead
of being grateful, I was complaining about having a little bit of
urinary incontinence here and there.
So now, I prayed to God,
“God please, I can live with urinary incontinence, but this one is
more difficult to handle.” Maybe we can write in the gratitude
journal a “Thank you” to God, or whosoever you believe in and
just be grateful that whenever you want to “go”, and you have a
need to “go”, you are able to “go.”
We can thank
anyone or anything in the universe, or in nature that is helping us
to stay alive. Every morning we can thank and salute the sun, for
keeping us warm, because if the sun gets cold even for one day, we
would not be able to stay alive. To increase our awareness of what is
positive and working in our life, we need to say thank you for all
the good days that we have and not complain on the days when it is
rainy or it is too hot or it is too
cold.