Deepak Chopra & Intent

One piece of bad news that keeps getting repeated has to do with well- being. Americans are bombarded with advice about prevention and positive lifestyle choices. Yet as a population we continue to be more sedentary and obese, with unregulated stress, too little sleep, a high-fat, high-sugar diet, and so on.

So it's encouraging to offer some good news on this front. After surveying over a hundred and five countries to find out what habits create well-being, a study by the Gallup organization (where I am a Senior Scientist) concluded that having a good day leads to having a good life. In other words, habits that make you feel good right now are the basic elements of a long, healthy life.

This conclusion was based on a fact of human nature that frustrates the wellness community: our ingrained tendency to seek immediate gratification. For example, only 10% of responders say that they buy candy, but if asked if they take candy when it is put before them, 70% say yes. You may walk into a fast-food outlet intending to order a salad, but when you get up to the counter, you'll most likely order a burger and fries. Immediate gratification makes people play a video game rather than discipline themselves with an exercise regimen that could improve their vital statistics over the long run.

The Gallup recommendations take immediate gratification and turn it on its head, making short-term satisfaction an ally rather than an enemy.

So what makes for a good day that will also lead to a good life?

1. Work. If you do work that you love and are passionate about, that is found to be foremost among the factors for well-being. What if you have a boring job? Then it's recommended that you spend a few hours a day away from work doing something you love. Secondarily, find someone who shares your passion, whatever it is, and spend time with that person on a daily or at less frequent basis. A walk is good as you chat about what you both love.

2. Money. Financial security is an important contributor to well-being, but how much you have isn't the main thing. What can you do with your money today that will increase well-being? First, buy experiences rather than things. Buying a flat-screen TV may bring a shot of enjoyment, but if you buy a vacation in the Bahamas, Gallup points out three stages of enjoyment: anticipation beforehand, immediate pleasure in the present and fond memories afterwards.

It's also beneficial to spend money on other people rather than on yourself. Giving on a daily basis makes you feel good. Third, it's important to provide for a default mechanism that saves money automatically so that you can't spend it all at once.

3. Interpersonal. It's good to talk to people, bonding and connecting. Gallup recommends several hours a day of some kind of personal communication through phone calls, e-mails, or conversation in person. Feeling connected needs to happen on a daily basis.

4. Diet and exercise. Here's an area where people probably feel the most guilt. But instead of punishing yourself for falling short of some ideal diet and fitness program, use immediate gratification to your advantage. If you eat a fatty lunch with a sugary dessert, how will you feel in two hours? Compare the prospects of a fat hangover and sugar drowsiness with how you will feel if you have salad and a piece of broiled fish instead. Feeling light and energetic is immediate gratification that is just as pleasurable -- and longer lasting-- than a five-minute sugar high.

The same holds for exercise. If you take a brisk walk for 20 min. in the morning, it will set an energetic tone for the rest of your day. Two such walks are even better, Gallup found, with benefits in overall health as the number increases to six. No more strenuous activity is needed for feeling good.

As far as specific recommendations, we are advised to buy healthy foods and refrain from buying processed and artificial foods. Organic is best; as is a high proportion of fish over red meat. Taking more than one vitamin supplement a day isn't advised; Omega-3 oils as in salmon, nuts, and seeds and also unsaturated oil such as olive oil, are also good. Get enough sleep to feel well rested, around 7-8 hours for adults but no more. Again, the goal is to eat, rest, and be active with having a good day in mind, nothing more elaborate.

5. Community. It will improve your day if you give some time to a cause you believe in. That isn't news in itself. But Gallup also underscores the latest findings that emotions and habits are contagious. Workers who are on the job with their best friend are seven times more engaged and therefore, more productive. Even chatting with friendly co-worker increases engagement.. If you spend time with cheerful people, you will enjoy a better immune response than if you spend time with depressed people. Anger, smoking, and obesity are other factors that increase if you are close to someone with those problems; the likelihood of developing negative traits decreases if you spend time with people who lack those traits.

