Now Is the Time to Act

I have been sharing much, in this blog, about the individual, spiritual work that needs to be done before we can experience the happiness and joy that is our birthright. We must do those spiritual practices of self-discipline (tapas), self-study (svadhyaya) and surrendering to the Divine Being (Ishvara pranidhana) in our lives. These practices will lead us to our birthright. They will lead us to JOY and TRUTH and LOVE and ALL THE QUALITIES OF THE DIVINE.

But we are not just SPIRITS that are filled with all these divine qualities. We are not just MINDS that need to be trained to think of ourselves as one with the Divine. We are also BODIES. And as bodies, we have to nourish and make our bodies strong, balanced and flexible. That means we must learn to feed the body with nutrient-filled organic, natural food and drink. We must rest the body so that it sleeps efficiently and peacefully. We must get enough affection for the tightness in the body through hugs and gentle massage from those we love and who care about us. And we must refrain from anything that threatens the body’s security and safety.

Actually, we can accomplish all these physical needs by staying away from the FIVE DEADLY STRESSORS which produce adrenaline in our bodies. Adrenaline, as we all know, gets us alert and ready to run away from danger or to fight the danger that is threatening our well-being. These sources of adrenaline pump us up and undermine our joy and happiness, even though initially they bring very active, uplifting feelings to our bodies. However, if they are part of our bodies for a long period of time the body produces cortisol. This cortisol deadens the pain of the stress and helps us continue to fight or run from the danger or the threat. It blocks the nerves that tell our brain that we are in pain. That is hard on the body and medicine has determined that this long-term presence of cortisol makes us fatter, confuses our immune systems triggering autoimmune diseases and generally is the cause of many chronic diseases, even adult on-set diabetes.

So let’s do something about this. Let’s start doing something for our bodies.

I challenge all of us to eliminate gradually the five triggers of adrenaline. We will feel much more energized and much healthier physically than we ever imagined. We might also trim some pounds from our body. That is what happened to me when I gave up sugar, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol for 21 days. I also felt less irritable and did not blame others for the things that were happening to me. Blame is really anger toward ourselves, God or others.

All of these five ingredients—sugar, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol and anger— trigger the flow of adrenaline in our bodies. When adrenaline has control of the body, we don’t think correctly; we become argumentative; we find fault with others; we miss our internal beauty; we become, in a word, violent.

We have enough violence in the world. Fasting from, or at least reducing our use of those adrenaline-triggers, might not only make our bodies joyful. It will also make the world peaceful.

So, let’s act for the good of the world by acting for the good of our bodies. Our minds and spirits and our relationships will reap the benefits, too.

Now is the time to act!

Namaste’