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Holistic Health - Deepak Chopra PDF
Holistic Health - Deepak Chopra PDF
HOLISTIC
HEALTH
THE
CHOPRA
CENTER
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing
chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | learn@chopra.com
2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
Deepak’s Guide to Holistic Health
The word holistic has come to refer to everything from organic food and massage therapy to herbal
supplements and Eastern healing practices, all of which are undeniably valuable and evidence of a growing
consciousness that earlier generations only dreamed of. At the Chopra Center, we define holistic in its
original sense – as related to wholeness. Wholeness is the union of mind, body, and spirit. It means that you
are a totality, not the sum of countless moving parts. In wholeness, you aren’t divided against yourself, and
the choices you make benefit you at every level. Just as the quality of your food, water, and exercise directly
affects the health of your body and mind, so the energy and information you take in through your mind and
sensory organs influence your body and spirit.
There is a growing body of research establishing the inextricable connection of the mind, body, and spirit – and
the value of health practices that encompass all three aspects.
The following guide to holistic health won’t tell you what kind of diet to follow or whether you need to
take vitamins. It will instead help you experience your own innate wholeness – and your own inextricable
connection to the universe – as you nurture your mind, body, and spirit.
Yet change is also a choice. Your body has an infinite number of unknown possibilities, but it looks to you for
direction. When you introduce an intention, your body finds a way, on its own, to adapt to anything you want –
even to experiences that most people would describe as “spiritual.”
For example, researchers have known for the past twenty years that the brain is “plastic” – that it isn’t fixed at
birth as previously believed but adapts to change. They have found that simple daily activity can quickly create
new neural networks. Even more remarkably, studies are now showing that mental activity alone can alter the
brain. With the cooperation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a group of brain researchers conducted a study of
Tibetan Buddhist monks who had been meditating regularly for between fifteen and forty years. In a laboratory,
the monks were hooked up to a functional MRI, a brain scan that can monitor changes in real time. When the
monks meditated on compassion, the scans showed that their brains generated the most intense gamma waves
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing | chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | 2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
Deepak’s Guide to Holistic Health
ever seen in a normal brain. Gamma waves are associated with keeping the brain functioning as a whole and
with higher cognitive processes.
The monks displayed the most intense area of activity in the left prefrontal cortex, an area associated with
happiness and positive thoughts. This study was remarkable because it was the first time that anyone had been
able to show conclusively that mental activity alone can alter the brain. We now have evidence that a mere
intention or desire (in this case, the desire to be compassionate) can train the brain to adapt.
1. Enter a state of restful awareness (through practices such as meditation and yoga) and make your
intention known.
2. Believe in getting results.
3. Flow with the process of change, letting go of resistance.
At this point, the body will shift effortlessly at the physical level. Then you can repeat your subtle action until
you have experienced the change you desire.
The ego’s perspective inevitably leads us to experience unnecessary suffering, stress, and often even illness.
But what can we do? This tendency to accept and reject comes naturally to the ego, for its job is to define “I,”
and you can’t be everything to everybody – you must define yourself as “I” in some way.
I have never favored trying to defeat, kill, or discipline the ego. My reasoning is that if life isn’t meant to be a
struggle, then it isn’t meant to be a struggle against the ego, either.
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing | chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | 2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
Deepak’s Guide to Holistic Health
I also recommend a simple form of self-inquiry, such as the method taught by Byron Katie, to dismantle the
ego’s unexamined beliefs. You can learn more about Byron Katie’s inquiry process at thework.com.
On the other hand, when we flow in harmony with our body’s natural rhythms, getting restful sleep, feeding
our senses with experiences, tastes, touch, aromas, sounds, and sights that uplift and nourish us, we usually
experience a greater state of health and wellbeing.
Such a life promotes an integrated interaction of our brain’s one trillion neurons, allowing us to be present to
the multitude of perceptions that incessantly bombard us, to enjoy them for their beauty, to process them into
creative action, and to intuit the future and our role within it.
TUNING IN . . .
How do you make choices that keep you in harmony with your inner intelligence and rhythms? By tuning into
your body’s messages. The body always expresses itself through signals of comfort and discomfort.
When choosing a certain path or behavior, ask your body, “How do you feel about this?” If your body sends
a signal of physical or emotional distress, pay attention and consider a different choice. If your body sends a
signal of comfort and eagerness, you may proceed. Whereas the mind lives in the past and the future, the body
resides in the now and never doubts itself. It knows the truth and will guide you toward the most evolutionary
choices.
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing | chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | 2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
Deepak’s Guide to Holistic Health
When the light of our consciousness is awakened, our silent witness is fully present in every moment. That
light of witnessing completely metabolizes whatever experience we are having, whether pain or pleasure. It
also prevents the experience from becoming a future source of attachment, suffering, or delusion. The silent
witness keeps us in the present, unencumbered from our past conditioning or fear of the future.
Start with five minutes of meditation, then gradually build up to longer meditation periods. You’ll notice that
when you introduce the repetition of I am into your consciousness, it competes with your other thoughts until
gradually both your thoughts and the words I am become vague and abstract. Ultimately you’ll experience no
thought and no repetition . . . just the silence and peace of pure consciousness.
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing | chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | 2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
Deepak’s Guide to Holistic Health
CULTIVATE SELF-REFERRAL
Self-referral is identifying with your inner self – the unchanging essence of your soul. This state has certain
characteristics, including an internal sense of joy or wellbeing regardless of what is happening in the exterior
world.