In short, well-being isn't a solitary project. If the Gallup findings show one thing, it's the interconnectedness of all the ingredients that make for a good day, and then for a good life. A good day is assembled by combining all five areas mentioned above, and each is shared with your family, friends, and co-workers. As you might expect, the Gallup data is far more extensive and detailed. (A soon to be released book b y two Gallup Scientists, Tom Rath and Jim Harter, "Well Being - the five elements," has extensive data and very specific recommendations that are bound to change strategies in the health and wellbeing arena.). This has been an overview only. But if you have joined the ranks of those who keep postponing the good things you know you should be doing, you can change your life by having a good day. A short-term goal can reap immense long-term benefits.
Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

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Over the weekend Sarah Palin gave us another dose of seductive untruth. Her complaint about the Christmas bomber "lawyering up" wasn't about finding the right policy against terrorists. It was a come-on to the Tea Party's prejudices, egging them to believe that what Muttalab deserved was a dose of good old fashioned torture. Never mind that the Bush administration "lawyered up" Richard Reid, the failed shoe bomber in exactly the same fashion.

Her appeal to jingoism came with the phrase about giving the Christmas bomber the rights guaranteed by "our Constitution," which she intoned a second time to make the point -- also beloved of the Tea Party -- that nobody deserves any rights except red-blooded Americans. Never mind that the whole point of operating under the Constitution is that everyone is given the same guarantees and rights.

But we all know why Palin has spiked the tea. In the past year the Republicans have decided, as a group, that fostering lies, attacks, and smears is good politics.

So it is. Americans are worried and jittery. The very mention of terrorism still makes millions of people believe that the next 9/11 is just around the corner. Rationality is cold comfort in such a climate. In politics, morality often comes down to whatever works. And what is working right now is to spike the tea with poison and tell people that it's actually sugar.

The overall picture of a fix-it President struggling to get the country to follow him may be discouraging. Every rational adult knows that the social cost of entitlement programs and health care has one inevitable outcome: higher taxes and lowered benefits. But when the kids are throwing a tantrum, the adults feel helpless.

I take a different, more positive view. America turned a dark corner when Nixon and Reagan inflamed the worst aspects of populism with manipulative demagoguery. After a generation of social reform and altruism, they brought back selfishness, prejudice, and xenophobia -- with add ons against feminism and gay rights, Using code words like "law and order" and "silent majority," the right brought about a populism that was really the revival of the Know-Nothings of a bygone era.

Palin plays into that Know-Nothing strain the way George Wallace did with his "pointy-headed intellectuals." Because of it, the very smart people who saved us from a potential depression and who want to solve other looming crises can be vilified in favor of very crafty people who play upon rough prejudice.

My positive take is that Obama and the other smart people (always remembering that they are more than smart but also good-hearted, far-seeing, honest, and credible) are playing the role of adults trying to call forth the adult in all of us. Americans have had the luxury of a long period of post-adolescent irresponsibility. The crown prince of that trend was George W. Bush, for whom both luxury and irresponsibility were a given. It will take a long time to bring a turn around, and Obama may drag the Democrats into some tight places. No one has the right to demand that this society grow up. But eventually that's where we are headed, and since Obama gives adulthood the best face I can imagine from a President, I am encouraged, no matter who thinks they want another glass of poison tea.

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Each week, spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra will respond to Oprah.com users' questions with enlightening advice to help them live their best lives. This week, Deepak addresses a mother-son relationship in need of healing and responds to the outpouring of questions on how to manage depression.

Read more at Oprah.com

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By Deepak Chopra and Jim Buck

While we may not see it easily, the world is in a constant and irreversible state of change--sometimes seemingly for the better, sometimes seemingly for the worse. This is also true in the relationship between east and west. While news of new Taliban suicide bombings in Pakistan and Afghanistan may not seem like the situation is changing for the better, it is on the sidelines. By "sidelines" we mean cross-cultural exchanges and explorations in areas of music and the other arts where the people--and not their governments--come together. Evidence of this change exists in our friend Salman Ahmad, a Pakistan-born Sufi Muslim rock star, who has sold more than 30 million albums with his band Junoon, which the New York Times called, "the U2 of South Asia". Although Junoon's line-up has changed, Salman continues to tour with his new band mates. In mid-January, Salman released his autobiography, Rock & Roll Jihad, published by Simon and Schuster, a well-written and enjoyable book which I, Deepak, had the pleasure and privilege to write the back cover notes for.

Last September 12th we held the Concert for Pakistan at the UN, Salman's second concert held inside the UN General Assembly Hall. The first concert Salman held inside that prestigious world body was on UN Day in late October 2001, barely six weeks after the tragedy of September 11th. Salman holds the distinction of being the first--and possibly only--rock musician ever to hold a rock concert inside the space where Colin Powell told the world that Saddam Hussein was aiding Al Qaeda, and where Hugo Chavez "smelled the sulfur" of that ol' Diablo, George Bush. But the Concert for Pakistan was a fundraiser for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees to help with Internally Displaced Persons who have become displaced from their homes because of the war in Afghanistan that has bled over into northern Pakistan. As Salman has described the concert, "The free UN concert became a mini-Woodstock without the mud and the acid. We had Ramadan dates, shalwar kameez and sari clad women, Jews and Muslims in skull caps, diplomats doing the Bhangra and a mini planet Earth of college students, plus Roger Federer and Gwen Stefani."

