Balancing the mind by contralateral movement

Few years before, I did a course on Neuroscience from the Duke University. Through this course, I really got an opportunity to get an insight into the structural & functional aspects of the brain and the associated nervous systems. The key aspects that I learned were the sensory and motor pathways. Sensory pathways are nothing but the sensations such as pain & pleasure and how those signals travel from the affected body parts all the way to the brain. Motor pathways are nothing but the signals that fire from the brain and how those signals travel all the way from the brain to the different body parts that are responsible in the motor actions or movements of the body parts.

Crossover point: For every pathway irrespective of whether sensory or motor pathway, there is a specific cross over point in the midline of the spine for each of the pathway. The signals that fire from the left hemisphere of the brain cross to the right side of the body parts and the right hemisphere of the brain cross the left side of the body and the cross overs occur in the midline of the spine.

Two different Worlds: The left & right hemispheres of the brain work in different ways. The left hemisphere is dominant in logical, analytical reasoning, decision making etc whereas the right hemisphere is dominant in creativity, holistic, intuition etc. Some of us are right hemisphere oriented and some are left hemisphere dominant. To get a balanced state, it is good to use both the hemispheres of the brain in equal proportion.  This can be done by taking advantage of the cross over point. In other words , a balanced state can be achieved by doing certain physical activities that produce contralateral movement.

Contralateral exercises: Contralateral exercise works in the following way. An action in the right hand is fired by the left hemisphere and when the right hand is taken to the left feet, the practitioner is crossing the crossover point and the right hemisphere is activated as the right hand reaches the left side of the feet. This is the precise pattern of movement when the practitioner does  Parivartha Trikonasana , the twisted triangular posture.

So to get a balanced state, activate both the brain hemispheres simultaneously in equal proportion. Here is the list of few exercises that comes to my mind now.

Parivartha Trikonasana

Vakarasana

Artha Matsyenderasana

Garudasana

Matsyasana and many more such postures.

Anulom vilom , alternate nostril breathing also helps in balancing the mind.

Balancing the mind is a learnable skill and exercise involving contralateral movement is one such technique. 

Personal Transformation initial confrontation

Personal transformation is a conscious process of changing ourselves to our higher self. There is a healthier meaning and purpose to our life when we upgrade ourselves to the greater good. Transformation is a change process. By default, with the time .we undergo change physically, mentally & emotionally. My present physical, mental & emotional states are different than what they were few years before.

Two opposite forces: Firstly, change is an automatic process and it acts as a force upon us. This force can have the positive or negative influences. Personal transformation is also a change but produced by our wilful conscious action. This is a different type of force which is wilfully generated to upgrade to our higher identity.

The initial resistance is minimal when both the forces work in association with each other. The early struggle becomes greater when the forces are not in alignment. Unfortunately, most of us fall in the latter category & we have a struggle for the personal transformation to realize in our reality.

Automatic Force: This force is nothing but your old habits & present behavioural pattern. This is the sum average of our past experiences. This force is really strong as this has been originated, developed and established for many years.  The stories & excuses that come in our mind (which do not allow the personal transformation procedures) are the acts of this automatic force. The strength of our personal transformation force is not as strong as this automatic force. Hence, we have the initial setback.

Overcoming the initial glitches:  In order to overcome the initial glitches, I would like to highlight three important points based on my own personal transformation experience.

1.       See the micro results while moving towards the goals

2.       Value the procedures and practices

3.       Owning & Knowing: The experiential knowledge.

1.       Micro Results: During the initial period, we have the usual tendency to look for the big results. Say for example that you do daily an hour of workouts to lose weight then obviously you develop an expectation to lose, one kg of weight after a week practice. Instead, it is better to look for the small micro developments such as feel towards your body, your energy level during/after workouts etc. and register all those developments in a note book. When you look back the records after a month, you’ll definitely see monumental changes.

2.       Values: It is better to value the procedures and practices wholeheartedly. Do not doubt the procedures and practices. A negative wavelength is created when one doubts the procedures. Remember the saying, “The value has value when its value is valued”.  

3.       Experiential knowledge:  Most of us know the procedures and practices to become good. But, this is just an intellectual knowledge. It becomes our experiential knowledge when we experience the procedures and practices. We now OWN the skill that we KNOW. So the difference between Owning and Knowing is similar to the difference of the experiential and intellectual knowledge. So, pay attention to your experiences/feelings.

Mental Disposition & the state of Health

Our mental disposition plays a vital role in determining the state of our health. I am writing this particular subject based on my own personal experience. But, there are some scientific studies that support this idea too.

My faith and belief structures took a leap jump from where I was a decade before to where I am now. Obviously, the life experiences during this ten years period were instrumental in changing my belief system and hence my mental outlook. One of the major changes is the way how I associate myself with the diseases that are hereditary in nature.

