Announcing the SAWF-MAPI "Ayurveda For Life" Contest

Familiar with SAWF but wondering what MAPI stands for? It's Maharishi Ayurveda, manufacturers of premier quality Ayurvedic products, ranging from youthful skin creams to gourmet teas, nutritional supplements, spice blends and much more. Their website, www.mapi.com, is a treasurehouse of Ayurvedic tips and insights. But more about that as we go along.

To enter the contest, just read the article below, then answer the three questions in the entry form below, and complete the tie-breaker in not more than 10 words. The answers to the three questions are in the article itself. For completing the tie-breaker, you need to visit http://www.mapi.com

For less than three minutes of your time and energy, you could win $ 100/50/50 prizes in cash!

Contest closes on Dec 30, 2001

From Stressed To Rested - The Ayurveda way!

By -Shubhra Krishan

Monday, 9.30 a.m. Traffic lights blink on the streets of California. Stop signs glare. Cars streak across the freeway. Golden sunlight ripples on the bosom of the Pacific, but no one has the time to stop and stare. Life is on autopilot.

Waiting at the reception in a San Diego building, 35-year-old Meryl bites her nails and pulls at her cheek to calm a persistent twitch. Minutes later, she sits across from a cheerful man, who nods understandingly as her story comes tumbling forth.

That man is Dr Harold Bloomfield, Yale-trained physician who counsels dozens of angst-ridden men and women every day. It does not surprise or alarm him to hear that the young woman before him seems to be suffering from every conceivable problem - backache, headache, wrist-ache, insomnia, depression and chronic fatigue. Ninety percent of the patients he sees, have similar stories to tell.

The diagnosis: burnout.

By now, it has been established that stress and physical disease are directly related. Researchers at Harvard recently made the distressing discovery that people who coped poorly with stress fall ill four times more often than those with good coping skills. "Modern science now knows that stress causes blood-pressure to zoom and immunity to come down," adds Bloomfield. "It impairs clear thinking, lowers IQ, and actually kills brain cells. Be it a recurring common cold or a killer cancer, stress has been identified as a major culprit".

So what does Bloomfield tell his patients to do? Pop pills at bedtime and call him in the morning? Think again. "Long ago, I realized that sedatives and tranquilizers are just stop-gap measures to treat stress. What's worse, those pills actually aggravate the problem. Anyone who has taken a sedative knows what happens when the effect wears off: you feel doubly anxious, nervous and depressed. You might suffer all kinds of side-effects. And it certainly doesn't help that hours later, you find yourself wanting another pill. I observed the action and reaction of these pills for many years, and slowly their inadequacy pushed me into the arms of the world's oldest system of healing: Ayurveda," says Dr Bloomfield.

Ayurveda,which originated in India, is at least 5000 years old. Ayu means life, and Veda means knowledge: and Ayurveda is truly that--a wealth of insight and wisdom on how to live a healthy, long life.

Today, Dr Bloomfield is America's favorite psychologist because he has been able to heal people holistically. He prescribes herbal formulations that are imbued with nature's own intelligence. He chalks out for them a diet that will correct the imbalances in their physiology and psychology. He teaches them to make contact with themselves through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's powerful relaxation technique, Transcendental Meditation ®. Happily, people who follow any or all of these therapies need fear no side-effects. The herbs used in making those formulations are totally non-addictive. As for the rest, well, if you are addicted to a good diet and a routine of meditation, what could be better!

AYURVEDA AGAINST ANGST

In his quest for Ayurvedic knowledge, Dr Bloomfield has worked closely with Vaidya Ramakant Mishra, Director of Research and Product Development at Maharishi Ayurveda International. The renowned vaidya comes from a tradition of Raj vaidyas, physicians to the erstwhile rulers of India. When he shares his insights on disease and healing, you realize how truly vast the realm of Ayurvedic knowledge is.