Through his music, Salman has tremendous ability to create positive experiences such as this concert. In 2007, Salman performed at the Nobel Peace Prize concert the year Al Gore won for his work on global climate change. This was when he met Melissa Etheridge, and shortly thereafter they collaborated on the wonderful song "Ring the Bells" which I, Deepak, had the pleasure of introducing a performance of at the eighth annual Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles in December 2008. "Ring the Bells" can be heard on YouTube. The official video for the song was produced by Participant Media whose founder, Jeff Skoll, helped organize the Concert for Pakistan. "Ring the Bells" can also be heard playing on the website of the Salman and Samina Global Wellness Initiative, an NGO Salman founded with his wife Samina that focuses on issues important to Pakistan and to the world.

Salman is also focused on peace between Pakistan and India. In fact, some of his work for peace has caused him trouble. While on tour in India in 1998, Salman repeated a line from a banner at one of their concerts for an accompanying film crew, "There should be cultural fusion, not nuclear fusion." The line came as a result of seeing so much poverty on both sides of the border, but instead of focusing on food and education, the governments of India and Pakistan exploded numerous underground nuclear bombs in a short period of time. When Salman and the band returned to Pakistan they were soon facing charges of treason by the Ministry of Culture. Believed to be subversives, Salman, Ali Azmat and Brian O'Connell, Salman's bandmates, had their phones wiretapped, they were followed and intimidated. As Salman recounts in the VH1: Rock City documentary hosted by Susan Sarandon (also available on YouTube) Salman told the government to publish every interview they gave and every word they have ever spoken in the papers and if the people of Pakistan said they were traitors they were willing to be hanged. That ended the charges of treason because Salman took the power away from the government and placed it with the people, which will always scare political leaders.

Music is an expression of the human soul and, therefore, speaks to all human souls. This is why music is so important and why music is used in Sufi festivals. As Salman says in the VH1 documentary, "Music is the most subversive force on the face of the earth." It was through music that Salman and Junoon helped bring a cross-border dialogue and feeling of connection between the people of Pakistan and India. Junoon was number one in India before they went on tour in several Indian cities. In fact, while in India they won the MTV India award for Best International Group which had the effect of galvanizing the long-desired notion of peace between the peoples of India and Pakistan. Salman naturally understands the spiritual power of music because he is a Sufi Muslim. He is always fond of saying that the thirteenth century Sufi poet and philosopher Rumi said, "Follow the music and it will show you the way." So it should be of no surprise to find that Salman has the courage of his convictions and, as documented by BBC/Wide Angle in 2003 for Rock Star and the Mullahs, Salman confronted fundamentalist mullahs in a madrassah in northern Pakistan about the mistaken perception--especially among fundamentalists--that Islam prohibits music. In the end Salman was successful in getting the most conservative of the mullahs to sing a little song about Prophet Muhammad. The documentary is also available for viewing on YouTube in six parts.

In 2006, Salman was personally invited by former president Bill Clinton to speak on a panel titled "Mitigating Religious and Ethnic Conflict" at the Clinton Global Initiative. Salman is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS. He wrote a song called "Al Vida", which appears on his 2006 solo album Infiniti, which is about a woman named Shukriya Gul, whose story inspired him. Gul's husband had died and she had AIDS. Her neighbors wanted her to move from their neighborhood but she refused. As Salman told Al Jazeera's Riz Khan on one of his One on One interview segments, "I was so inspired by Shukriya's campaign that I made a video about it, Al Vida, because I feel you can get difficult messages across through MTV and satellite television."

Perhaps the best example of Salman's use of music for healing and coming together is Junoon's 2002 song No More, also available on YouTube, which was dedicated to the victims of 9/11. Salman was devastated by 9/11 because New York City was his backyard from 1975 to 1981, but also because Al Qaeda had also, as he said, "Hijacked his religion." All of his emotion is expressed in the lyrics which were inspired by a poem by Polar Levine about the attack. It is Salman's anthem for peace in which perhaps the most power line, especially the way Ali sings it, seems to be directed at Muslim youth: "Hold on, keep yourself alive, we will survive," but also applies to us all. Salman's guitar screams out a pain he, and we all, felt that day. Salman may also have been expressing his anger at the fundamentalists, with whom his first experience was in 1983 during a talent show at his medical school in Lahore, Pakistan. He was playing Van Halen's Eruption when a Taliban student interrupted the festivities and broke his guitar for playing "sinful and vulgar" music.