In family, we may run family inherited diseases such obesity, diabetes, cancer etc. This may be passed on from one generation to next generation in the family by transmission of the defective genes. I am sure that every one of us would have seen this family inherited disease happening within our family or families of our friends, neighbours, colleagues etc.

Epigenetic: Obviously, we carry the blood that runs with the defective genes and without doubt that the defective genes play a major role in the transmission of the particular disease. In the recent times, a new field has evolved in the medical field which is called “Epigenetic”. To put it simply, the expression of the genes depends on the environment in which the genes thrives. Let us take an example of the family that runs with the defective diabetic genes. There is a probability that majority of the family members have diabetes manifested in their body while few of the family members do not have any sort of symptoms of diabetes. For the lucky few, the environment in which the defective genes survived is different than that of the ones with the diabetes manifested in the body. This is what exactly happened in my personal life and I am one of that lucky few.

Environment: Having understood that the environment plays a vital role in the expression of the defective genes, now the immediate question is to know how to handle the environment to work in our favour? The science says that the associated protein shape & structure play role in the expression of the genes. I do not comment on this because of my limited knowledge in this particular subject but from my personal experience, I can firmly say our mental disposition and the associated faith and belief structure play the major roles for the family inherited diseases to manifest.

Seed for the Expression: If one thinks that he may get arthritis because his mom had it at his age then this simple thought process when repeated multiple times become his newly formed belief structure. In day today life even when he has a simple knee problem, the newly formed faith has established so well that he automatically in all likelihood get a thought with the doubt that this pain could be an initial sign of the arthritis. Unknowingly, in no time, he is creating a breeding ground, a favourable environment for the genes to express & here, we have now a person with a new tag of the arthritis in his reality. Our belief and our thought process alone are good enough to create and get into the new diseased state. Such is the effect of our mental thought process in manifestation of the diseases.

So, believe in confidence that it is not necessary that you need to undergo the family inherited diseases even though you possess the defective genes running your blood. All, you need to do is to have a hygienic mental disposition and how you associate with the family inherited defies. I found out my path through yoga to gain such a fresh mental state. It is not only that I do not manifest any of my family run genes even though I carry those but also; it is a fact that I have never visited a doctor in that last eight years. Such, is the power of our mental disposition. May I know your path to get this hygienic mental state?

Ambience Design: Social Conditioning

We influence the external environment and we are also influenced by the external environment as well. If we live in a society where majority of us have the habit of going to the temples then there is a good likelihood that we develop a habit of going to the temple. Similarly, if we live in a society where majority are smokers then there is a high probability for us to become the smokers. Such is the influence of the society on the individuals irrespective of the merit/demerit of the influence.

By default, an ordinary person mimics and follows the pattern of the society. But, the ordinary person will become extraordinary the moment he becomes aware of the underneath force that operates in the patterns of the social conditioning. It is good to follow the ones that have positive influence on you and discard those which do not serve you. This is a conscious decision on our part where we filter and selectively pick up the patterns which aid in our growth.

Let us take for examples few of the commonly followed patterns.

Going for the regular medical check-ups to stay healthy

Taking eight glasses of water per day

Oats for the healthy morning breakfast

Yoga helps you to reduce the stress level

The above are the commonly followed patterns in the society. Since, the patterns are widely accepted; it is natural for an individual to mimic the patterns. But, we have a choice to work on each of the above patterns based on its own merits/demerits.

For example, going for a regular medical check-up was not a pattern followed in the society few hundred years before. This has evolved over a period of time and becomes a pattern now. People were healthy hundred years before without going for the medical check-ups. Even in the present times, there are group of people who have not visited the doctor once in their lifetime. Definitely, they operate on a different belief system which is stronger than the one imposed by the social conditioning. In fact, in my personal experience, I followed the pattern of visiting the doctor, a decade before. But, I dropped the pattern when I made a conscious decision based on the merits/demerits. Obviously, the deviation from the mainstream path is due to the change in my belief structure. I started to see the improvement in my health condition just by following certain yoga practices. Over a period of time, I developed a belief structure where prevention is better than the cure by means of health care management.

Again taking eight glasses of water per day is good or bad but nobody knows. It is just a concept imposed on to us. We need to test ourselves to work on the merits/demerits and make a conscious decision. There is no need to blindly follow because the books say it is good to follow it as a habit. For my body condition, this may work but may not be the case for someone else.

So, it is good to become of aware of all those patterns and make a conscious decision to filter out and adopt those which work in our favour. Simply discard the rest even though they are widely accepted and practiced widely by the society. By doing so, you are becoming responsible for your own health and obviously you are not only spawning a healthy lifestyle but you are consciously designing your own Health. You are the DESINGER of your OWN HEALTH.