Ayurveda believes that all disease, including stress, emanates from lack of balance in a person's energies. " says Vaidya Mishra. " There are three points from where stress emanates--the body, the mind and the emotions. Let me go over the cause and cure of each

PHYSICAL STRESS

The triggers here are obvious - too much exercise, too little exercise, not enough rest. Together, physical stressors combine to throw skin moisture off-balance. The joints fall short of lubricant. The circulation cries for a boost. The stretched nerves scream for help. Also, both too much and too little activity cause "ama" or digestive impurities to collect in the body. Toxic "ama" clogs the body's micro-circulatory channels, impairing cell function and leading to all sorts of physical and psychological imbalances. If the rooms are shaky, can the apartment be solid? If your very cells are tired, how fit can you expect to be," queries Vaidya Mishra.

To beat back physical tiredness, Vaidya Mishra recommends certain foods that Ayurveda recognizes as natural stress-busters. Walnuts, almonds, coconut, lightly cooked juicy fruits like pears and apples, milk, low-fat yogurt, ghee(clarified butter), and fresh cheeses such as Indian-style home-made "paneer"(cottage cheese) or ricotta have excellent healing properties, says Vaidya Mishra.

Also, Ayurveda believes in the principle of "balaardh", or using half of your energy and conserving the rest. Which simply means don't exercise below or beyond the capacity of your body. This will keep you in good shape as well as good spirits," explains Vaidya Mishra.

MENTAL STRESS

Ayurveda believes that the mind functions beautifully if these three co-ordinates are in harmony:

Dhi or Acquisition of knowledge
Dhriti or retention of knowledge and
Smriti or recall of that knowledge.

To keep these functions at peak level, the mind should ideally be rested and recharged often. But daily stress does not allow that to happen. We know only too well what that results in: you think all the time but without clarity, you work hard but without enthusiasm, you lie in bed without sleep. "All these are classic symptoms of a badly vitiated Prana Vata, the life-force that governs creative energy," reveals Vaidya Mishra.

As an immediate anti-stress measure, vaidya Mishra suggests slowing down."Don't work long hours at the computer, don't stress over a niggling problem,and do get up and take a walk in between jobs. Change coffee-breaks into herbal-tea breaks. Massage your body with warm oil every morning. Treat it to the relaxing aroma of an essential oil at bedtime. Further, eat less of astringent, bitter and pungent foods.Get more of salty, sweet and sour tastes on your plate. Warm milk, ghee (clarified butter) and light dairy products are excellent stress-calmers.

EMOTIONAL STRESS

Deep-seeted stress is always related to emotions. The commonest among them are marital problems or the loss of a loved one. Because the situation that creates emotional stress is generally traumatic, it is also more devastating than any other kind of stress. People going through emotional turmoil can suffer from chronic depression, highly toxic bottled-up anger, nightmares, and terrible insecurity. "When that happens," says Dr Mishra, "it is time to pacify the Sadhak Pitta, the vital force that is responsible for the functioning fo the heart and the hormones."

The vaidya recommends sweet, bitter and astringent foods to calm chronic stress. He says it helps to increase your consumption of sweet juicy fruits, delicately flavored sweet lassi (churned yogurt) in the afternoon, and warm milk at night. Mishra suggests cooking with cooling spices like cardamom, cilantro, and mint.

Ayurveda places tremendous importance on the value of good sleep as a remedy for stress. "Sleep is one of the three pillars of Ayurvedic healing-the other two being diet and lifestyle. However stressed you are, try going to bed by 10. p.m.", says Vaidya Mishra. "Massaging your body with a cooling oil like coconut helps. Or try a relaxing aroma oil to invite blissful sleep.," he advises.

"Stress is here to stay," reflects Dr Bloomfield. "But if you decide to stay and play, you are a winner. Manage stress. Heal it holistically-using your body, mind and spirit. And you will find that the strings of your violin are stretched just-right. Then close your eyes and enjoy the music that flows spontaneously in your veins."