A better life with yoga

September 11th, 2006

Quite a few people who are referred to me have mental health problems.

One, such person, Shirish Fernandes, called me from Bangalore, the Information Technology capital of India. He told me that he was highly successful within a very short time after joining an IT company and was drawing one of the best salaries in the industry. The fat pay packet enabled him to apply for a loan to buy a swanky apartment in an upmarket location of the city. He could afford a decent car too.

All this and more brought a turnaround in his life-style over a very short time. While the goodies were enjoyable, the repayments Shirish had to make were making him insecure. What if he could not sustain his high-pressure job and could not repay his loan, then all that he could afford would be gone, he told me. He had a number of examples to substantiate his fears. And often he thought of giving it all up and going back to his past life without the luxuries.

The dilemma was affecting both his work and personal life.

This call of Shirish came at a time when a news item that had appeared in the newspaper a month back, was still fresh in my memory. It announced that Bangalore was emerging as the suicide capital of India with 3.28 deaths a day, 1200 a year. The newspaper reported that the city had been registering the tragic figure every year for a few years now. The report further pointed out that the main cause of suicides was high stress levels among its working population.

Close to 70% deaths were reported within an age-group of 20 to 40.

I gave a patient hearing to Shirish. I told him that I would design for him a crises management program which he could work with at home. I asked him to work through the program for three days and then call me up with his feedback.

The crisis management program for Shirish included yoga exercises. I suggested the breathing exercises called pranayama to be practised with a simple diet, as a part of the yoga regime.

Shirish did not call me up after three days. I was anxious to find out the result of my program. When I called him up he could not take my call.

He eventually called me back to say that he was busy in a meeting at his office. The meeting was on the crises management program that I had sent him. He said that it worked so well with him that he shared it with his colleagues. Hence, the meeting.

Shirish told me that the circumstance he was in had not changed. But yoga helped him take the things in his stride. “I have started taking life as it comes, and no insecurity about it.”

Shirish was at peace with himself. That was what I had predicted for him.

Entry Filed under: Healthy Lifestyles