This incident is retold in Rock & Roll Jihad, where Salman explains many other influences and experiences which led him to a life of uplifting music and dedication to peace and humanity. Salman has a great, self-effacing humor which he displays throughout the book. He writes that John Lennon was his hero. Anyone familiar with Salman would not be surprised to learn this. But how was a devoted Muslim man inspired by something as western and seemingly decadent as Led Zeppelin? One must read the book to find out, but it all began with a concert at Madison Square Garden that he had to convince his mother he would not become "eaten alive in this hedonistic world of sex, drugs and rock and roll". Salman writes with terrific skill which makes the reader agonize with him as he goes through the torturous process of winning the heart and hand of his soul mate, his lovely wife, Samina. You feel compelled to be there to help him when strangers try to steal his grandmother's land. Your heart will ache when you read how his separated mother and father come together for one of his concerts and approve of the choice of music for his profession instead of medicine. Don't we all want our parents to approve of us and our choices in life? And doesn't that story show us we are all connected through similarity of need for love, understanding and compassion.

Despite the frustration, danger and tribulations, Salman's life almost seems like a fairy tale. With his loved and comfortable childhood, happy home life and rocker career and peacemaker cause, one almost wants to have lived Salman's life. One can almost feel the hand of god guiding him and clearing the way for this remarkable man to establish himself and his mission for peace and commonality through music and diplomacy. His successes and achievements are remarkable and cannot be discounted as mere luck.

Thirty years ago, the average American's only real awareness of Islam was the Iranian Revolution and the Hostage Crisis. Today, we have terrorism. But with Al Qaeda and the Taliban we also have the emergence of someone like Salman and everything he has inspired. Like Salman's hero, John Lennon and the Beatles, Salman has inspired the creation of other rock bands and pop musicians in Pakistan, throughout the rest of the Muslim world and even America in the emerging Muslim punk scene.

Thirty years is a very short period of time in the history of humanity. While Salman is by no means a solution to the conflict between east and west--just as Lennon and the Beatles and other bands were by no means a solution to the world's problems forty-plus years ago--both Salman and other relevant musicians and bands then and now are like water on rock. They erode away the hardness that humanity faces which act as barriers to peace and compassion and separates humanity from one another.

The terrorists and fundamentalists only win if they divide loving, compassionate people from one another through fear and control. That means the whole world, not just in Kabul or Peshawar. To counter their tactics and in time triumph over extremists in all religions without having to fight, we as humanity must embrace each other and follow the direction that people like Salman, John Lennon and others have shown us. Humanity must know that we can come together through music and messages of hope and unite in ways we never knew possible because we never so close to each other before. And all we have to do to get there is to listen to the music. To paraphrase Rumi, it is showing us the way.

What gives one hope is to imagine the present positive change exponentially thirty years from now when the arts and technology will have enabled eastern and western youth to come together over music and sports and pop culture in greater ways, leading to economic cooperation and co-dependence which will bring about a more stable and perhaps permanent peace. With this positive imagining means we also need a realistic assessment of war, pandemic disease, famine and climate change thirty years from now and beyond so that those Salman continues to inspire to do good toward each other in the east and west will be fully aware of the challenges they face and may seek guidance and counsel from the experiences of those who came before them, such as the challenges Salman faced, with god's help, which he describes so well in Rock & Roll Jihad.

Jim Buck is a writer living in Los Angeles. He used to produce a weekly Native American radio news show for WBAI in New York City. He has written several screenplays, the most recent being a script about honor killing with his friend Rinde Pasori.

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Published in the San Francisco Chronicle For more information go to deepakchopra.com Follow Deepak on Twitter...

Some years ago while researching cases where patients spontaneously recovered from cancer -- an occurrence that remains unexplained -- I hit upon a striking fact. There is no consistent thing that such patients do, no single technique drug, or alternative...

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Deepak answers spiritual questions on Oprah.com: From deeper matters of the soul to how to handle a toxic relationship, dietary concerns, parenting issues, health and well-being, sexuality and everything in between, spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra offers insightful, thought-provoking solutions to...

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