Who Is The Most Important Person in Your Life?
- Belief Systems for a Healthy Mind and Body -
We have an epidemic on our hands not just in India but around the world.
In this survey, The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) provides some startling data:
Out of every 10 Indian professionals surveyed across the metropolitan cities, 4 suffered from general anxiety disorder or depression.
If the results of the survey are to be extrapolated, a huge number of Indian workers put on a smiling mask to hide their pain as they head to work each day.
In the list of the top diseases that affect corporate executives, depression (42%) ranks at the top, followed by obesity (23%), high blood pressure (9%) and diabetes (8%). The top 3 cities where professionals were the most prone to depression were Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, in that order.
The study points out that there may be many reasons for this high level of depression:
1. Employment issues (not having a job, being in the wrong job)
2. Life experiences (traumatic events in childhood)
3. Financial ill-health
4. Substance abuse (drugs, alcohol)
5. Medical history of depression in the family
6. Chronic health problems
7. Relationship issues (marriage, love affair)
8. Isolation and lack of social support
Too often we look at these reasons and resist healing the issues causing the depression.
Men may avoid healing because they have been told not to show emotion. Women may avoid healing because they are being told to "stop being so emotional or you won't get ahead in this organization".
With these obstacles, both men and women try to bury the issues; however, the clever subconscious mind doesn't forget! I know because for many years I tried to bury the traumatic events from my childhood until one day God decided to hit me over the head with not just the branch of a tree but with the entire tree! Yikes. Painful experience.
Years ago Dr. Christiane Northrup, MD, pointed out to women that if they didn't deal with their "traumatic events" from childhood, these women would suffer emotionally in their menopause years. Today we understand the same applies to men. If these events are not dealt with, the men may become bitter, unfocussed and unhappy in their family lives.
The prescribed 'medicine' for depression usually falls into the following categories:
" Anti-depressants
" More exercise
" Better diet
" Finding a passion such as a hobby
" Change of job
Notice that these are simply physical things. But how do we heal the human spirit? Let's look at a real life case study of a leader who courageously admitted what was causing him to be 'down' and committedly marched forward to heal.
Case study of Surjit:
Surjit is a middle manager, aged 48, who has been suffering from depression for 30 years. He has been prescribed 2 anti-depressants and as the years went by his doctor prescribed stronger and stronger anti-depressants because Surjit kept returning to the doctor to tell him that the medication was not working. And, after 30 years of therapy, Surjit is simply getting more and more depressed.
So what is the issue here?
When therapy, anti-depressants and the other prescribed 'medicines' fail, where does someone like Surjit turn?
Today behavioural scientists and cell biologists are clear that the fastest most effective path to healing mind, body and spirit is to work with a professional who has the training to help an individual discover the Root Cause of a challenge. As he courageously dug deeper, here is what Surjit discovered:
He reluctantly admitted that he had serious addictions to gambling, alcohol, cigarettes and abusive relationships. He identified that his addictions came from a negative belief around loving himself. In addition, he didn't value himself - a pattern he had taken on from his parents. We all know that as children we are sponges … we often take on the negative beliefs and actions of our parents. With a lack of love of self and lack of valuing self, Surjit abused himself by gambling away his hard earned money and turning to substances that provided him with short term joy. In addition, he allowed his manager at work and his wife to control him.
Cell biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton discovered many years ago that if he had sick cells in a petri dish, all he had to do was change the environment of the cells by moving the petri dish into a positive environment. For a human (made up of 50-100 trillion cells), if we are to heal we must change our environment. That might mean changing jobs but, more often than not, it usually means changing the environment in our mind. It means changing the negative beliefs about ourselves to positive beliefs. Lipton has told us that "95-99% of our behaviors are operated by our subconscious mind." If yes, then leaders (and their employees and family members) need to know how they are programmed at that subconscious level. In Surjit's case, here are the profound healing belief systems he needed to anchor in his subconscious mind to permanently kick out the negative beliefs lingering there for many decades:
"I, Surjit, now love myself unconditionally and prove to myself every day that I am a good person. I now deserve and receive respect from others. With a healthy mind that values self, my waking hours are now filled with healthy activities which nurture my mind, body and spirit."
When Surjit studied the ages when his lack of love of self and lack of value of self began, he could trace things back to the ages of 7 and 12 respectively. In other words he had been suffering inside for 41 years!
A cautionary note about belief systems is that just repeating them over and over again usually does not anchor them into the subconscious mind. A certified professional knows how to help with the anchoring for permanent positive change; otherwise, the person may become very frustrated with zero to little change. Remember that the negative beliefs MUST be kicked out of the subconscious mind and replaced with positive beliefs. Then you are home free.
In the ASSOCHAM survey, a main concern of the researchers was that over half (55% to be precise) were under the age of 30 and a quarter were between 30 and 40 years.
For example, most international MBA aspirants from India are under 30 years. They are ambitious and competitive. They want the best from their careers in their most productive years.
If that describes you too, then keep in mind the intangible price that you may need to pay for the success you are chasing. More often than not these aspirants lose touch with their Higher Power and without that power, they are not very useful to a corporation because they lose their ability to be whole brain thinkers.
I invite each of you to study your life. Where there is sadness, heal it. Set yourself free.
