in October 2017 as I was finishing work
at the hospital I received a phone call
from a sister-in-law in India informing
me that my mom had a stroke she handed
over the phone to my mom and switched on
the radio I saw that my mom was trying
to speak with me but she was unable to
perhaps the area of stroke affected her
speech all I saw was tears streaming
down her face I told my mom that I was
going to be there that's all she wanted
to hear so I went to India to be with
her on the way back I wanted to spend
some time alone with her i sat next to
her she was lying on the bed her eyes
were closed she was very tired I gently
held her hand that was very soft she
opened her eyes she looked at me and
with all the strength that she could
gather she said I know you love me and I
say devotion in you these words touch my
heart very deeply and settle down the
chaos of whirling thoughts and emotions
that were going on inside her words were
slurred but they were infinitely sweet
perhaps the wisdom of a mother's heart
knew how to settle down the chaos within
the heart of a loved one these words
were the last that she spoke with me
sometimes life puts us in very difficult
situations which is difficult to get
through but I've also seen marvelous
ways in which this chaos was navigated
through one of my meditation teachers
who's no longer physically present
his name was Parthasarathy
rajagopalachari he had prostate cancer
and it was spread it was spread to an
extent that he was unable to walk and he
was confined to a wheelchair and within
his confinement he comes out and he says
I have now become a chairman a beautiful
way to deal with chaos what this example
taught me was that cheerful acceptance
of life with a little humor can help us
get through life in a much better way
sometimes nature can create chaos - and
when it does so there is a difference
and that is the difference in magnitude
it can be of enormous magnitude one such
incident happened in southern part of
India called Chennai
there were torrential rains and the
entire city was engulfed in floods a lot
of people lost their lives and a lot of
them lost their homes one of my
meditation teachers dr. Kamlesh Patel he
had a house in Chennai but at that time
he was in New Jersey and I was with him
someone called him from Chennai to
discuss about the situation and dr.
Patel asked about how his house was
doing and he was told that his house was
doing great because it was on a higher
ground it was one of the very few houses
that were not affected it was what he
said next
that mattered the most he said open the
house let anyone who needs a place to
stay let them come and stay there for as
long as they need and he also said that
his wife left resources for the entire
year and people can use those resources
for as long as they require well a lot
of us think about how to get through
chaos it was heartening for me to see
someone take care of the well-being of
others who are stuck in the midst of
chaos not all of us can claim to have
the serenity and poise to deal with
chaos all the time when I close my eyes
when my thoughts emotions and feelings
are organized the world doesn't seem to
be too bad at all but when they are out
of alignment this world appears chaotic
so where is this chaos is it within me
or is it outside of me this is an
interesting question to answer we live
in a world of information overload often
we find ourselves processing this
information in a state of anxiety and
fear why do we do that
there may be many reasons but one reason
the science offers is that there is a
little part within our brain called the
amygdala what this amygdala does is very
unique it keeps scanning this
environment what does it scan for most
of the times nothing good
it keeps scanning this environment for
threats and insecurities it hijacks the
brain and puts the brain in a hyper
alert situation when the brain is hyper
vigilant is it possible for us to rest
is it possible for us to relax is it
possible for us to think clearly is it
possible for us even to get a good
night's sleep
probably not practices of meditation and
relaxation have shown that this
hyperactivity can be normalized
and when it is normalized perhaps we can
think clearly and make decisions that
are not fear or anxiety based what are
the practical implications of chaos
what role does meditation play in this
I'm a physician a researcher and a
meditator when chaos crosses its limit
it can affect our well-being and it can
cause stress anxiety burnout or sleep
problems I practice a meditation called
heartfulness meditation a simple heart
based meditation practice to see if we
can achieve a state of inner balance and
as a researcher we wanted to find out if
this practice of meditation can help
reduce burnout physicians and health
care professionals are at a higher risk
of burnout
what is this burnout have you ever felt
emotionally exhausted have you felt a
little cynicism creeping in to an extent
that we have callous towards people we
call a depersonalization and have you
felt that you're not performing to the
best possible extent these are the three
dimensions of burnout a lot of us have
it sometimes it feels we are at the end
of the rope ready to snap what we did in
our Hospital was we took a group of
physicians nurses and House staff
divided them into two groups for one
group we offered heartfulness meditation
practice for 12 weeks and the other
group carried on as usual and we wanted
to find out the effect of this practice
on burnout emotional wellness and
something else called telomere and we
published this result after 12 weeks of
heartfulness meditation practice this is
what we found in the group that
meditated all the three dimensions of
burn on that we talked about improved
with
ignitions in the group that did not
meditate we didn't see any of these
changes there was something else that we
did we measured emotional wellness
emotions tend to play a role in the
degree of inner chaos positive emotional
states dampen the chaos the negative
emotional states was in the chaos when
we measured these attributes in the
group that meditated we found out that
the positive attributes such as
concentration calmness clarity of gold
harmonious sleep joy positive thinking
self-confidence honesty to oneself all
of them increased with significance in
the group that did not meditate we did
not see any of these changes when we
analyzed the negative attributes we
found out that anger stress anxiety fear
irritability jealousy addiction apathy
cynicism and impulsiveness decreased
