Combating stress and overcoming its physical effects

Stress is in our evolutionary DNA. Otherwise we would not be equipped with a sympathetic nervous system. Of the many thousands of nerve pathways crisscrossing our bodies, the sympathetic nervous system is assigned the task of species survival. This network of nerves is also thought of as the “fight or flight” mechanism. Early history of humans right from the prehistoric times was fraught with very frequent instances of danger that would have reminded those early humans of their mortality on an almost daily basis. In response to these dangers, the sympathetic nervous system put out adrenaline, a stress hormone that gave humans temporary superhuman capabilities to help escape from a life threatening situation.

Atrial Fibrillation and YOU

Based on my talk at the St. Armands Key Lutheran Church, February 23, 2011
Many of you may have heard the term atrial fibrillation. It is a very common condition that I as a cardiologist see in my daily practice. It is a disorder of the heart rhythm. If you feel your pulse either at your wrist or on the side of your neck just under the jaw bone, you will notice a nice regular rhythm to your heart beat if your heart is in rhythm. A normal resting heart rate usually ranges 60-90 beats a minute.

What is atrial fibrillation?

The power of relationship building

One hallmark of successful people is their ability to harness the power of building relationships.
The successes or failures of individuals, families, communities and countries depend how we interact with one another. If individuals get along communities are formed, if communities get along a nation prospers, if nations get along, the world becomes one. In order to enjoy the fruits of the prosperity of individuals, communities, nations or the world as a whole, one needs good health.

The universe outside is a reflection of the universe within

Based on my Talk “The universe outside is a reflection of the universe within: Journey from the star wars at the start of the Big Bang to the star within you” given at the Dattoli Cancer Center Support Group, February 15, 2011, Sarasota, FL.

Good evening and thank you for having me here.

I apologize if the title of the talk was confusing to some people. Hopefully it the meaning will be more apparent at the end of this talk.

I find that my best teacher and the source of my inspiration to find my real self is the world around us. I am a cardiologist by trade and I deal not just with problems related to the heart and blood vessels, but I am also very involved with preventive care. Prevention involves trying to prevent disease before it manifests in the physical body. Just like we can’t build a house without a plan or a blueprint, I sometimes wonder if there is a blueprint of illness somewhere within ourselves before diseases set in. Scientists are studying genetic makeup of individuals to determine if there is something in our genetics that can serve as a forewarning. Conversely, once disease manifests, scientists are also looking at targeting treatment based on the genetic makeup rather than using a shotgun approach that constitutes modern medicine as we know it. This targeted approach is also called personalized medicine. There are a lot of unknowns that are still being worked out. 

Pointers to the Journey Within

Based on my talk at the Center for Spiritual Living, Sarasota (Minister- Rev. Karen Wolfson) Feb. 13, 2011.

Good morning and thank you for having me here today.

Before we get started, I would like to use the power of collective thought of all those whose are gathered here this morning to send a prayer for world peace and harmony. The power of collective thought is like connecting a series of batteries to power a transmitter. The more the batteries, more the power. Each of your minds is like a battery and you can enhance your thought power by deeper concentration.

Conflicts in thought and feeling

We all have times where we feel great. We also experience moments where we don’t feel so well and at times we when we close our eyes we have a million different thoughts. Wouldn’t you rather feel wonderful all the time? It is not as hard as you think. Join me as I explore the process of thinking and feeling and I will share a technique to help you start the process of feeling great.

Channeling you inner electricity - Part I

When you talk of green energy, nothing beats the human body. We have the power to generate electricity that runs bodily functions. An average adult human body generates about 80 Watts of power at rest and the human heart can generate about 7 Watts of power. As a cardiologist, on a daily basis I see evidence of the ability of the human body to generate electricity. A simple EKG or electrocardiogram is proof of that. On an EKG you see positive and negative deflections depicting the voltage of the recorded electricity. The human heart is a fascinating organ. It has the ability to constantly put out electricity that runs the mechanical pumping portion of the heart. As will be explained later on, the impulses to run this electrical generator does not cease till we die. The ability to use these impulses to turn on the electricity generating capacity in the body changes with disease states, medication use and some genetic factors.

Conquering Anger

I was talking to a friend recently and he asked me about anger control. He stated that he is usually calm and does not feel angry unless he is provoked. He alluded to the fact that he was not to blame as he is generally not angry unless there is external provocation, in other words, the source of his anger is outside him. This is a very common situation we face, myself included.

Luckily for me, discussing anger is not as difficult as trying to prove the presence or absence of the human soul. We have all experienced anger, so we know that it is real. There are any number of scenarios where emotion is expressed as anger. We cannot say that avoiding certain situations will cure anger, as no two persons interprets a situation the same way.

On Religion...

At one of my talks, where I spoke about the importance of right breathing and the benefits of measured and regulated breath on the functioning of the heart, I was asked a simple but profound question, “Is what you are talking about have anything to do with religion?”

When you talk about religion, there are endless opinions, just like there are endless waves on the surface of an ocean. Each wave is entitled to rise above the surface of the ocean and eventually has to merge back into the ocean. One wave does not make an ocean. Similarly each human thought is a wave on the ocean of collective human thought, which can also be thought of as human consciousness. Just as no two waves are the same, each human mind is a little different from another.

How to develop will power

A colleague of mine asked me how to develop will power.

Before going into the mechanics of developing will power, let’s first define what will power is. Will power is the process of consciously directing a concentrated thought. Is it not strange that to do things that are not beneficial to us like wrong eating and wrong habits does not require any will power at all? Resisting the pull of these habits sometimes requires superhuman effort and despite this, we often fail.

Think of a circle with a point in the center of it and a line running along the circumference of the circle. The mind can be compared to a circle. It has a natural tendency to wander to the periphery of the circle. Every time you want to come back to the center of the circle, you have the option of coming back to the center of the original circle from which you wandered off, or use the point at the periphery of the circle to make that a new point of reference from which to jump to the periphery of another circle you just created in your mind. In this way, the mind links thought to thought and soon enough, it wanders off.

Life after death, reincarnation and purpose of creation.

A dear friend of mine, Gary asked me today about my thoughts on “life after death, reincarnation and the purpose of creation”.

In my humble opinion, as part of my own spiritual journey, I have had the best luck in understanding these intellectually draining topics in simple easy to understand portions. Just as a meal is best enjoyed in small servings, as opposed a large meal that makes us uncomfortable afterwards, let’s take these topics in an easy to digest serving size. Otherwise, just as a heavy meal makes the body uncomfortable, heavy intellectual discussion will make the mind uncomfortable, more confused and will bring up more questions than answers.