In self-referral, you’re not attached to outcome or obsessed with power, money, or control; you’re in touch
with your feelings and you feel what you feel. You’re not easily offended and you don’t feel superior or inferior.
In self-referral you have infinite freedom and are able to make spontaneous evolutionary choices. You’re not
anticipating a response and you’re not victimized by memory. You’re literally in the flow of the evolutionary
impulse of the universe.
Look into your eyes to see these attitudes reflected back at you. Look just at your eyes, not at your facial
expression. Look for the shine in your eyes that reflects the fire in your soul. If you do this exercise for a few
minutes every day, it can create profound shifts in your life.
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing | chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | 2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
Deepak’s Guide to Holistic Health
BE GENEROUS OF SPIRIT
Wholeness is generous because it feels no lack. No matter how much you give, if you give freely more will
come to you. On the other hand, if you feel a pinch of lack underneath, it won’t be easy to give and you won’t
experience the joy of giving and receiving.
Generosity begins at the level of the soul, which has an inexhaustible source of the two things that are vital
to life: energy and awareness. When you know at the deepest levels that you can never run short of these two
things, you will become generous of spirit and giving on any level will feel natural and easy.
Here are the major gifts we all can give when we’re generous of spirit:
Offer yourself first. This means sharing the real you instead of the false self that most people offer the world.
The false self is a something we develop to fit into society’s expectations and win external approval, while
the real self is open and vulnerable. It doesn’t feel a division between one soul and another. While social
conditioning can make it feel frightening to offer the real you, remember that fear often gives false counsel.
When you offer the real you, you become stronger, stripping off the flimsy suit of armor that was an illusion all
along. When you share your true self, you offer your wholeness of spirit.
Don’t withhold the truth. Whatever is false blocks spirit and prevents the flow of energy and awareness.
Every time you speak your truth, you establish your own wholeness and evolution. This isn’t about standing
up for “absolute truths” but about being authentic and honest on the most intimate scale. In families where
someone has an alcohol or drug addiction and the other family members keep silent, they feel a sense of
helplessness and the problems fester. Speaking the truth opens up options and empowers. It shows caring.
Be a force for harmony and coherence. Wholeness is a state of harmony, while fragmentation is a state of
conflict. The soul is a harmonizing influence that can transform any situation if you stay aware and focus your
intentions. In the face of conflict, you can act as a peaceful influence, whether silently or speaking up if that is
needed.
Place your trust in abundance. Since wholeness contains everything, it draws on the infinite resources of
spirit. Trust that there will always be enough of what your soul has to give – enough love, compassion, caring,
intelligence, creativity, and attention. Abundance is about trusting the flow, knowing that wholeness doesn’t
have holes in it and never leaves a void. You can be generous with all the gifts of the soul and more will flow in.
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing | chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | 2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
Deepak’s Guide to Holistic Health
Learning how to let go of toxic emotions such as hostility is the essence of learning how to forgive, because
forgiveness is about releasing your attachment or identification with a conditioned response.
If you are holding onto a grievance or resentment or you feel hostility toward someone and are unable to
let go, I encourage you to read David Simon’s book Free to Love, Free to Heal. If you want to be personally
guided in the emotional detoxification and forgiveness process David presents in his book, you can attend the
Healing the Heart workshop at the Chopra Center (learn more at chopra.com/healingtheheart).
In the end, to forgive another is to forgive our self. What we think we are forgiving in another is an act of
freedom for our own soul. Every situation that calls for forgiveness is a step in our own evolution to higher
consciousness.
Spiritual flow is effortless, spontaneous; it is full of flexibility and creativity. It’s a realm where you learn to let
go detach from the outcome, and experience life-centered present moment awareness. And it’s so joyful that
it can’t even be described. It seems like you and the universe are dancing together. There’s a song in your heart
and you don’t really care who’s listening or what they think. You just want to sing that song and you want to
move in tandem with the impulse of evolution which we call dharma.
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing | chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | 2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
Deepak’s Guide to Holistic Health
The more time you spend in silence and meditation, the easier it becomes to align yourself the natural
harmony of the universe. There are also three useful steps you can take to benefit from the Law of Least Effort
in your life:
1. Practice Acceptance. Each day, have the intention to accept people situations, and events as they
occur. Know that this moment is as it should be because the universe it as it should be.
2. Take responsibility. Once you’ve accepted things as they are, take responsibility for all those
situations you may see as problems. This doesn’t mean blaming yourself or others, but taking
whatever steps you can to transform circumstances into a greater benefit.
3. Establish your awareness in defenselessness. Let go of the need to defend your point of view. Stay
open to all perspectives without being rigidly attached to any of them.
Spend time in silence, connect to your infinite nature, and center your intention inside yourself. Intend for
everything to work out as it should, and then let go and allow opportunities and openings to come your way.
Practicing the above steps will help you experience your innate wholeness. When that happens, you will feel
subtle changes in the feelings and thoughts, including a sense that all is well. You will feel a lightness in your
body, deep peace, and the realization that your internal dialogue has become quieter. You may experience
healing on a physical or emotional level. You may also notice that you’re acting out of complete integrity and
that synchronicities and unexpected opportunities are becoming more abundant in your life. These are all signs
that you are connecting to your true nature, which is whole, infinite, and unbounded.
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing | chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | 2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009
THE
CHOPRA
CENTER
© 2012, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing
chopra.com | 888.736.6895 | learn@chopra.com
2013 Costa del Mar Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92009