with significance in the group that
meditated in the group that did not
meditate we didn't see any of these
changes there was something else that we
measured the telomere we all like to see
something tangible right so what are
these telomeres we have our cells
our chromosomes at the tip of our
chromosomal DNA there is a cap like
structure called the telomere it is very
similar to the plastic baton or
shoelaces or the Aglets in general the
longer the telomeres are it reflects the
healthier lifestyle and perhaps we live
longer it may reflect longevity stress
can shrink history Lumias no wonder it
is said that stress can take out ten
years of our lives when we measured the
telomere length in both the groups we
found something very interesting in the
group that meditated especially in the
younger population we saw that this
telomere length actually increased with
significance in the group that did not
meditate we did not see much of a change
as a physician this was fascinating
perhaps they move from a chaotic state
to a lesser chaotic state
we did something else we measured sleep
we all long for a good night's sleep
right imagine not being able to sleep
for at least three nights a week and
this goes on for months and years
we call it chronic insomnia patients
with chronic insomnia sometimes describe
a cloud of chaos around them their
inability to think clearly when we
offered heartfulness meditation practice
for eight weeks we saw something
interesting their insomnia scores
actually dropped by more than 10 points
it was not just the scores that were
important the stories that they shared
were fascinating some of the patients
said dr. Jay we were only able to sleep
for four hours before now we were able
to sleep for seven hours eight of us
because of which our dreams have come
back as a physician it was interesting
to see that looking back at it because
they were sleeping for a shorter
duration they were not able to hit the
deeper stage of sleep where dreams
occurred but as they started to sleep
for longer duration they were able to
get to the deeper stages of sleep where
dreams started to occur for them it was
joy returned how does this meditation
actually work when my resident
physicians asked me this is what I tell
them when we close our eyes it feels as
if we are doing nothing but we are doing
something important perhaps the most
important thing we are putting up with
our own selves and then we realize that
it is not so easy to put up with our own
selves if it is very difficult to put up
with our own selves how do we expect
others to put up with us with
heartfulness meditation practice we very
gently restore attention on the best
within ourselves within our own hearts
let us call it a source of light within
as we keep doing that slowly this inner
landscape starts to change it becomes
more acceptable we become comfortable
with our own selves when we become
comfortable with our
it becomes possible for us to be
comfortable with others and for others
to be comfortable with us relationships
and harmony tend to go there is another
way I talk about it imagine being out in
scorching Sun in a few minutes our skin
starts to burn but if we get into our
car that is already air-conditioned we
can be in the same environment and drive
through for hours together without being
affected in a similar way meditation
offers that space of stillness within
the space of calmness within which can
help us get through this chaos of life
in a much better way the ups and downs
of life in a much better way can I prove
it
let me try that's me I was a subject I
was hooked on to this EEG leads to
measure to measure my brainwaves if I
had known I would have dressed properly
especially if nu is going to show this
to everyone but when I was meditating
and the brainwaves were recorded some
interesting waveforms for seeing what
does that mean when we are thinking
thinking thinking our brainwave
frequencies are much faster but as we
slow down with meditation this brainwave
frequencies also tend to slow down it is
very similar to the brainwaves during
sleep when we go to bed at night there
is a time when we feel we're going to
fall asleep then there is a lighter
stage of sleep then there is this deeper
stage of sleep and then there is this
deeper stage of sleep medically we call
it stage 1 stage 2 and stage 3 sleep
patterns it takes about 60 to 90 minutes
on a good day to get to stage 3 sleep
when we see the slowest wave forms
called the delta waves that is when we
feel refreshed in the morning when I was
meditating my brain went through stage 1
stage 2 and stage 3
within 15 minutes before brain can get
into the deeper state of rest and
relaxation within a very short period of
time don't you think
even if we come out of it we feel
refreshed relaxed ready to face the day
do you think we can perform better and
don't you also think that we are kinder
and better human beings it doesn't take
a genius to figure this out there was
another difference when we are asleep we
are gone right we are not aware but when
my brain was in this deeper state of
rest and relaxation with stage 3 sleep
pattern with the delta waves awareness
was still present but it was a
thoughtless awareness where even the
awareness of thoughtlessness has come
back a little later there is another way
I look at these brain waves these waves
are very similar to the waves on the
surface of an ocean when the environment
is turbulent the waves are raging all we
hear is this noise of this wave
splashing
but if there is a way we can dive a
little bit deeper within perhaps we can
find some degree of calmness what did it
feel like for me when I was in that
state it was an access to a wonderful
space of stillness of tranquility of
deep peace of inner beauty when one is
in that state one becomes a gentle
loving presence and one who has become
that will not be able to look at chaos
the same way the outlook towards life
changes the way one looks at people
changes the way one looks at events
situations and circumstances change one
begins to look at the world through the
lens of stillness imbued with fragrance
of love that space is available to each
one of us waiting to be accessed to me
the closer we get to that space there is
more stillness the farther we move away
from that space there is chaos as the
inner chaos melts away the outer chaos
fades away the outer chaos is a
reflection of the inner chaos except
maybe in one situation that is me trying
to meditate and my daughter she is
creating chaos around taking a selfie
thank you so much
[Applause]